M60-64 Half Marathon: Murray runs away with it in Napa

• Damian Murray, 64, wins in 1:34:40 — a 7:13/mi pace that put nearly 2:20 between him and runner-up Scott Robertson.
• Tight cluster at 13–15: Morgan Gilhuly (2:08:42), Randy Gibson (2:08:43), and David Flessas (2:08:45) — three men, three seconds, three different hometowns.
• Mark Foley surges late: running the 196th-fastest men's split on the back half among all men, Foley climbed from 236th to 216th in the men's field over the final 6.2 miles to lock up 4th in M60-64.
• John Searby faded over the same stretch, slipping from 206th to 224th in the men's field — enough to let Foley pass him for 4th, with Searby finishing 5th in 1:46:09.

On a cool, crisp March morning in Napa — 41°F at the gun, a light breeze, and scattered clouds — the M60-64 field of 32 got down to business. Damian Murray, 64, from Mill Valley, made it look controlled from the start: a 7:13/mi average across 13.1 miles is a serious number in any age bracket, and he backed it up by moving from 107th to 103rd in the men's field over the final leg, running the 108th-fastest men's split on that stretch. By the tape, his 1:34:40 was untouchable.

Scott Robertson of Reno ran a solid 1:36:58 — 7:24/mi — for second, but the back half told a different story: Robertson slipped from 120th to 128th among men on the closing segment, giving up ground as others pushed. The gap between him and Murray stretched to 2:18, and Michael George of Napa (right at home, literally) claimed third in 1:42:25, another 5:27 further back.

The race for fourth was the most dramatic stretch of the day. Mark Foley (Fairfield, 1:45:31) and John Searby (Sunnyvale, 1:46:09) swapped positions over the final miles — Foley charging through the field with one of the stronger closing splits in the group, Searby losing a handful of places. The 38-second gap at the line tells the story of who had more left.

Further back, the finish-line drama belonged to places 13 through 15: Gilhuly, Gibson, and Flessas crossed within three seconds of each other — 2:08:42, 2:08:43, 2:08:45 — representing Occidental, La Crescent, and McLean respectively. Twenty more men filled out the field behind them, completing a well-contested M60-64 race from wire to wire.