San Francisco Half Marathon 2025: Qi Lu Runs Down the F45-49 Crown

• Qi Lu wins in 1:39:43 (7:36/mi), finishing 3:23 clear of runner-up Caroline Østlie's 1:43:06.
• Lu's closing kick was elite-level: she posted the 11th-fastest women's split on the 11.05M→Finish stretch across the entire women's field — the best closing split among the top finishers in F45-49.
• Østlie and Mallon both flew the early miles: Østlie ran the 32nd-fastest and Mallon the 19th-fastest women's split on the 1.81M→5.34M segment, but both faded significantly through the back half.
• Kate Willett and Anna Steiner built from the back: Willett started 124th among women and climbed to 83rd; Steiner began 180th among women and worked up to 108th by the finish.

Qi Lu came to San Francisco and turned in a wire-to-wire statement. After sitting 23rd among women through the opening miles, she steadily moved forward — reaching 16th among women by the finish — and sealed the F45-49 title with a 7:36/mi average that left the field well behind. The margin over second place was not a photo finish; it was a convincing 3:23 gap.

The early race belonged to Julia Mallon and Caroline Østlie, who both surged through the 1.81M–5.34M stretch. Mallon ran the 19th-fastest women's split on that segment and Østlie the 32nd-fastest, each sitting comfortably inside the top 20 among women at that point. But San Francisco's second half has a way of sorting things out. Mallon slid from 18th among women at mid-race to 46th by the finish; Østlie fell from 19th to 36th. Their 1:43:06 and 1:44:55 finishes still earned them the podium — but the gap to Lu tells the real story of who ran the smarter race.

Behind the top three, Willett (1:48:01, 4th) and Steiner (1:49:24, 5th) told a different kind of story — both grinding from deep in the women's field and moving steadily forward across all 13.1 miles. The rest of the F45-49 field of 169 was tightly bunched through the mid-pack, with six finishers between 1:51:44 and 1:53:26 (6th through 10th), and another stretch of nine between 1:55:43 and 2:00:47 rounding out the top 20.