No one would have expected a full-time nurse from Philadelphia to keep pace with the elites at one of the top marathons in the country, but that’s just what Samantha Roecker did in December. At the California International Marathon (CIM), which saw 99 women qualify for the Olympic Trials, the top three women finished almost exactly one minute apart. Emma Bates, who recently signed on with Asics, won in 2:28:19. HOKA Northern Arizona Elite’s Stephanie Bruce finished second in 2:29:21. Then Roecker, an unsponsored runner, crossed the Sacramento finish line in 2:30:25. “The race was all a blur,” Roecker, 27,...