F25-29: Zimmermann Owns San Francisco, Starn Returns to the Podium

• Leandra Zimmermann won the F25-29 field in 2:45:59 (6:20/mi), holding 3rd among all women through mile 18 before surging to 2nd in the women's race at the finish.
• Brooke Starn, the 2022 San Francisco Marathon women's champion (2:44:38), returned to claim 2nd in F25-29 at 2:51:14 — a 5:15 gap to Zimmermann, but a podium nonetheless for a former title-holder.
• Clara Lin rounded out the F25-29 podium in 2:58:38 (6:49/mi), steadily climbing from 5th to 4th among all women by the finish.
• The 14.95–18 mile stretch was decisive: Zimmermann posted the 2nd-fastest women's split on that segment, Starn the 3rd-fastest, and Lin the 4th-fastest — the top three ran away from the field right there.

Leandra Zimmermann, 26, from San Francisco itself, put together the most commanding performance in the F25-29 field, running a 6:20/mi average to finish in 2:45:59. She was locked in 3rd among all women from the opening miles through mile 18, then made her decisive move — climbing to 2nd in the women's race by the finish. That late surge was backed by the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 14.95–18 mile segment, the race's most telling stretch.

The real subplot here is Brooke Starn's return. The Danville native won this very race outright in 2022, crossing in 2:44:38. This time, racing in a deeper women's field, she finished 2nd in F25-29 at 2:51:14 — and she was far from done on that pivotal middle segment, posting the 3rd-fastest women's split from miles 14.95 to 18. A 5:15 gap to Zimmermann tells the story of how strong the winner was, not how far Starn fell.

Clara Lin, also 25 and a San Francisco local, ran a clean, progressive race to 3rd in F25-29 at 2:58:38. She briefly dipped to 6th among women around the race's midpoint before climbing back and ultimately finishing 4th in the women's field — a quiet, determined performance. Behind the podium, Sandra Ho (3:08:59) and a charging Nian Zhao — who moved from 29th among women at the start to 15th by the finish with the 12th-fastest second-half women's split — gave a field of 367 finishers plenty of sub-stories worth following.