San Francisco Marathon 2025: Heidemarie Boettcher Wins F55-59 in a Two-Horse Race

• Boettcher takes it in 3:30:38 (8:02/mi), edging Carmen Lambert by 57 seconds in one of the tightest F55-59 finishes of the day.
• Lambert's 14.95M→18M stretch was the 51st-fastest women's split on that segment — a genuine mid-race surge that nearly rewrote the result.
• Boettcher's 25M→Finish was the 32nd-fastest women's closing split, the move that sealed the win.
• Angie Chambers posted the 122nd-fastest women's split on the 18M→25M stretch, rocketing from 384th to 287th among all women en route to 5th in F55-59 in 3:59:35.

The F55-59 race came down to two women from opposite sides of the continent. Heidemarie Boettcher, 57, of Mill Valley — racing on home turf through San Francisco's 56°F, foggy morning — and Carmen Lambert, 55, of Calgary ran the first two-thirds of the race in close company, both hovering in the mid-60s to mid-80s among all women. Lambert made her move between miles 15 and 18, clocking the 51st-fastest women's split on that stretch to pull level, and the race was very much alive heading into the final miles.

What separated them was the closing chapter. Boettcher answered with the 32nd-fastest women's split from mile 25 to the finish, climbing from 64th to 53rd among all women in that final push and crossing in 3:30:38 at an 8:02/mi average. Lambert finished in 3:31:35 — 57 seconds back — a gap that reflects two very different final miles, not the near-identical paces they'd traded earlier. The finish times were close; the closing efforts were not.

Sunhee Baek, 58, of East Amherst made the day's most dramatic journey through the women's field, starting deep in the pack — nearly 800th among women at the first checkpoint — and grinding her way to 3rd in F55-59 in 3:54:34 (8:57/mi), ultimately 214th among women at the line. Her 131st-fastest women's split on the 10.87M→Garmin Hill Challenge segment was a key moment in that long climb through the standings. Behind her, Ailsa Drelick (3:59:01) and Angie Chambers (3:59:35) staged a battle of their own for 4th and 5th, finishing just 34 seconds apart after Chambers' powerful 18M–25M surge nearly erased the gap entirely.