San Francisco 5K: Julia Power Wins a Tight F25-29 Battle on the Bay

• Julia Power wins in 25:26 (8:11/mi), holding off a field of 180 finishers in the F25-29 race.
• Top three separated by just 21 seconds: Zichen Liu finished 2nd in 25:41, Luz Andrea Garcia Magadan 3rd in 25:47.
• Faye Feng rounded out the top four in 26:07, the only Los Altos runner in the top 20.
• The top five all broke 26:45, with Valerie Tong (5th, 26:38) and Nancy Li (6th, 26:45) keeping the lead pack honest.

San Francisco's cool, overcast morning — 57°F with a light breeze off the bay — set ideal conditions for fast running, and the F25-29 field of 180 made the most of it. Julia Power, 25, from San Francisco, crossed in 25:26 at an 8:11/mi clip to take the win, but she earned every second of it. Zichen Liu was right on her heels at 25:41, and Luz Andrea Garcia Magadan made it a genuine three-way contest, finishing just six seconds further back in 25:47. Twenty-one seconds covered the entire podium.

The race stretched out a bit behind the top three. Faye Feng (4th, 26:07) ran a solid 8:24/mi to put some daylight between herself and fifth-place Valerie Tong (26:38), while Nancy Li rounded out the top six in 26:45. From there, Jasmine Vital Muniz (7th, 27:14) and Morgyn Thompson (8th, 27:15) staged their own photo-finish battle — a single second separating them after 3.1 miles — with Karen Pan (9th, 27:20) just five seconds further back.

The depth of this field was real. Natalie Rutgers cracked the top ten in 27:34, and eleven more runners finished between 27:49 and 29:17 to round out the listed top 20. With 160 additional finishers behind them, the F25-29 race was one of the most populated of the morning — and Power's 25:26 stood as a worthy winning time to top it all.