M75-79 at California International Marathon: Sosnowski Leads a Remarkable Eleven to the Finish

• Michael Sosnowski won the M75-79 group in 4:14:32 (9:42/mi), finishing nearly 19 minutes clear of runner-up James Ducker.
• James Ducker (Cardiff, CA) ran 4:33:31 to claim second, with Jimmy McCullough — the eldest finisher at 79, from Mount Shasta — taking third in 4:47:04.
• The M75-79 field spanned over 2 hours 38 minutes from first to last, with all 11 men completing the full 26.2 miles on a mild, overcast Sacramento morning.
• Tuan Vu (Laguna Niguel) was the strongest finisher in the back half of the race, steadily climbing through the broader men's field from the halfway mark all the way to the line.

Michael Sosnowski, 75, out of Carmel Valley, controlled the M75-79 race from the front at a steady 9:42 per mile — a pace that would be respectable at any age, let alone in a field of septuagenarians. His move data tells an interesting story: he ran with the larger men's field in the early miles, then gradually settled into his rhythm through the middle stages before a slight drift back in the final 7K as the miles accumulated. Still, no one in the M75-79 group came close to threatening him. Nineteen minutes is a commanding margin.

James Ducker (4:33:31) and Jimmy McCullough (4:47:04) rounded out the podium, with McCullough's performance deserving a special mention — at 79, he was the oldest man in the group and ran a composed 10:57 per mile to secure third. He actually gained ground on the broader men's field from 30K to 35K, his strongest relative segment of the day. That kind of late-race steadiness over 26.2 miles at 79 years old is genuinely impressive.

Behind the podium, Tuan Vu ran a clean, progressive race — his men's field position improved at nearly every checkpoint from start to finish, crossing in 5:29:28. George McAlister, Steven Polansky, Andrzej Jonca, Bruce Mauldin, Mike Ong, Fernando Rodriguez, and Delbert Giese all made it to the finish line as well, with Giese completing the 26.2 miles in 6:52:45 to close out the group. Eleven M75-79 runners started and eleven finished — on a 63-degree morning in Sacramento, that's a story worth telling on its own.