Gemma Steel

Bib: 100

Age: 29

Country: Great Britain

Best 10K: 31:26

Of note: Defending champion who held off Olympian Shalane Flanagan to win the 2014 Beach to Beacon (31:27), one year after setting a personal best of 31:26 as runner-up to Joyce Chepkirui. … Placed second the past two years at the Falmouth Road Race. … European cross country champion. … Placed seventh at the 2012 World Half Marathon championships.

Sentayehu Ejigu

Bib: 102

Age: 30

Country: Ethiopia

Best 10K: 31:33

Of note: A 2004 Olympian, Sentayehu won bronze at the African Championships and world indoor championships in 2010. … Silver medalist at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup. … In April, placed second at the BAA 5K (14:51).

Wude Ayalew

Bib: 104

Age: 28

Country: Ethiopia

Best 10K: 31:07

Of note: Back for the fourth time, Wude owns the second-fastest time ever at Beach to Beacon – a 31:07 in 2010 when she placed second, eight seconds behind course record-breaker Lineth Chepkurui. … A week later she beat Chepkurui to win the Falmouth Road Race. … Won bronze in the 10,000 at the 2009 World Championships and placed second at the 2011 All-African Games.

Alexi Pappas

Bib: 106

Age: 25

Country: USA (Eugene, Ore.)

Best 10K: 32:32

Of note: A five-time All-American at Dartmouth and Oregon who made her professional road racing debut at Beach to Beacon in 2013, finishing 10th, and moved up to seventh in 2014 with a personal-best 32:32. … Recorded a 32:02 on the track in May in Palo Alto, Calif.

Diane Nukuri

Bib: 107

Age: 31

Country: Burundi

Best 10k: 31:52

Of note: Has three top-10 finishes at Beach to Beacon, including third last year in a personal-best 31:52. … Two-time winner of Bay to Breakers and finished second at the 2013 New York City Half Marathon. … Two-time Olympian who first competed for Burundi in the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a 15-year-old. She later fled the country to escape civil war, learned English, and eventually received a scholarship to the University of Iowa, where she won two Big Ten championships. … The holder of all Burundian distance records, Nukuri competed in the marathon for her native country at the 2012 London Olympics.

Emily Sisson

Bib: 108

Age: 24

Country: USA (Providence, R.I.)

Best 10K: 31:38 (track)

Of note: Captured the 10,000 at the 2015 NCAA outdoor championships with a 31:38, the fourth-best time in NCAA history. … At the Big East indoor championships in March, her 15:12.22 in the 5,000 shaved two seconds off the NCAA record. … At the World Junior Championships in 2010, she placed in the top 10 in both the 3,000 and 5,000.

– Glenn Jordan