Napa Valley Half Marathon M60-64: Chesky Runs Away With It in the Vineyards

• Eric Chesky (Saint Helena, age 63) won the M60-64 race in 1:42:06 — a 7:47/mi pace that put more than two minutes of clear air between him and every other finisher.
• Peter Lowe (Brunswick, age 60) was second in 1:44:21, with Kang Wang (Saratoga, age 60) rounding out the podium in 1:48:22 — a 4:01 spread across the top three.
• The 5th–6th-place battle was the closest of the day: Leslie Mccutcheon (Aptos) finished 5th in 1:52:15 and Mark Evans (Pacific Grove) 6th in 1:52:22 — just seven seconds apart after 13.1 miles in 37°F morning air.
• 32 men finished in the M60-64 race, with the back half of the listed field ranging from Benito Ortiz's 1:59:44 (10th) to Ambrose Low's 2:19:43 (20th).

Eric Chesky, running in his hometown wine country, set the tone from the start. By the midpoint checkpoint at 6.9 miles, he already held a commanding position in the men's field, and he only tightened the screws from there — his second-half split ranked 135th among all men, a strong close that underscored this was no fluke. His 1:42:06 on a cold, damp morning (37°F, 87% humidity, barely any wind to help) was a decisive performance.

Peter Lowe ran a composed second half as well, his 6.9M-to-finish split ranking 154th among the men — faster than Chesky's in raw field rank, but not enough to close the gap that had already opened. Lowe finished 2:15 back of Chesky in 1:44:21. Third-place Kang Wang (1:48:22, 8:16/mi) held his position over the closing miles, his 222nd-fastest men's split on the back half showing a steady if slightly more measured finish.

Shaun Palmer (Rochester) took 4th in 1:50:13 but was one of the few in the top five to fade on the back half — his gender ranking slipped from 227th to 234th over that final stretch, a sign that the cold miles took their toll. Behind him, the race got genuinely interesting: Mccutcheon and Evans ran nearly identical second halves before Evans closed to within seven seconds, finishing 6th in 1:52:22 to Mccutcheon's 1:52:15 in 5th. Casey Evans (Cool, no relation noted) followed in 7th at 1:54:16, with John Duerksen (High River) and Andy Bunnell (Sebastopol) rounding out the top nine at 1:55:11 and 1:56:30, respectively.