Long Beach Marathon Men's Race: Prado Surges Late to Take the Win

• Winner: Esteban Prado (Fountain Valley, CA), 1:52:30 at 4:17/mi — but Kevin Quinteros Lopez posted the fastest overall time in the top three at 1:52:04 at 4:16/mi, finishing 3rd.
• Tightest battle: The top five were separated by just 1:52 — Quinteros Lopez (1:52:04), Prado (1:52:30), Widlansky (1:52:59), Wosene (1:53:56), de Venecia (1:54:20).
• Age outlier: Tesfaye Wosene, 44, ran 1:53:56 at 4:21/mi to finish 5th — and posted the 2nd-fastest split among all men on the 5.5M–13.1M segment.
• Deep field: Among the 3,400 men who finished, 8th-place Luis Dorantes still clocked 1:57:23, and 11th-place Zahid Salodawala ran sub-2:00 at 1:59:47.

The men's race at Long Beach was a tactical chess match that didn't fully resolve until the final miles. Esteban Prado (Fountain Valley) started cautiously — 9th among men through the early going — but was relentless in his ascent. By the midpoint he'd climbed to 5th, and by the 20-mile mark he was 3rd and pressing hard. His 2nd-fastest men's split on the 13.1M–20M stretch was the decisive move, and he crossed in 1:52:30 to claim the win.

The real curveball, though, is that the man who ran the fastest time on the day finished third. Kevin Quinteros Lopez (Fontana) clocked 1:52:04 at 4:16/mi — the quickest of any finisher in the top twenty — and his 5.5M–13.1M split was the fastest among all men. He moved from 7th to 2nd by halfway and held that spot through 20 miles, but Prado's late surge proved decisive in the standings. Ethan Widlansky (Santa Monica) rounded out the podium in 1:52:59, himself posting the 3rd-fastest men's split on that same 5.5M–13.1M stretch — three 25-year-olds trading blows across 26.2 miles.

The subplot of the morning belonged to Tesfaye Wosene. The 44-year-old from Temecula ran 1:53:56 — good for 5th — and his 2nd-fastest men's split on the 5.5M–13.1M segment showed he wasn't merely hanging on. He led the overall men's race as recently as the 13.1-mile mark before the younger legs of Quinteros Lopez and Prado eventually pulled away. Behind the top five, the depth was real: Dorantes (8th, 1:57:23), Ehinger (6th, 1:58:33), and Salodawala (11th, 1:59:47) all broke or nearly broke two hours in 72°F humidity — a field that earned every second.