Results/Photos

Date: Feb. 1, 2026 Participant: Helen O'Neal #22127 Race: 2026 Surf City Marathon Distance: 26.2 miles

Consistent Start, Challenging Finish Helen O'Neal demonstrated a balanced performance at the 2026 Surf City Marathon. Starting strong, she maintained an impressive average pace of 8:56 min/mile for the first three miles, with her fastest mile being mile 5 at 8:24 min/mile. Her performance showed resilience, climbing the ranks to 530th overall by the third mile. Key strengths include her ability to sustain an 8:41 min/mile pace across multiple splits, particularly around miles 5 and 10. However, there was a noticeable decline in pace in the latter part of the race. The splits reveal an increase to a 10:38 min/mile pace at mile 20 and reaching 11:41 min/mile by mile 23. Despite this, Helen showed perseverance, completing her marathon with an overall time of 4:08:57, landing 66th in her gender category by the final mile. A potential area for improvement could be exploring strategies to maintain her early speed throughout the entire race distance.