On the start line: A cold, gray morning in downtown Mill Valley. The crowd on Throckmorton didn't care.
Group P starts their Dipsea Race at 8:15am in downtown Mill Valley. This wave included men age 58-59, and women 23-25 and 40-43, including 2025 winner Audrey MacLean. (MVB, June 14)
The winner: Chris Lundy of Mill Valley won the 115th Dipsea Race on Sunday, crossing the finish line at Stinson Beach first with a clock time of 45:42. The 55-year-old veterinarian ran an actual time of 1:00:42 off a 15-minute head start - her fourth Dipsea victory, tying her with Brian Pilcher and Shirley Matson for second on the all-time wins list behind Sal Vasquez's seven. "I'm getting younger every day," she said after the finish to the Marin Independent Journal.
Right behind her: Eddie Owens, 32, of Mill Valley started 14 minutes after Lundy, and came within 1:47 minutes of catching her, to finish second overall. With 48:29 he set the actual fastest time in the field - the 2022 champion's second-fastest Dipsea ever. Last year's winner Audrey MacLean placed fourth. Laura Hansen of Mill Valley placed fifth with an actual time of 57:47 off a 9-minute head start.
Faces in the field: Roy Rivers, 69, the 2008 Dipsea champion, placed 170th at 1:00:29. City Councilmember Urban Carmel placed 327th at 1:06:12. Diana Fitzpatrick - inducted into the Dipsea Hall of Fame this week after back-to-back wins in 2013 and 2014 - placed 30th overall at 68, running 1:17:14 from the maximum head start wave and leading the race at Windy Gap before being overtaken by Lundy. Branson School's Farah Allen, 17, won the inaugural Wes Hildreth Fastest High School Girls Award with a clock time of 49:10. Tam High's Lucas Ruark won the boys equivalent, placing 46th overall. Sally Spitz - daughter of Barry Spitz, the race's historian, Hall of Fame member and finish-line announcer for more than three decades - ran the course herself, placing 1,296th. Growing up she stood at that finish line while her father called runners home by name. On Sunday she crossed it.
10-year old Ford arrives at the top of the Dipsea Middle Stairs. He completed the 7.4-mile course in a clock time of 2:03:22. His Top of Stairs split of 10:57 put him 832nd at that checkpoint. (MVB, June 14)
The full picture: Nine-year-old Christopher Ciaschini placed 70th overall with an actual time of 1:09:31. His Cardiac Hill split was competitive with many adults before he slowed on the back half, which is the pattern for young runners on this course. Emma Wilka, also 9, placed 81st in 1:16:52. Lloyd Kahn, the Mill Valley publisher at 91, placed 1,194th with an actual time of 2:27:11, running the full course from Mill Valley to the sea.
These are preliminary results.
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On tonight's city council agenda
🗳️ The council will take a first procedural step Monday toward placing the Municipal Services Tax on the November ballot. The MST, which funds street maintenance and vegetation management, expires July 1, 2027. Monday's resolution declares the council's intention to form a new Community Facilities District - the legal mechanism required under state law to levy the tax - and sets a public hearing for July 20. If voters approve the renewal in November, the tax would continue at $303 per parcel annually, with a 2% annual increase, through fiscal year 2036-37, according to the staff report. The current MST was last renewed in 2016 with 77% voter support.
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