Napa Valley Marathon M60-64: Thomas Fisher Runs Away With It

• Thomas Fisher, 62, wins in 3:19:18 (7:36/mi), climbing from 205th to 153rd among men across the second half of the race.
• Todd Stevenot edges Dave Ketelsen for 2nd — 3:26:11 to 3:26:40, a 29-second gap — after Stevenot posted the 138th-fastest men's split from mile 20 to the finish while Ketelsen faded.
• Ketelsen ran the first half aggressively, sitting 143rd among men through 10K before sliding to 191st by mile 20 — a cautionary tale of going out hard in the Napa Valley chill.
• Tommy Pham and Zing Nguyen finished 9th and 10th in 4:14:22 and 4:14:23 respectively — one second separating them after 26.2 miles.

Thomas Fisher came to Napa and made it look controlled. The 62-year-old from Charlotte ran a steady 7:36-per-mile average and spent the back half of the race reeling in the broader men's field — moving from 205th among men at the opening checkpoint all the way to 153rd by the finish. His strongest stretch came between miles 13.1 and 20, where he posted the 131st-fastest men's split in the field on that segment. In a field of 40 M60-64 finishers, Fisher was never seriously threatened.

Second place was a genuine battle settled over the final miles. Dave Ketelsen of Ringgold came through 10K in 143rd among men — a bold early position — but the effort caught up with him, and he drifted back to 191st by mile 20. Todd Stevenot of Petaluma took the opposite arc: sitting 219th at mile 20, he found another gear and ran the 138th-fastest men's split from there to the finish, closing hard enough to claim 2nd in 3:26:11. Ketelsen held on for 3rd in 3:26:40, but the race's momentum had clearly shifted. Gregory Raven rounded out the podium in 4th at 3:31:59 (8:05/mi), running the most consistent men's place progression of the top four — steadily moving up from 245th to 225th across all four checkpoints.

Deep in the field, the race served up its tightest moment: Tommy Pham (9th, 4:14:22) and Zing Nguyen (10th, 4:14:23) separated by a single second after more than four hours of racing through the Napa Valley. One second — 26.2 miles to earn it.