Masters Women 5K: Kossar Owns the Streets of San Francisco

• Megan Kossar wins in 19:59 at 6:26/mi — nearly four minutes clear of 2nd place in a Masters Women field of 222.
• Phyllis Jones, age 73, claims 3rd in 24:33 — the oldest athlete in the listed top 20 and one of the most remarkable performances on the board.
• Lena Bississo and Diana Gmuer separated by just two seconds — 4th (24:57) and 5th (24:59) in a tight mid-pack battle.
• A genuinely international top 20 — athletes from Mexico City, Hong Kong, Germany, Belgium, and beyond lined up in the San Francisco fog.

Megan Kossar made the Masters Women race her own from the start. The 52-year-old San Francisco local crossed in 19:59 at a 6:26/mi clip — a pace that would have been competitive across the broader field and left no doubt about who owned this race. Her margin over 2nd-place Veronica Marzorini (23:53, 7:41/mi) was 3 minutes and 54 seconds, a gap that speaks less to a close contest than to a wire-to-wire statement performance on a cool, humid San Francisco morning.

Marzorini, 56, of Los Gatos, held 2nd comfortably, but the real story behind her was Phyllis Jones of Salinas. At 73 years old, Jones ran 24:33 at 7:54/mi to claim 3rd — finishing ahead of 219 other Masters Women. That's not a feel-good footnote; that's a podium finish, earned.

The battle for 4th and 5th was the tightest of the day: Diana Gmuer (24:57) and Lena Bississo (24:59) both averaged 8:02/mi and finished just two seconds apart after 3.1 miles. Jill Bartholomew followed in 6th at 25:11, and the next cluster — Riya Young (25:31) and Maria Eugenia Gomez (25:32) — were separated by a single second in 7th and 8th.

The top 20 stretched across four continents, with competitors from Mexico City, Hong Kong, Belgium, and Germany racing alongside Bay Area regulars under 58-degree skies. With 222 finishers in the Masters Women field, this was one of the deeper fields of the day — and Kossar's 19:59 set a standard that nobody came close to matching.