It was the same 26.2 miles, but the 2025 Bakersfield Marathon male and female overall winners ran two different races that started and finished at the Kern County Museum on Sunday.
Bakersfield’s Percy Armendariz, a Garces High graduate and currently enrolled in the local Marsha Fuerst School of Nursing, thought people were messing around when they informed him of his then-second place status behind then-leader Oak Park’s Kevin Cicchini.
“I didn’t know until I got to the turnaround,” Armendariz said. “I thought he was joking with me and I asked about it when I got to a water station. And then, once I saw him, I felt if I hit my pace, I could catch him so I sped up. My goal had been to run faster and faster for each one third of the marathon.”
Armendariz, 27, did. He caught Cicchini just as both were approaching the Truxtun and Chester intersection, about the 23rd mile. His burst of speed put enough distance to seize the men’s marathon championship in a time of 2 hours, 45 minutes and 26 seconds.
“It feels good and I’m really happy,” Armendariz said shortly after crossing the finish line more than four minutes past. “Last year I ran this marathon in 3:17. I’ve had a crazy training season too. I was sick for two months, and I ran injured up to now. But when you run with an injury, on race day, it seems to go away. You’re able to run on adrenaline.”
While the men's winner busy chasing down a runner, Diana Reyes, a 26-year-old Shafter resident and former Generals cross-country and track and field distance runner, was all by herself. She finished as the top female in the full marathon. Her winning time came in only the second marathon she’s ever done, was a personal-best 3:05.35 and was nearly five minutes faster than her pre-race expectations.
“I wanted to go 3:10,” she said. “I had run the Two Cities Marathon in Fresno and went 3:19. It felt good to win and see all of the hard work pay off.”
While she was all alone on the course, which is something that can cause a runner to slow down their pace without that challenger to push and create a quicker race, she certainly did have the support of family, friends, and her boyfriend, Martin Barron, who ran in the 10K race and was still able to cheer Reyes.
“I feel very grateful, first to God, and my co-workers and family who are all so very supportive and all of my students. I teach TK at Grow Academy Shafter. The kids are only four years old, but they were telling me ‘You’ve got this Miss Reyes, you can do it.’”
Training for the last 16 weeks, including a few in which her weekly mileage was 50 miles, “it was very intense. Running, for me, has been very helpful with my teaching, it’s a stress reliever. It was tough sometimes getting up at 5 or 6 a.m. when I wanted to stay in bed and sleep, but run before work. I did question myself, but everything I do is for my family and friends. If I ever felt like quitting, they were the ones who told me to remember my goals.”
Her support system Sunday were Barron, his family and two kindergarten teacher co-workers at Grow Academy Shafter, Lorilla Salyer and Heidi Sullivan.
Rain fell Sunday morning before drying out a bit with the late-morning sun and cool temperatures, making it ideal running weather. About the only issue was that shuttle buses from Bakersfield College arrived late enough that a sizable second group of runners were able to do a second 6K race.
The overall winners in the 6K were Bakersfield runners Marilyn Martinez at 22:56 in the women’s race and Fabian Molina in 23:07 for the men’s race.
The winner of the men’s 13.1-mile half-marathon was James Lopez, 20, who finished in 1:12.20 and Courtney Alsup of Bakersfield won the women’s half in 1:21.37.
Meanwhile, due to the full marathon and half marathon selling out a few weeks in advance, some ...
