F65-69: Carol Sexton Runs Away With It in San Francisco

• Carol Sexton, 69, wins in 4:07:33 (9:27/mi) — finishing nearly 56 minutes clear of runner-up Cindy L Egger.
• Tightest battle on the podium: Siew Chuah (5:10:40) and Xinge Zhang (5:15:02) were separated by just 4 minutes 22 seconds for 3rd and 4th.
• Elizabeth Maslow posted the strongest finish-stretch run among the contenders, recording the 1,109th-fastest women's split on the 22M–24M segment on her way to 5th in 5:19:50.
• 13 finishers completed the F65-69 race across a spread of more than 2 hours 27 minutes from first to last.

Carol Sexton, 69, from Woodinville, WA, made this race look like a different event entirely. Her 4:07:33 — averaging 9:27 per mile through San Francisco's famously rolling course on a breezy 59°F morning — was in a class of its own among the F65-69 field. Her gender-place tracking tells an interesting mid-race story: she surged from 348th among women at the early checkpoint all the way up to 263rd through the 4M–6M stretch, where she posted the 217th-fastest women's split in the field, before gradually settling back through the second half. She was running a different race from everyone behind her — and the 55:40 gap to second place proves it.

Cindy L Egger (5:03:13, 11:34/mi) held 2nd comfortably, though her gender-place trajectory — sliding from 609th to 1,300th across the checkpoints — signals a tough second half on the course. Behind her, Siew Chuah and Xinge Zhang waged the afternoon's most compelling battle. Chuah (5:10:40) held off Zhang (5:15:02) for 3rd, with Chuah actually gaining ground late — her 20M–22M split ranked 1,189th among women, a relative bright spot in her closing miles. Zhang, meanwhile, found her best stretch between miles 14 and 16, posting the 963rd-fastest women's split there.

Elizabeth Maslow (5:19:50) and Cathy Minshall (5:21:11) rounded out the top six separated by just 81 seconds, with Maslow's strong 22M–24M split helping her hold the edge. From Dianne Area's 5:33:53 in 7th through Sharon Bach's determined 6:35:07 to close out 13th, every finisher brought the F65-69 field home across a demanding 26.2 miles in the San Francisco wind.