M65-69 Half Marathon: Maddalena Runs Away With It in Napa

• Ron Maddalena won the M65-69 race in 1:41:22 (7:44/mi) — nearly 7½ minutes clear of 2nd place.
• John Regan closed hard on the back half, moving from 281st to 260th among men on the 6.9M→Finish segment to claim 2nd in 1:48:52.
• Ted Salazar faded over the same stretch — sliding from 238th to 286th among men — but held on for 3rd in 1:51:13.
• Paul Bowers (1:53:29) and Mark Wayne (1:54:07) were separated by just 38 seconds at 4th and 5th, with Richard Robinson close behind in 6th at 1:54:56.

Ron Maddalena, 66, of Petaluma, turned in the kind of performance that makes a field take notice. His 1:41:22 at a 7:44/mi clip wasn't just a win — it was a statement, arriving nearly seven and a half minutes ahead of anyone else in the M65-69 field of 25. On the closing 6.9M→Finish stretch, his was the 177th-fastest men's split in the entire men's field — a formidable push through the back half on a cool, breezy Napa morning.

The battle for the remaining podium spots told a more complicated story. John Regan, 68, out of Miami, was the strongest closer in the group: he moved from 281st to 260th among men over the final stretch, running the 240th-fastest men's split on that segment to finish 2nd in 1:48:52 at 8:18/mi. Ted Salazar, 66, of Fontana, went the other direction — he dropped from 238th to 286th among men on the same segment, fading to 3rd in 1:51:13 (8:29/mi). Regan made up meaningful time; Salazar held on just enough.

Just behind them, Napa's own Paul Bowers (4th, 1:53:29) and Mark Wayne of Grosse Ile (5th, 1:54:07) ran within 38 seconds of each other, with Richard Robinson of Santa Cruz rounding out the top six at 1:54:56. Those three were separated by a total of just 87 seconds across three spots. Bill Teplicky (7th, 2:06:21) marked the next significant gap, and the field spread out from there, with Jonathon Strom, 69, of Phoenix, the oldest finisher in the listed group, crossing in 17th at 2:41:13.