SF Marathon Half: Susan Empey Owns the F55-59 Field

• Susan Empey, 1:41:53 (7:46/mi): Won F55-59 by 2:45 over Jing Chen and climbed from 37th to 19th among women across the race.
• Jing Chen, 1:44:38 (7:59/mi): Ran the 20th-fastest women's split on the 8M→9.6M segment, finishing a clear 2nd in F55-59.
• Brenda Mejdell, 1:58:12 (9:01/mi): Made one of the day's biggest climbs — entering the final stretch deep in the women's field and posting the 21st-fastest women's split on the 12M→Finish segment to take 3rd.
• Martina Steffen, 1:58:55 (9:04/mi): Ran 4th but faded through the race, sliding from 99th to 203rd among women — a stark contrast to Mejdell's closing surge just 43 seconds ahead of her.

Susan Empey arrived in San Francisco and ran like she owned the Golden Gate. The 58-year-old from Mercer Island, WA, built her lead methodically, climbing from 37th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 19th by the finish — a steady, relentless advance. Her 7:46/mi average was the class of the F55-59 field, and she capped it with the 17th-fastest women's split on the second half of the course, showing she had plenty left in the tank on the back end.

Jing Chen, also 58, was the closest challenger at 1:44:38 — a 7:59/mi effort that put her 2:45 back of Empey. Chen's most eye-catching moment came on the 8M→9.6M segment, where she logged the 20th-fastest women's split in the entire field. She moved steadily through the women's rankings across the race, finishing 32nd among women and a comfortable 2nd in F55-59.

The podium's most dramatic story belonged to Brenda Mejdell of Terrebonne, OR. She crossed the line in 1:58:12 (9:01/mi) to claim 3rd, but the journey there was anything but smooth — she was buried deep in the women's field through most of the race before unleashing the 21st-fastest women's split on the 12M→Finish segment to surge home. Right behind her, Martina Steffen of Los Altos Hills told the opposite tale: starting strong (99th among women) but fading steadily to 203rd by the finish, clocking 1:58:55 — just 43 seconds back of Mejdell but unable to match her closing speed.

Sally Piao (1:59:41, 5th) and Wenli Bai (2:00:30, 6th) rounded out a competitive top tier, with all five of those finishers crossing inside two hours. Behind them, 100 women in total completed the F55-59 race on a cool, breezy San Francisco morning — conditions that, at 59°F and 14 mph winds, were about as good as the city offers.