M60-64 at Berlin: Rondole Runs Away With It

• Rondole wins in 2:45:56 — a 6:20/mi average that left the rest of the M60-64 field well behind, with second place more than 15 minutes back.
• Cotter edges into third despite a slow middle stretch — his 6:43/mi put him 3rd in M60-64 even though Garcia (2nd, 3:01:18) finished more than five minutes ahead of him.
• Garcia's surge was relentless — he climbed from deep in the men's field all the way to 2nd in M60-64, posting a strong 30K–35K segment along the way.
• 1,534 finishers made M60-64 one of Berlin's most populated age groups, with the top 20 alone spanning a 35-minute window from 2:45:56 to 3:21:01.

Joel Rondole simply ran a different race from everyone else in the M60-64 group. His 2:45:56 — 6:20 per mile through the streets of Berlin on a humid, 71°F morning — was the kind of performance that makes the results page look like a misprint. The nearest challenger, Victor Garcia, crossed in 3:01:18, a gap of more than 15 minutes. In a field of 1,534, that margin speaks for itself.

What made Rondole's run even more striking was how he moved through the broader men's field. He was climbing steadily into the 500s among all men by the halfway point, a position that reflects genuine open-field speed, not just age-group excellence. He did fade slightly in the back half — his men's field position drifted from 549 at the half to 727 at the finish — but the M60-64 title was never in doubt.

Garcia's path to second was a grind in the best sense. Starting deep in the men's field, he reeled in position after position across every segment, ultimately running 3:01:18 at 6:55/mi. Liam Cotter, meanwhile, took third in 2:55:54 — actually the second-fastest finishing time on the podium — but his slower early pace through the 25K–30K stretch cost him any realistic shot at Garcia, who had built too much of a gap by then.

Behind the podium, Olaf Kern (4th, 3:04:37) and Timo Toivari (6th, 3:06:38) were separated by Janusz Wójcik (5th, 3:08:07) in a tight cluster between 3:04 and 3:08. Kern's strongest segment came late — his 40K-to-finish push was one of the sharper closing splits in the group — while Wójcik showed consistent forward movement through the second half. With 1,534 men finishing in M60-64, Berlin 2025 delivered a deep, competitive field from front to back.