San Francisco Marathon F55-59: DeGennaro Dominates in the City by the Bay

• Helen DeGennaro won the F55-59 race in 3:34:02 (8:10/mi), finishing 16 minutes ahead of runner-up Shawn Sekel (3:50:05).
• Shawn Sekel posted the 87th-fastest women's split on the 18M→24.69M segment, a strong closing stretch that helped her hold off a charging Xinyu Mu by 13:15.
• 4th and 5th place were separated by just two seconds — Susie Lee (4:11:21) edging Barbara Goudreau (4:11:23) in one of the tightest finishes among the 55 women in this field.
• The field spanned a 37-minute window from 1st to 20th place, reflecting a wide range of paces across San Francisco's demanding course.

Helen DeGennaro of Lakewood, CO made her intentions clear from the gun. Starting among the top women in the broader field, she moved as high as 42nd among all women by the Garmin Hill Challenge checkpoint, logging the 40th-fastest women's split on that punishing climb through 14.95 miles. From there, she settled into a measured 8:10/mi pace that no one in the F55-59 field could match, crossing in 3:34:02 — a commanding margin over the rest of the group.

Shawn Sekel of Pleasant Hill, CA had a very different race arc. She was running 425th among women in the early miles, but steadily reeled in competitors throughout the back half. Her 87th-fastest women's split on the 18M→24.69M segment was a genuine surge, and she climbed all the way to 157th among women by the finish — good enough for 2nd in F55-59 at 3:50:05. Xinyu Mu of San Jose rounded out the podium in 4:03:20 (9:17/mi), running a steady race and posting the 254th-fastest women's split on the 14.95M→18M segment to hold her position.

The battle for 4th was the afternoon's closest drama. Susie Lee (Diamond Bar, CA) and Barbara Goudreau (Beaumont, AB) both crossed in 9:35/mi average pace, but their finish times tell the story: Lee in 4:11:21, Goudreau in 4:11:23 — two seconds after 26.2 miles. Notably, Goudreau had been running ahead of Lee through the early miles before fading in the final stretch, while Lee held firm to claim 4th. Naoko Kogawa (4:12:35) and Paula Gazarkiewicz (4:16:06) rounded out the top seven across a course that, even under cool and overcast 56°F skies, demanded every bit of the 55 finishers' effort.