Cleveland Half Marathon M60-64: Che Runs Away with It

• Chundao Che (Northville, MI) wins the M60-64 group in 1:35:01 at a 7:15/mi pace — more than 4½ minutes clear of the field.
• Craig Pulling produces the most dramatic move of the race, climbing from near the back of the men's field to 4th in M60-64, posting the 137th-fastest split on the 12.6M→Finish stretch among all women and men.
• Places 4 and 5 — Pulling (1:42:38) and Jim Capron (1:42:45) — are separated by just 7 seconds at the line.
• 66 men finished in the M60-64 group on a warm, humid Cleveland morning — 75°F and 68% humidity making every 7:15 feel harder than it looks on paper.

Chundao Che made this one look clean from the start. Running a steady 7:15/mi, he moved from 168th in the men's field at the opening checkpoint all the way to 121st by 10K and held that position through the finish — a controlled, confident performance that left everyone else racing for second. His winning margin of 4 minutes and 38 seconds over Philip Manning (1:39:39, 7:36/mi) wasn't a photo finish; it was a statement.

Manning held second comfortably, moving steadily up the men's field from 234th to 190th across the race. Anthony Ting (1:41:58, 7:47/mi) rounded out the podium in third — though his race told a slightly different story, drifting back slightly in the men's field through the middle miles before settling into 3rd in M60-64 at the tape.

The real drama was happening just behind the podium. Craig Pulling (Painesville, OH) was buried near 459th in the men's field early on, but he ran a strong back half — his 12.6M-to-Finish split ranked 137th among all runners on that stretch — and clawed his way to 4th in 1:42:38. Jim Capron (Medina, OH) had run the more consistent race all day, but Pulling nearly caught him entirely: just 7 seconds separated them at the finish line, with Capron holding 5th in 1:42:45.

Beyond the top five, Steve Locy (1:44:47) held 6th, and the group spread out considerably from there, with Marcus Castro (1:53:25) through Robert Ettinger (2:10:59) filling out the top 20 across a range of nearly 36 minutes — a reminder that M60-64 at Cleveland is a broad, competitive field where just finishing strong in that heat is its own accomplishment.