San Francisco Half Marathon 2022: Kristina Sepetys Rules the F60-64 Field

• Kristina Sepetys, 60, of Berkeley, wins in 1:57:08 — the only F60-64 finisher under two hours, averaging 8:56/mi through San Francisco's fog-chilled morning.
• Desiree Whitehall surges late, posting the 247th-fastest women's split on the final stretch (11.45M to finish) to secure 2nd in 1:59:16 — just 2:08 behind Sepetys.
• Sunjune Lee, the biggest mover, climbed from roughly 706th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 319th by the finish, also logging the 180th-fastest women's split on that same closing segment.
• A 37-woman field spread across 40+ minutes of racing, from Sepetys's 1:57:08 down to the 20th-place mark at 2:37:53.

Kristina Sepetys of Berkeley set the tone early and held it. Tracking between 206th and 223rd among women throughout the middle miles, she never let the race get away from her, crossing in 1:57:08 at an 8:56/mi clip — a composed, controlled effort that left the rest of the F60-64 field more than two minutes back. Her First Half split ranked 207th among all women, a strong marker that she built her lead in the opening miles and protected it.

The real drama in the closing miles belonged to Desiree Whitehall and Sunjune Lee, both of whom turned on the afterburners late. Whitehall, 64, from West Linn, Oregon, climbed from 414th among women at the first checkpoint to 272nd at the finish, with that 247th-fastest closing split helping her lock up 2nd place in 1:59:16. Lee, 62, of Fremont, was even more aggressive — starting deep in the women's field (706th at the first split) and reeling in runner after runner to finish 3rd in 2:01:12, powered by the 180th-fastest closing split among women. Both athletes ran faster than Sepetys in those final miles, but the gap was already too large to bridge.

Behind the podium, Janet Hanna (4th, 2:04:42) and Karen Lakin (5th, 2:07:05) rounded out a competitive top five, each showing their own segment strengths — Hanna with the 389th-fastest women's split in the early miles and Lakin with the 420th-fastest through the mid-race stretch. With 54°F temps and heavy humidity off the Bay, every one of the 37 finishers earned their result the hard way.