San Francisco Marathon F35-39: Sullivan Pulls Away Early and Holds On

• Vanessa Sullivan (3:40:23, 8:24/mi) won the F35-39 field by more than six minutes, posting the fastest time among 142 finishers.
• Laura Formosa closed hard with the 71st-fastest women's split on the 14.95–18 Mile stretch to move from outside the top 150 women to 96th, finishing 2nd in 3:46:39 — just 1:15 ahead of Jennifer Tinloy's 3:47:54 in 3rd.
• Nicol Nietschmann ran the most dramatic climb through the standings, rising from 249th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 121st by the finish — and backed it with the 76th-fastest women's split from Mile 24 to the line.
• Mayra Rivera (18th, 4:08:56) came into race day already having placed 6th among women in the Saturday 5K — a genuine two-race weekend at the San Francisco Marathon.

Vanessa Sullivan set the tone from the gun. Running 8:24/mi through 54°F fog, she was already among the top women on the road early, and while her gender standing drifted back across the middle miles, she steadied and finished 66th among women overall — a commanding 6:16 gap back to second place that made the F35-39 title never seriously in doubt.

The real drama unfolded behind her. Laura Formosa started cautiously — 504th among women through the opening miles — but ran herself into contention with a strong 14.95-to-18-mile segment and kept pressing to the line in 3:46:39. Jennifer Tinloy was the steadiest of the podium trio, hovering in the 80s–100s among women for most of the race and finishing 3rd in 3:47:54. Ariell Bachman (4th, 3:49:27) and Nicol Nietschmann (5th, 3:50:05) completed a tight top five separated by just under ten minutes from 2nd through 5th.

Rounding out the top ten: Anusha Mcnamara 6th (3:52:27), Saman Saei 7th (3:55:07), Hilary Raffetto 8th (3:56:02), Erin Bryan 9th (3:58:07), and Caitlyn Fox 10th (3:59:01) — five finishers within seven minutes of each other in a competitive mid-pack battle. All 142 women who crossed the line did so on a cool, damp San Francisco morning that, for most of the field, was about as kind as the city ever gets for a marathon.