M35-39: Jake Schmitt Runs Down the Men's Field Along the Silverado Trail

• Jake Schmitt wins in 2:23:23 (5:28/mi), finishing 3rd among all men — a 5:31 margin over runner-up Jason Karbelk's 2:28:54.
• Karbelk's early surge: the 3rd-fastest men's split from 6.2M to 10M helped him hold 4th among men through mid-race, but Schmitt's relentless pace proved untouchable.
• Sam Kirtner's mid-race rocket: the 2nd-fastest men's split from 13.1M to 16.2M launched him from 29th to 15th among men — the most dramatic single-segment move in the M35-39 field.
• A deep sub-3:00 cluster: nine finishers — 12th through 20th — squeezed into a 2:57:30–2:59:07 window, separated by just 1:37 across that entire pack.

Jake Schmitt controlled this race with quiet authority. Running a 5:28/mi average, he tracked 4th among all men through most of the point-to-point Silverado Trail course before surging to 3rd on the stretch from 16.2M to 20M — where he posted the 2nd-fastest men's split of the day on that segment. By the finish, he had a commanding 5:31 gap on the rest of the M35-39 field and nothing left to prove.

Jason Karbelk, 39, made his intentions clear early. His 3rd-fastest men's split from 6.2M to 10M pushed him to 4th among men and kept him in striking distance of Schmitt through mid-race. But the gap never closed, and Karbelk crossed in 2:28:54 (5:41/mi) for a solid second place. Nick Shea rounded out the podium in 2:39:39 (6:05/mi), quietly climbing from 22nd to 12th among men across the race — his 10th-fastest men's split on the final 20M-to-finish stretch a sign of legs saved for the end.

The most electric mid-race move belonged to Sam Kirtner, 35. He was 29th among men at the half when he uncorked the 2nd-fastest men's split from 13.1M to 16.2M, catapulting to 15th — a swing of 14 places in a single segment. He settled to finish 4th in M35-39 at 2:43:56, with Kevin Ouyang rounding out the top five in 2:45:31. Behind them, the net-downhill course through California wine country delivered a wall of fast times: nine runners between 12th and 20th place all finished under 3:00, packed into less than two minutes of racing.