M65-69: Brosilow edges Holzmueller in a tight battle at the front

• Michael Brosilow won the M65-69 age group in 1:33:00 (7:06/mi), holding off Keith Holzmueller by just 25 seconds.
• Brosilow and Holzmueller were separated by fewer than 30 seconds across a 13.1-mile race — one of the tightest top-two gaps in the age group.
• Habteab Teclemicael of Renton, WA rounded out the podium in 1:44:48, more than 11 minutes back of second place.
• Fourth and fifth were decided by just 3 seconds: Rich Zappen (1:54:53) edged Gary Herrigel (1:54:56) for the final top-five spot.

Michael Brosilow and Keith Holzmueller turned the M65-69 race into a genuine duel. Brosilow, running 7:06/mi, was never far from his Evanston rival — and the split data tells the story of a race that stayed close throughout. Holzmueller was actually the stronger runner through the 10K–15K stretch, posting the 196th-fastest split in the women's field on that segment, while Brosilow's best move came late: he recorded the 204th-fastest split among women from 15K to the finish. That closing surge, modest in isolation, was enough to preserve the win. Twenty-five seconds over 13.1 miles is razor-thin, and Holzmueller's 7:08/mi average tells you he gave everything he had.

Habteab Teclemicael, who made the trip from Renton, Washington, claimed third in 1:44:48 — a comfortable 11-minute cushion over second that suggests he was racing his own race from the start. His trajectory through the checkpoints, drifting back through the women's field as the race wore on, hints at a front-loaded effort that still held up for a solid podium finish.

The battle for fourth was a story in itself. Rich Zappen and Gary Herrigel ran essentially the same race — both averaging 8:46/mi, both finishing in 1:54:5x — with Zappen claiming fourth by just three seconds. Their nearly identical closing splits (946th and 953rd fastest among women from 15K to the finish) confirm they were shoulder-to-shoulder in the final miles. Behind them, 36 men in total completed the M65-69 race on a warm Chicago morning, with finishers spread across a wide range of paces from Brosilow's crisp 7:06 down through the 11-minute-per-mile range and beyond.