Christina Hom Dominates F45-49 at the SF Marathon 5K

• Christina Hom, 47, wins in 22:41 (7:18/mi), nearly four minutes clear of the field in a 55-woman F45-49 race.
• Paige Lu takes 2nd in 26:25 — a comfortable margin over the podium chase behind her.
• Nancy Velasquez and Joanna Crain battle for 3rd, separated by just three seconds (29:58 vs. 30:01).
• 20 named finishers span 22:41 to 42:37, with 35 more completing the F45-49 field.

Christina Hom made this race look like a different event entirely. The Berkeley 47-year-old crossed in 22:41 at 7:18 per mile — a pace that left the rest of the F45-49 field well behind. San Mateo's Paige Lu was the clear runner-up in 26:25 (8:30/mi), finishing 3:44 back. That gap between first and second tells you everything about how Hom ran this 5K on a breezy, 60-degree morning along the San Francisco waterfront.

The real drama in this race unfolded a few places back. Turlock's Nancy Velasquez, 45, held off Dixon's Joanna Crain, 47, by the slimmest of margins — three seconds, 29:58 to 30:01 — to claim 3rd. Both ran nearly identical paces (9:39 vs. 9:40/mi), and Velasquez had just enough to hold the podium spot. San Francisco's own Carly Clemence rounded out the top five in 31:38 (10:11/mi), about 90 seconds behind that photo-finish battle for bronze.

Further back, the F45-49 field spread out across a wide range of efforts. Christina Casillas (6th, 34:44) and Catheirne Cheung (7th, 35:05) were separated by just 21 seconds, while Sara Gaitan (8th, 35:45) and Karen Bioski-Simon (9th, 36:00) ran within 15 seconds of each other — a cluster of competitive racing in the mid-field. Yasuko Shiga closed the top ten in 37:44. With 55 finishers total, this was one of the deeper fields on the morning, and Hom's wire-to-wire dominance at 7:18/mi was the defining performance of it.