San Francisco Half Marathon 2023: Cory Benson Dominates the F65-69 Field

• Cory Benson won the F65-69 race in 1:45:10 (8:01/mi) — more than 33 minutes clear of second place.
• Kathy Trapani took second in 2:18:20, with Dale Mitchell third in 2:31:00.
• The back half of the field was tightly bunched: Linda Daley (6th, 2:58:52), Venetia Louie-Chee (7th, 2:59:41), and Chiu-Mei Lai (8th, 3:02:05) finished within just three minutes of each other.
• Benson posted the 59th-fastest second-half split among all women in the race — an elite-level close for a 66-year-old running in 86% humidity.

Cory Benson of Newtown, CT, didn't just win the F65-69 race — she ran away from it entirely. Her 1:45:10 at an 8:01/mi average was in a different class from the rest of the nine-woman field, and her movement through the women's standings tells the full story: she entered the second half ranked 92nd among all women and finished 71st, picking off runners throughout — including that 59th-fastest second-half split in the entire women's field. On a cool but humid San Francisco morning, that kind of sustained pace is genuinely impressive.

Behind her, Kathy Trapani of Danville, CA ran a steady 2:18:20 (10:33/mi) for second, holding her position through the women's field in the back half to secure the runner-up spot. Dale Mitchell of Melbourne, FL claimed third in 2:31:00 (11:31/mi), with her strongest segment coming between miles 5 and 10.9, where she posted the 976th-fastest women's split and climbed from 1,081st to 1,008th among all women. Marsi Hidekawa, the local San Francisco finisher, came in fourth at 2:34:10 — just 3:10 behind Mitchell — with her best relative effort coming on the final stretch to the finish.

The race's most competitive cluster came at the back of the F65-69 field, where Varetta Mayes (5th, 2:52:36), Linda Daley (6th, 2:58:52), Venetia Louie-Chee (7th, 2:59:41), and Chiu-Mei Lai (8th, 3:02:05) were separated by less than ten minutes across four finishers. Linda Star of Porter Ranch, CA, rounded out the nine-woman field in 3:13:26 at 14:45/mi.