F75-79: Patsy Perea Owns the Streets of San Francisco

• Patsy Perea, 76, wins F75-79 in 48:28 (15:36/mi), finishing nearly 9 minutes clear of the field.
• Sue Kester and June Kester — both 79, from neighboring Southern California cities — finish 3rd and 4th, separated by just four seconds (57:28 vs. 1:01:47).
• Kat Maeda, 78, edges Sue Kester for 2nd by just four seconds, 57:24 to 57:28 — the closest battle of the day in this group.
• Five women completed the F75-79 race in 60°F conditions with a stiff 17 mph wind off the Bay.

Patsy Perea, 76, out of Cheyenne, WY, made this race look like her own personal tour of San Francisco. Her 48:28 finish at a 15:36/mi clip put her nearly nine minutes ahead of the next finisher — a commanding wire-to-wire statement. She moved from 828th to 815th among all women in the second half of the course, posting the 799th-fastest women's split on the 2.5K-to-finish segment. That's a field-wide ranking in a race this size, earned at 76 years old, into a 17 mph headwind.

The real drama in F75-79 played out behind her. Kat Maeda, 78, of San Francisco, held off Sue Kester, 79, of Murrieta, by just four seconds — 57:24 to 57:28 — for the silver spot. It was a catch-up story: Maeda faded slightly in the back half, slipping from 929th to 938th among women, while Kester was closing. The gap at the line was razor-thin, but Maeda held on. Notably, Maeda's second-half split ranked 941st among women, while the finish time tells you how tight it truly was.

Sue's fellow 79-year-old — and fellow Kester — June, of nearby Temecula, crossed 4th in 1:01:47. Whether the Kesters are family or simply share a remarkable surname and a zip code corridor, they bookended the podium fight in style. Esperanza De Guzman, 75, of Mission Hills, rounded out the five-woman field in 1:09:23 (22:20/mi), finishing 980th among women in the second half — a gutsy finish on a breezy San Francisco morning.