San Francisco Marathon 5K — F70-74: Kozina Dominates with a 3:19 Gap at the Front

• Denese Kozina (1st, 32:06) ran a 10:20/mi pace to win the F70-74 race by more than three minutes over runner-up Margaret Quinn.
• Margaret Quinn (2nd, 35:25) edged Yvette Bashir (3rd, 38:00) by 2:35, with Barbara Bauer (4th, 38:30) just 30 seconds further back — a tight three-way cluster for the final two podium spots.
• Eleven women ages 70–73 toed the line, representing five states and Hawaii.

Denese Kozina, 73, made the F70-74 race her own from the jump. Her 10:20/mi average — more than a full minute per mile faster than anyone else in the field — produced a 32:06 finish that stood well clear of the rest. The cool, humid San Francisco morning (55°F, 89% humidity, a 7 mph wind off the bay) was no obstacle: Kozina simply ran away from the field and never looked back.

The battle for the podium behind her was a different story. Quinn, Bashir, and Bauer — all 71 — packed into a 65-second window between 35:25 and 38:30. Quinn's 11:24/mi held off Bashir's 12:14/mi by 2:35, while Bauer's 12:24/mi trailed Bashir by just half a minute. Three women, essentially the same age, racing through the streets of San Francisco in a genuine contest for silver and bronze.

Further back, Phuong Huynh (6th, 51:04) and Nancy Lombardo (7th, 52:21) were separated by only 1:17, while the final three finishers — Lis Cox (8th, 1:02:50), Verna Tamayo (9th, 1:02:56), and Vijaya Lakshmi Sadhu (10th, 1:03:38) — arrived in a remarkably tight cluster spanning just 48 seconds. Esperanza De Guzman rounded out the field in 11th at 1:09:14. Every one of these women finished a 5K on a breezy San Francisco morning — at 70 or older — and that deserves its own acknowledgment.