Well, it's no surprise -- she started out way too fast.
DespondentRunner wrote:
Just to add another data point, I saw Parvaneh Moayedi at the Irving Marathon in TX last weekend. There was a section of out and back possibly around mile 16 or so and she was ahead of me. I had started near the front of the race (field was small) and was running consistent 8 minute miles. There was no early start according to the race schedule. Even after hitting the turn around about a mile later I then never caught up to her until seeing her right at the end.
http://mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=9138&bib=3898Click on Show Splits.
Looks like the reason I didn't catch her was her average pace of 1:17 up to the 5.3 mile section, after which she was going too fast for the 9.2 mile mat to even register her, then an average of 3:56 minute miles up to 12.15m and she got to 21.7 miles in 2 hours 51 minutes. If only it hadn't taken just under 3 hours to complete the remaining 5 miles (finishing in 5:47), she could have had a PR...