M60-69: Lance Williamson Runs Away with It at Broken Arrow 18K

• Lance Williamson, 67, wins in 2:21:52 — a 12:41/mi average across a course ranging up to 8,046 feet, finishing more than 25 minutes ahead of the runner-up.
• Three-way photo finish for 3rd–5th: Don Chernich (2:53:37), Michael Creech (2:53:43), and Frederick Roth (2:53:54) — separated by just 17 seconds across three places.
• Thomas Koundakjian takes 2nd in 2:47:50, the only other finisher under 3 hours.
• Full spread: 12 finishers completed the M60-69 race, with Paul Levy rounding out the field in 5:26:27 — more than three hours behind the winner.

Lance Williamson didn't just win the M60-69 field at Broken Arrow's 18K — he dominated it. The 67-year-old from Hope, Alaska, crossed in 2:21:52 at a 12:41/mi clip, navigating thin air between 6,200 and 8,000 feet with a margin that left no doubt. His gender place actually improved from 69th to 68th over the second half of the race, and he posted the 68th-fastest men's split on the Second Half segment — signs of a runner who held his composure while others faded on the high-elevation terrain.

Thomas Koundakjian of Reno, NV was the clear runner-up, finishing in 2:47:50 — the only other man in the group to break three hours. He ran a 15:00/mi average, and his gender place tells an interesting story: he moved up from 119th to 116th through the middle of the race before fading back to 127th by the finish, with his slowest relative split coming on the Snow King→KT 22 segment.

Behind Koundakjian, the race for 3rd through 5th was genuinely gripping. Don Chernich (Sacramento, 63), Michael Creech (Cupertino, 69), and Frederick Roth (Berkeley, 67) finished in 2:53:37, 2:53:43, and 2:53:54 respectively — 17 seconds covering all three. Creech had actually moved ahead of Chernich in the middle stages, but Chernich ran the Siberia→Finish segment faster to reclaim 3rd. Roth, meanwhile, ran that same closing stretch as the 142nd-fastest men's split, fading slightly to land 5th.

Kenneth Clews (2:57:34) and Maurizio Bonacini (2:58:35) rounded out the sub-3-hour contingent in 6th and 7th, while the back half of the field spread considerably — Robert Chacon, George Luk, Bill Baum, Blane Heumann, and Paul Levy finishing between 3:53 and 5:26, a reminder that on a course at altitude with real mountain terrain, simply finishing is its own achievement.