M35-39: Moen Dominates, Rupp Chases, and a Crowded Battle for the Rest of the Podium

• Sondre Nordstad Moen wins M35-39 in 1:02:41 (4:47/mi), nearly two minutes clear of the field.
• Galen Rupp finishes 2nd in 1:04:28 (4:55/mi), the only other man in the group to break 1:05.
• Places 6–11 finish within a 9-second window — 1:13:52 to 1:14:00 — making for one of the tightest mid-pack scrums in the M35-39 group.
• 2,452 finishers made M35-39 one of the deepest age groups on the course on a crisp, fast 40°F morning.

Sondre Nordstad Moen, 35, ran away with the M35-39 title from the gun. His 4:47/mi average was a different class entirely — 8 seconds per mile faster than Galen Rupp's 4:55/mi, and the gap at the line was 1:47. Moen held his position among the men's field with remarkable consistency, running 17th through 20th among men across every checkpoint, a sign of a race executed cleanly from start to finish. Rupp, 39, was equally steady — sitting 25th or 26th among men for most of the race — and his 1:04:28 was comfortably the second-best time in the group.

Behind the top two, a 7:08 chasm separated Rupp from the rest of the field. Abelino Alatorre of the Bronx took 3rd in 1:11:36 (5:28/mi), moving from 85th to 73rd among men over the course of the race — a genuine negative split showing he was reeling people in throughout. Matthias Seele, also 35, from Brooklyn, was 4th in 1:12:05, just 29 seconds back. Yohann Laurent rounded out the top five in 1:13:10, his strongest stretch coming on the 15K–20K segment where he climbed from 122nd to 97th among men — a decisive late surge that secured his spot.

Then came the chaos. Adrian Cabnal Chen (1:13:52), Christian Armando Ledezma Cisneros (1:13:55), Andre Borgen (1:13:56), Daniel Granton (1:14:00), Nick Grinlinton (1:14:00), and Ryan Mulligan (1:14:00) — six men from 6th through 11th — finished within nine seconds of each other. The places were sorted by timing finer than the clock shows, but the margins were razor-thin throughout. On a cold, clear March morning running from Prospect Park to Central Park, the M35-39 group delivered both a dominant champion and a furious battle for every position behind him.