M25-29: Searle Seizes Napa with a Front-Running 2:23:49

• Ryder Searle, 27, wins in 2:23:49 (5:29/mi) — the fastest men's split on the 10K→13.1M stretch helped him hold the front of the men's field for most of the race.
• Kai Wiggins closes hard — the 3rd-fastest men's split on the 20M→Finish leg powers him to 2nd in 2:28:08, a 4:19 gap back but a strong late surge.
• Cameron Goldstone fades — 4th in the men's field at the 10K mark, he slipped to 14th among men by the finish, landing 4th in M25-29 at 2:40:27.
• Six finishers between 2:57 and 2:59:16 — Geoffrey Pena (6th, 2:56:54) through Josh Williams (10th, 2:59:16) compressed into barely two minutes of racing.

Ryder Searle, 27, from Lakewood, put on a front-running clinic in crisp 42°F Napa Valley air. He sat atop the men's field from the gun, posted the fastest men's split through the 10K-to-half-marathon stretch, and ran 5:29/mi from wire to wire to cross in 2:23:49 — a commanding victory in the M25-29 field of 115. He did briefly slip to 2nd among men between the half and the 20-mile mark before reclaiming the lead, which speaks to how competitive the broader men's race was around him.

Kai Wiggins, 28, from Portsmouth, told a very different story. Sitting 6th among men at the 10K, he methodically climbed — 5th at the half, 5th at mile 20 — before unleashing the 3rd-fastest men's split on the final 20M-to-Finish leg to vault to 4th among men and 2nd in M25-29 at 2:28:08. He ran the back half faster than almost anyone in the field; Searle's lead was safe, but Wiggins was flying.

The most dramatic fade belonged to Cameron Goldstone, 25, of Tahoe City. He was 4th among men at the 10K mark, riding the same wave as Searle, but faded steadily — 8th at the half, 11th at mile 20, 14th among men at the finish — eventually clocking 2:40:27 for 4th in M25-29. Evan Misuraca, 25, of Encinitas, ran the opposite trajectory, quietly moving from 17th among men at the 10K all the way to 12th by the finish and taking 3rd in M25-29 in 2:38:57.

The middle of the M25-29 field produced a genuinely tight cluster: Geoffrey Pena (6th, 2:56:54) and Henry Deruff (7th, 2:57:00) were separated by just six seconds, and from there through Josh Williams in 10th at 2:59:16, five runners finished within two and a half minutes of each other — a testament to how evenly matched this cohort was once the front two had done their damage.