M40-44: Wosene Runs Down the Monument Mile Markers in 2:32:17

• Tesfaye Wosene won M40-44 in 2:32:17 (5:48/mi), posting the 16th-fastest men's split on the 5K→10K segment and navigating the field with surgical consistency through the final miles.
• John Heitzman closed in 2:34:05 — his 19th-fastest men's split on the 40K→Finish segment was one of the strongest late charges in the men's field, cutting 1:48 into Wosene's lead but ultimately falling just short.
• Grant Skelton (2:46:50) and Keith Gruchacz (2:46:52) finished 7th and 8th with a two-second margin — the tightest gap on the entire podium board.
• A field of 2,340 finishers in M40-44 made this one of the deepest age brackets on the course — fitting for a race that bills itself as the largest marathon in the world offering no prize money.

Forty-two degrees, a light breeze off the Potomac, and 26.2 miles past some of the most recognizable landmarks in America — the M40-44 men brought serious hardware to The People's Marathon. Tesfaye Wosene of Temecula, CA set the tone early, running the 16th-fastest men's split on the 5K–10K stretch and working his way through the gender standings — reaching as high as 18th among all men — before finishing in 2:32:17 at 5:48/mi. That's the kind of effort that earns a clear win in a 2,340-man field.

Behind him, John Heitzman of McFarland, WI told a completely different story. He sat 46th among men at the first checkpoint and methodically climbed — to 44th, 40th, 38th — before unleashing the 19th-fastest men's split on the 40K-to-finish segment. That late hammer brought him home in 2:34:05, a 5:53/mi average, and second place in M40-44. He ran a faster final stretch than Wosene, but the gap built in the early miles was too wide to fully close. The catch-up was real; the win was not.

Seth Kampf of Collegeville, PA rounded out the podium in 2:38:39 (6:03/mi), also flashing speed early with the 34th-fastest men's split on 5K–10K, though his gender ranking drifted from 39th to 48th across the back half — a gradual fade that cost him any shot at second. Oleksandr Skorokhod of Arlington, VA — racing practically on his home course — was the day's quiet mover, climbing from 81st among men at the gun to 69th by the finish, clocking 2:41:18 for fourth.

Further back, Patrick Luckow (5th, 2:43:45) showed the inverse arc — 51st among men early, sliding to 91st by the tape, a reminder that the cold morning and the long miles past the monuments have a way of sorting ambition from execution. The top 20 in M40-44 all broke 2:54, with Derek DeRosa (14th, 2:51:07) and James Borden Jr. (15th, 2:51:08) separated by a single second at the line.