Women's Marathon: Wolfrum Surges Late to Take San Francisco

• Jenna Wolfrum, 2:52:10 — won the women's race with the fastest women's split on the 6.52M–10.89M segment, climbing from 10th to 1st in the final miles.
• Itzu Villarce, 2:55:12 — led the women's race at the Garmin Hill Challenge–14.95M stretch before Wolfrum's closing surge, finishing 3 minutes back with the 2nd-fastest women's split on that segment.
• Aide Laura Hernandez Rivera, 2:58:51 — held 2nd place for most of the race before settling into 3rd, logging the 2nd-fastest women's split on the opening 1.81M–6.52M leg.
• Liz Ozeki, 10th in 3:07:39 — returned to SF a year after finishing 4th here in 2023 (3:01:16), completing the course more than six minutes slower this time around.

Cool and overcast at 56°F with barely a breeze, the conditions were about as forgiving as San Francisco gets on race day — and Jenna Wolfrum made the most of them. The 24-year-old from Barrington, IL spent the first half of the race lurking in 10th place among the women, patient and controlled. Then she detonated. Between miles 6.52 and 10.89 — the fastest women's split on that segment — she tore through the field, vaulting all the way to 5th, and kept climbing. By the time the city's famous hills were behind her, she was in 2nd. She crossed the finish in 2:52:10 at a 6:34/mi average, claiming the win.

The real mid-race drama belonged to Itzu Villarce. The 34-year-old from Mexico was running a tactically sharp race, moving from 7th at the opening checkpoint all the way to 1st by the Garmin Hill Challenge–14.95M stretch — posting the 2nd-fastest women's split on that segment in the process. But Wolfrum was coming. Villarce held on for a strong 2nd in 2:55:12 (6:41/mi), a full 3 minutes behind the winner.

Aide Laura Hernandez Rivera, 39, of San Luis Potosí ran a remarkably consistent race — sitting 3rd or 2nd from the 1.81M mark through mile 14.95 before finishing exactly where she'd spent most of the afternoon: 3rd, in 2:58:51. Thia Angelo of Alameda rounded out the podium chase with a well-timed close, posting the 3rd-fastest women's split from 14.95M to 18M to lock up 4th in 2:59:23. Five women broke 3:01 — and then the next finisher, Sara Bagnell in 6th, crossed at 3:05:41, a gap that tells the story of how sharp the front of this field really was.