S.F. Marathon:
9,000 make it through the city’s hilly annual challenge
Jorge Maravilla of Mill Valley places first first among the 26.2-mile race’s 9,000 runners.
Of the 9,000 runners in Sunday’s San Francisco Marathon, Brendan Mahoney has the unique distinction of finishing dead last.
He jogged over the finish line exactly six hours after he started the 26.2-mile race, finishing just before organizers closed the course through city streets, leaving lingering runners or walkers to complete the slog on the sidewalk.
Mahoney’s knees hurt and his hips ached, but he was euphoric. This was his first marathon — and quite possibly his last. The 37-yearold Colorado resident had started running only in January, after coming to grips with the fact that he was woefully out of shape. His
training regimen was lax, too, with his longest run around 13 miles, well short of what experts advise for marathon training.
But he flew to San Francisco with family to run, with a goal of finishing the race within the six-hour time limit.
“I’m content,” he said, adding something about a beer in his near future. “I’m happy to be last.”
More than 3½ hours earlier, Mill Valley resident and El Salvador native Jorge Maravilla, 39, crossed the finish line in first place, with an unofficial time of 2:28:26.
Devin McMahon, a 25-year-old Stanford University graduate student, was the first female finisher. It was only her second marathon, and she said she was “very surprised” she came in first with an unofficial time of 2:51:00.
All told, 27,000 people turned out Sunday for one of the event’s five competitions, which included two half marathons, a 5K race and a twice-around ultramarathon.
But the marathon, in its 40th year, was the main attraction, drawing tens of thousands to the sidelines to cheer racers as they sped along the Embarcadero, doubled back over the Golden Gate Bridge and spilled onto city streets.
In between first-place finisher Maravilla and Mahoney in the rear, runners of all ages and sizes crossed the finish line on the Embarcadero at Folsom Street. Often they doubled over, their legs quivering, their faces contorted in pain. Some had bloodstains on their knees from falls or on their shirts from chafing, while others hobbled across the pavement, their socks stained from burst blisters.
A few fainted, while more than a few walked slowly to a barricade and heaved as first-aid workers tended to them. Dozens, if not hundreds, crossed the line sobbing, their faces buried in their hands as volunteers tried to hand them water bottles.
Their reasons for running 26.2 miles around hilly San Francisco ran the gamut. Some wanted to try to win or at least achieve a personal-best race time, while others, like Mahoney, simply hoped to finish.
Anthony Kunkel, 25, entered the marathon as part of a training regiment for the Leadville 100, a high-altitude ultramarathon in Colorado. He came in fifth place Sunday.
“I don’t have a kid or a job,” he said. “I better run that fast.”
Kat Boscovic, 28, ran to raise money to fight pediatric cancer in memory of her brother Igor. As she crossed the finish line of her first marathon, she fell into her mother’s arms as both women cried.
Some people run for fitness, said the San Francisco resident, “but I run as a form of therapy.”
Paula Steinbach, 61, perhaps had the best reason to run — because she could.
Steinbach completed her 125th marathon Sunday, a huge milestone in itself, but there was more to celebrate. A day before last year’s San Francisco Marathon, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She ran anyway and despite chemotherapy, radiation and a double mastectomy, she has done a dozen marathons since.
“I didn’t give up marathoning,” said the resident of Ontario (San Bernardino County). “I didn’t give up what I love.”
A U.S. Navy veteran and among the first female torpedo mechanics in the country, Steinbach declared her finish Sunday “a victory over cancer.”
“It’s been a great year. I’m still alive,” she said. “And I tell you, running breast-free is better.”
Chronicle staff writer Evan Sernoffsky contributed
to this report.