Men's Napa Valley Marathon: Spector Reels In Searle for the Win

• Nicholas Spector, 2:18:28 (5:17/mi) — took the men's title with the fastest split from 13.1M to 20M, surging from 2nd to 1st in the closing miles.
• Ryder Searle, 2:23:49 — led wire-to-wire through the half before fading; his 10K–13.1M split was the fastest among the men.
• Kai Wiggins (2:28:08, 4th) and Jon Pierce (2:28:10, 5th) — separated by just two seconds after 26.2 miles, both running the 3rd- and 4th-fastest final 10K splits in the men's field to charge through the late miles.
• Peter Gilmore, 2:31:53 — the 45-year-old from Alameda finished 8th in a men's field of 836, one of the standout age-story performances of the day.

Ryder Searle ran this race like a man with a plan — and for most of it, the plan was working. The 27-year-old from Lakewood held the men's lead through 10K, through the half, and into the back half of the course, posting the fastest men's split between 10K and 13.1M. But Nicholas Spector, sitting patiently in 2nd from the opening miles, had different ideas about how it would end.

Spector's move came between miles 13.1 and 20 — the stretch where the race is often decided in Napa — and he ran it faster than any other man on the course. By mile 20, the lead had changed hands, and Spector's 5:17/mi average tells the story of someone who never overextended early and had plenty left when it counted. His 2:18:28 finish is within two minutes of the course record (2:16:29) and just 33 seconds off Mason Frank's 2022 winning time — a sharp, competitive run on a cool, calm morning in the valley. Searle held on for 2nd at 2:23:49, and Joe Niemiec of Niceville ran a measured 3rd-place race at 2:26:12 (5:35/mi), never moving off that position from 10K onward.

The battle for 4th was the afternoon's tightest subplot. Kai Wiggins (Portsmouth, 28) and Jon Pierce (Portland, 34) both ran the late miles hard — 3rd- and 4th-fastest final segments in the men's field, respectively — but Wiggins got there first, 2:28:08 to Pierce's 2:28:10. Two seconds and 26.2 miles of effort between them. Further back, 45-year-old Peter Gilmore of Alameda slotted in 8th at 2:31:53, and Flavio De Simone, 52, from Boulder cracked the top 15 with a 2:40:02 — two of the more quietly impressive performances in a deep men's field.