Elite Men at CIM 2018: Austin Storms from Nowhere to Take the Win

• Brogan Austin won in 2:12:39 (5:04/mi), climbing from 13th among men at 30K to claim the title on the final stretch.
• Matt Llano led wire-to-wire through eight checkpoints before finishing 2nd in 2:13:00 — just 21 seconds back.
• The top five were separated by only 49 seconds, with Josh Izewski (3rd, 2:13:16), Joseph Stilin (4th, 2:13:21), and Brendan Gregg (5th, 2:13:28) all within a tight pack.
• Austin posted the fastest split among the men on the 35K→40K segment — the decisive surge that flipped the race.

For most of the afternoon in Sacramento, this looked like Matt Llano's race to lose. The Flagstaff-based runner held 1st among the men from the opening gun through checkpoint after checkpoint — a commanding front-running performance backed by the fastest split in the field on the 5K→10K segment. At 5:04/mi, Llano was setting a relentless tempo, and the field was simply running his race.

But marathon racing has a long memory, and the final 7K told a completely different story. Brogan Austin, who had been as far back as 13th among the men at the 30K mark, unleashed the fastest men's split on the 35K→40K segment and turned a chase into a conquest. By the finish, the 27-year-old from West Des Moines had moved all the way through to 1st, crossing in 2:12:39 — 21 seconds clear of Llano, who held on for a well-earned 2nd in 2:13:00.

Behind them, a fierce battle for the final podium spot played out between two Blowing Rock, NC training partners. Josh Izewski — who had started 22nd among the men and steadily worked his way through the field — took 3rd in 2:13:16, posting the 3rd-fastest men's split from 15K to the half. His teammate Joseph Stilin, who ran a nearly identical arc through the field, finished 4th in 2:13:21, just five seconds behind. Brendan Gregg rounded out the top five in 2:13:28, with the 5th-fastest men's split on the Half→25K segment showing he was a factor in the middle miles. In a field of 75 elite men, the top five covered by less than a minute — a testament to just how competitive the 2018 CIM elite men's race truly was.