Men's Race: Cutforth Controls from the Gun

• Dave Cutforth (age 48) took the win in 3:56:57 (9:02/mi), leading among the men at every checkpoint from start to finish.
• David and Eric Cummings both crossed in 4:07:00 — David edged Eric for 2nd and 3rd respectively, separated by a sliver at the line after running nearly identical final times.
• Amrick Sandhu surged to 2nd early before fading to 4th (4:24:11), posting the 2nd-fastest split in the men's field on the 20K–Half segment.
• Kyle Pimshan (age 21) rounded out the five-man field in 5th with a finish time of 5:40:25 (12:59/mi).

Dave Cutforth, 48, never relinquished a step. He held 1st among the men through every split checkpoint and crossed in 3:56:57 at a 9:02/mi clip — the only finisher to break the four-hour mark on the day. On CIM's net-downhill point-to-point course, that kind of wire-to-wire control is a statement, and Cutforth made it clearly.

The race for 2nd was a story of a surge and a catch. Amrick Sandhu, 46, of Sacramento jumped out to 2nd early and was still there through the 20K–Half segment, where he posted the 2nd-fastest split among the men. But the Cummings brothers — David (32) and Eric (37), both from Rocklin — were reeling him in. By 30K, they had moved into 2nd and 3rd respectively, and they held those spots all the way to the finish. On the 30K–35K segment, David ran the fastest men's split and Eric the second-fastest, the pair clearly hitting their stride in the back half while Sandhu settled into 4th at 4:24:11 (10:05/mi).

David and Eric crossed in the same clock time of 4:07:00, but the timing system separated them — David in 2nd, Eric in 3rd. Their shared 9:25/mi average tells the story of two runners who ran remarkably similar races on the same course on the same day, but the finish line had just enough resolution to tell them apart.

Kyle Pimshan, 21, of Galt completed the field in 5th at 5:40:25, maintaining his position throughout and posting the 4th-fastest men's split on the 40K-to-finish stretch to close out his marathon.