M70-74: Jim Snow Runs Away from the Field

• Jim Snow, 70, wins in 3:34:55 (8:12/mi) — more than 35 minutes clear of 2nd place.
• Ward Sullivan (4:09:57) and Ezequiel Jimenez (4:12:54) battle for the podium, separated by just 2:57 at the line.
• Chul Soo You climbs from well back to 5th, posting the strongest finishing kick of the top five with a standout 20M-to-finish split.
• 22 men finished the M70-74 race in Long Beach's October heat — 72°F with 73% humidity made every mile count.

Jim Snow made this one look almost straightforward. The 70-year-old from Corona crossed in 3:34:55 at an 8:12/mi clip, a pace that would be brisk in any age group and was simply untouchable here. He was already flying on the 5.5M-to-13.1M stretch — the 55th-fastest split among women on that segment tells you how hard he was pushing through the middle miles — and he never let up. By the finish he had 35 minutes and 2 seconds on second place. In a 22-man field, that's dominance.

Behind Snow, the race for the podium was genuinely tight. Ward Sullivan of Long Beach came home in 4:09:57 (9:32/mi) for 2nd, with Ezequiel Jimenez of La Puente pressing him all the way to a 4:12:54 finish (9:39/mi) for 3rd. The gap was less than three minutes after more than four hours of racing — a real contest. Both men ran steady second halves, with Sullivan edging the better 20M-to-finish split among the two. Kun Kim (4th, 4:41:07) and Chul Soo You (5th, 4:42:06) were locked in their own duel a half-hour further back, separated by just 59 seconds, with You making the more dramatic journey — he climbed from deep in the overall men's field to 5th in M70-74 on the strength of a strong final push from mile 20.

The back half of the field spread across a wide range of finishing times, from Blandino Asuncion and John Voorhis — 6th and 7th in 5:00:55 and 5:01:52 respectively — all the way to Lucius Clark in 20th at 7:09:56. Every one of these men covered 26.2 miles in Southern California heat and humidity, and every one of them earned it.