San Francisco Marathon 2024 — F35-39: Hernandez Rivera edges Angelo in a sub-3 showdown

• Aide Laura Hernandez Rivera won the F35-39 race in 2:58:51 (6:49/mi), crossing under three hours and holding off Thia Angelo by just 32 seconds.
• Thia Angelo (2:59:23) ran the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 14.95M→18M segment, a surge that moved her from 6th to 4th among women — but she couldn't quite reel in the leader.
• Liz Ozeki returns to the SF Marathon podium: she finished 4th among women here in 2023 (3:01:16) and claimed 3rd in F35-39 this year in 3:07:39 — a meaningful step forward.
• Charlotte Vo staged one of the day's most dramatic climbs, moving from 92nd to 27th among women across the race, posting the 14th-fastest women's split on the 14.95M→18M stretch.

Hernandez Rivera, racing out of San Luis Potosí, was near the front from the gun — sitting 3rd among women as early as the 1.81M mark and posting the 2nd-fastest women's split on that opening 1.81M→6.52M segment. She held that position with quiet authority through the fog-draped San Francisco streets, finishing at 6:49/mi in cool, humid conditions that kept times honest.

Angelo gave chase throughout, and her move was real: the Alameda runner's 3rd-fastest women's split on the 14.95M→18M leg reflected a genuine late-race acceleration that lifted her from 6th to 4th in the women's field. She closed the gap enough to make the final margin tight — 32 seconds across 26.2 miles — but Hernandez Rivera had enough in reserve to hold on.

Ozeki's story deserves its own beat. She ran 3:01:16 here in 2023 to finish 4th among women, and came back in 2024 to go 3:07:39 for 3rd in F35-39 — a different race, different day, same commitment to San Francisco. Behind her, Vo's journey from 92nd to 27th among women is a masterclass in negative splitting, powered by a strong late segment that left nearly every woman in the field behind her over that stretch.

Places 6 through 8 — Nicole Anderson (3:30:18), Jesus Guerrero (3:30:19), and Kathryn Snyder (3:30:23) — finished within five seconds of each other, a tight cluster that kept the middle of the F35-39 field compelling all the way to the line.