M45-49 Half Marathon: Muxen runs away from the field in Napa

• Joshua Muxen, 1:09:33 (5:18/mi) — wins M45-49 by a commanding 12:53 over runner-up Brian Perry (1:22:26).
• Raymond Liu surges late — moved from 58th to 51st among men on the 6.9M–Finish segment (49th-fastest men's split), overtaking Maxim Umarov (1:27:50) who faded from 50th to 57th in the same stretch to seal 3rd place in 1:25:37.
• Top-6 spread: Alexander Kamages (6th, 1:30:36) finished nearly 21 minutes behind the winner but just under a minute behind 5th-place Veselin Stoyanov (1:29:50), keeping the back of the podium honest.
• 80 finishers completed the M45-49 race on a crisp 41°F morning in Napa Valley.

Joshua Muxen, 46, of San Carlos, made this one look almost unfair. His 1:09:33 at 5:18 per mile wasn't just a win — it was a statement, crossing the line 12th among all men and posting the 11th-fastest men's split on the closing 6.9-mile stretch to Finish. No one in the M45-49 field came close to matching that gear, and the 12:53 gap to second place tells the whole story.

Brian Perry (47, Rocklin) ran a solid 1:22:26 at 6:17 per mile to claim second, finishing 46th among men. Behind him, the real drama of the day played out in the battle for third. Raymond Liu (48, Brisbane) was sitting 58th among men at the 6.9-mile mark but ran the 49th-fastest men's closing split to reel in Maxim Umarov (45, Weston) and take third in 1:25:37. Umarov, who had been ahead of Liu through much of the race, faded to 57th among men on that same stretch and finished fourth in 1:27:50 — a gap of just over two minutes separating them at the line.

Veselin Stoyanov (45, Menlo Park) rounded out the top five in 1:29:50, with Alexander Kamages (46, Petaluma) just 46 seconds back in sixth at 1:30:36. Further down, Felix Hernandez Campos (7th, 1:35:08), Dewayne Eckerdt (8th, 1:36:33), Jesse Savage (9th, 1:37:39), and Brian Lang (10th, 1:39:51) filled out a competitive top ten across a chilly but manageable Napa morning.