M50-59 Ten-Miler: Mintz Dominates as Auburn's Own Russell Fades Late

• J.r. Mintz won the M50-59 group in 1:45:16 (10:32/mi), the only finisher under two hours in a six-man field.
• Yaping Song ran the second-fastest closing split among the men, finishing 2nd in 2:01:35 — nearly 16 minutes back of Mintz but well clear of 3rd.
• Alex Gutierrez held 3rd in 2:09:20 (12:56/mi), separating himself cleanly from 4th-place Adam Russell (2:41:41).
• The final two spots came down to a near-photo finish: Neal Rapoport edged Gurudev Nagaraja by just 23 seconds — 3:20:54 to 3:21:17 — at the back of the M50-59 field.

J.r. Mintz, 59, put in the dominant performance of the M50-59 group, crossing in 1:45:16 at a 10:32/mi clip — a pace that left the rest of the field well in his wake. He moved from 10th to 8th among the men in the first half of the race before settling back to 9th by the finish, and his closing split from Last Gasp to the line was the 6th-fastest of any man on that segment. For the oldest man in the group, it was a thoroughly commanding run.

Behind him, Yaping Song made the most eye-catching move of the race. Starting well back in the men's field — 28th at the first checkpoint — Song surged to 14th by the midpoint and held that position all the way home, finishing in 2:01:35 (12:10/mi). His closing split from Last Gasp to the finish ranked 12th among all men on that leg, a strong push that secured 2nd in the M50-59 group by a comfortable margin. Alex Gutierrez rounded out the podium in 2:09:20, also holding steady at 18th among the men across the second half.

Adam Russell, racing on familiar ground in Auburn, struggled on the back half, sliding from 22nd to 28th among the men and finishing 4th in the group in 2:41:41 — more than 32 minutes behind Mintz. The real drama at the back of the field came between Neal Rapoport and Gurudev Nagaraja. Rapoport, from Southlake, TX, had already lost ground on the Rattlesnake Bar–to–Last Gasp segment, but he held on to finish 5th in 3:20:54, just 23 seconds ahead of Nagaraja's 3:21:17 to close out the M50-59 results.