M70-74: Neal Ater Runs Away with It at CIM

• Neal Ater (1st, 3:34:37) won the M70-74 group by over 16 minutes, averaging a brisk 8:11/mi across 26.2 miles in Sacramento's cool December conditions.
• Michael Sosnowski (2nd, 3:50:44) was a clear runner-up at 8:48/mi, holding a comfortable 15-minute cushion over 3rd place.
• Chris Enfante (3rd, 4:05:59) edged John OLoughlin (4th, 4:09:30) by 3:31, with Richard Mollenkopf (5th, 4:10:42) just 1:12 further back — a tight three-way battle for the final podium spot and beyond.
• The M70-74 field spread wide: Bob Hough (6th, 4:18:10) and Dan Marshall (7th, 4:18:48) were separated by only 38 seconds, while the back half of the 22-finisher group ranged all the way to the 5:40s.

Neal Ater, 70, from Winter Park, Florida, made the trip to Sacramento count. Running 8:11/mi on a mild 57°F morning, he crossed in 3:34:37 — a time that would turn heads in any age group. His moves through the men's field told the story of a controlled, confident effort: he climbed steadily from his early position all the way through the closing miles, finishing with a strong 40K-to-finish segment that ranked among the faster closers in the broader men's field.

Michael Sosnowski, 73, out of Carmel Valley, was a worthy runner-up at 3:50:44. He too moved through the men's field across the second half of the race, picking up dozens of places between 30K and 40K. But the gap to Ater — 16:07 — was never truly in doubt. Behind him, the race for 3rd was genuinely compelling: Enfante (4:05:59), OLoughlin (4:09:30), and Mollenkopf (4:10:42) were separated by just 3:43 across three spots, all three running within a whisker of each other through the back half of the course.

Further down, Hough and Marshall ran nearly in lockstep — 4:18:10 and 4:18:48, just 38 seconds apart at 6th and 7th. James Morris (8th, 4:36:23) and Glenn Reis (9th, 4:41:18) rounded out a competitive top ten, before the field spread across a wide range of finishing times through the 5:40s. All 22 men in this group finished a full marathon — no small thing at 70-plus.