SF Marathon 10K — F35-39: Williams Runs Away With It

• Kristi Williams (1st, 39:08, 6:18/mi) won by a commanding 3:53 margin over 2nd place — the largest gap between any two adjacent finishers in the top 20.
• Jo Welch (2nd, 43:01) and Michelle Meyer (3rd, 43:05) were separated by just four seconds at the line — a genuine sprint finish for the podium's silver and bronze.
• Courtney Alev (4th, 45:16) and Vanessa Aguirre (5th, 45:50) rounded out the top five within 34 seconds of each other, both running in the 7:17–7:23/mi range.
• Erica Gallegos (10th, 53:13) and Richelle Parra (11th, 53:14) finished one second apart, the tightest margin in the listed field outside the podium battle.

Kristi Williams, 38, made the trip down from Seattle and made it count. Her 6:18/mi pace through the cool, overcast San Francisco morning was in a class of its own among the 181 women who finished the F35-39 field — nearly four minutes clear of the runner-up. In a race where the course winds through one of the hilliest cities in the country, that kind of sustained speed is a statement.

The real drama for the rest of the podium played out between Castro Valley's Jo Welch and San Francisco local Michelle Meyer. Welch crossed in 43:01 at 6:55/mi; Meyer answered four seconds later at 6:56/mi. Two runners, essentially the same race, separated by a sliver. Welch held on for 2nd, but Meyer will know exactly how close she came.

Behind them, the field settled into tight clusters. Alev (4th) and Aguirre (5th) both ran the 45-minute range, while Shannon Arens (6th, 48:49) and Meghan Berry (7th, 50:23) marked the transition into the 8-minute-per-mile territory where the bulk of the field competed. Deep in the standings, Gallegos and Parra traded blows all race long, finishing 10th and 11th just one second apart at 53:13 and 53:14 respectively.

With 181 finishers spread across a 16-minute gap from 1st to 20th, the F35-39 race at the 2022 SF Marathon 10K had everything: a dominant wire-to-wire winner, a breathless podium fight, and a mid-pack battle that went down to the wire.