San Francisco Half Marathon 2023: Bridget Dawes Commands the F45-49 Field

• Bridget Dawes won the F45-49 race in 1:34:03 (7:10/mi), posting the 9th-fastest second-half split among all women to seal a comfortable victory.
• Shelly Tse ran a strong first half — sitting 8th among women at the midpoint — then faded to finish 2nd in 1:38:33, a gap of 4:30 back.
• He Hu was the steadiest climber in the field, moving from 79th to 41st among women across the first half, finishing 3rd in 1:42:42.
• Places 10 through 16 were packed into a 2:01 window — Evangeline Pinto (10th, 1:58:42) through Sarah Ellis (16th, 1:59:44) — with Maria Zafra and Missy Biek both clocking 1:58:56 but separated by the clock's finest margins.

Bridget Dawes of Antelope, CA made the F45-49 title look authoritative. Running at a 7:10/mi clip, she wove through the women's field all race long — hovering around 12th among women for much of the course before surging to 10th by the finish. The decisive weapon was her second half: the 9th-fastest women's split on that stretch told the real story, a gear-change that put the result beyond doubt. Her 1:34:03 stood more than four and a half minutes clear of the field.

Shelly Tse of Hillsborough, CA had the early credentials to challenge. She was running 8th among women through the first half of the race — a pace that would have made this a contest. But the second half told a different story: her split ranked 225th among women, a sharp fade that dropped her back to 2nd in 1:38:33. She still earned the runner-up spot comfortably, but the race's shape was defined by that divergence from Dawes.

He Hu of Santa Clara rounded out the podium in 1:42:42, and her journey through the field was one of the more satisfying arcs of the day — starting 79th among women and steadily working her way to 41st by the midpoint, backed by the 39th-fastest first-half women's split. Gina Weathersby (4th, 1:48:20) and Wendy Roose (5th, 1:50:18) completed the top five, with Roose — racing from Waregem — making a strong move through the middle miles before settling back late.

The race's most compressed drama unfolded just outside the top ten, where seven finishers — from Evangeline Pinto in 10th to Sarah Ellis in 16th — crossed within 62 seconds of each other. Caroline Gelinas (11th, 1:58:43) edged Pinto (10th, 1:58:42) by a single second on the clock, though the places confirm Pinto finished ahead. Kristin Kramer of Silver Spring, MD closed out the listed finishers in 20th at 2:03:22, with 155 more women completing the F45-49 race behind her.