M25-29: Flanagan Surges Late to Take the Age Group in 28:11

• Ben Flanagan won the M25-29 group in 28:11 (4:32/mi), climbing from 8th to 5th among men by the 5K mark and holding that position to the finish.
• Zouhair Talbi closed hard over the final 2K — posting the 3rd-fastest closing split among men — to claim 2nd in 28:26, just 15 seconds back.
• John Dressel rounded out the podium in 28:38, logging the 11th-fastest men's split on the 5K–8K stretch before sealing 3rd.
• Seven men in M25-29 broke 29:00 on a warm Boston morning — 77°F with a 12 mph wind — making for a genuinely competitive top end.

Ben Flanagan ran the kind of race that rewards patience. Sitting 8th among men through the early miles, the 27-year-old from Charlottesville steadily picked off competitors, moving to 5th by the halfway point and staying locked there through the finish. His 28:11 at 4:32 per mile was the class of a 366-runner M25-29 field, and his closing 2K was among the sharpest in the men's race — the 2nd-fastest men's split from 8K to the finish.

Right behind him, Zouhair Talbi made the back half of this race his own. Starting 12th among men, the 27-year-old worked his way to 9th by 5K and then unleashed a final 2K that ranked 3rd among men, vaulting him to 6th in the men's field overall and 2nd in M25-29 at 28:26. John Dressel, 25, was steady rather than spectacular — 11th-fastest among men on the middle segment — and crossed in 28:38 to claim 3rd, while Johannes Motschmann (28:51, 4th) and Bethwell Yegon (28:57, 5th) rounded out a tight top five separated by just 46 seconds.

The heat and humidity made the depth behind the leaders all the more impressive. Wesley Kiptoo (28:58, 6th), Jacob Thomson (29:00, 7th), and Paul Hogan (29:00, 8th) all finished within a second of each other, with Thomson and Hogan separated by timing precision alone — same clock time, different places. On a June morning in Boston that asked real questions of every runner, the M25-29 group delivered some of the sharpest racing on the course.