F35-39: Laura Prete Runs Away from the Field in San Francisco

• Laura Prete, 21:41 (6:59/mi) — wins F35-39 by more than five minutes over a 101-woman field.
• Tight podium battle: Rachel Pagan (2nd, 26:49) and Yuri Hosokuni (3rd, 26:56) were separated by just seven seconds, with Jacqueline Nunes Do Nascimento (4th, 27:05) only nine seconds further back.
• 5th and 6th finish in the same clock time: Carla Zetina-Yglesias and Crystal Nyitray both crossed in 27:23, though the official results separate them by place.
• Top 20 spread: From Prete's winning 21:41 to Alyssa Huang's 20th-place 32:00, the F35-39 field covered a range of more than ten minutes across the fog-draped San Francisco streets.

Under overcast skies and cool 57°F temperatures — about as good as July racing gets in San Francisco — Laura Prete delivered a performance that was in a class of its own. The 37-year-old from Evanston, WY, posted a 6:59/mi average to finish in 21:41, a margin of 5:08 over second place. In a field of 101, that kind of gap doesn't just win a race — it rewrites the conversation.

Behind Prete, the real drama unfolded in a tightly compressed pack. Rachel Pagan (26:49) claimed second, but Yuri Hosokuni (26:56) was breathing down her neck at the finish, just seven seconds back. Jacqueline Nunes Do Nascimento (27:05) was right there in fourth, and Carla Zetina-Yglesias and Crystal Nyitray (both 27:23) rounded out the top six — five athletes covering just 34 seconds from 2nd through 6th place. That's a genuine race within the race.

Further down the leaderboard, Olena Aronova (7th, 27:45) and Erica VanHorn (8th, 28:21) kept pace with the chase pack before a slight gap opened to Cinthya Bengtson (9th, 28:33) and Fatima Gonzalez (10th, 28:40). The top ten were all in under 28:41 — a solid benchmark in a race where the humidity sat at 85% and every breath carried a little extra weight.