M55-59: Daniel Kono Runs Away with Napa in 2:54:54

• Daniel Kono won the M55-59 race in 2:54:54 (6:40/mi), finishing a commanding 13 minutes ahead of runner-up Tony Schollum.
• The tightest battle of the day: places 6 through 9 — Wilbur Asprec (3:19:54), Mark Selwyn (3:20:03), Diego Klabjan (3:20:18), and Robert Macdonald (3:20:26) — separated by just 32 seconds.
• Alan Zhu (5th, 3:19:35) ran the 170th-fastest men's final 10K split in the field, edging Asprec by 19 seconds despite carrying a slower early pace.
• 69 men finished in the M55-59 field, with the top 20 all breaking 3:42.

Daniel Kono, 56, of San Rafael, set the tone early on Napa's point-to-point Silverado Trail course. Running at 6:40 per mile, he moved steadily through the men's field — climbing from 73rd among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 59th by the finish — and posted the 50th-fastest men's split on the final push from mile 20 to the finish. That closing kick is where races are won, and Kono made it look controlled rather than desperate.

Tony Schollum (55, San Ramon) worked hard for second, rallying from 198th among men early in the race to 138th by the finish — a significant climb through the field — but his 3:07:49 (7:10/mi) left him 12:55 behind Kono. David Plyler (58, Bakersfield) took third in 3:16:14, with Gary Auten (58, Sunnyvale) just 89 seconds back in fourth at 3:17:43. Both Plyler and Auten moved steadily through the men's field across the race, though neither could match Schollum's closing surge — Schollum's final-segment split ranked 91st among men, well ahead of Plyler's 152nd and Auten's 180th.

The real drama in this field unfolded in the scrum for fifth through ninth. Alan Zhu (55, Saratoga) secured fifth in 3:19:35 after running the 170th-fastest men's closing split — a quicker finish than those immediately behind him allowed him to hold off Wilbur Asprec (3:19:54), Mark Selwyn (3:20:03), Diego Klabjan (3:20:18), and Robert Macdonald (3:20:26), who arrived in a tight cluster spanning just 32 seconds across four places. Kenji Toda (57) rounded out the top 10 in 3:21:35, with Chihkong Yang 18 seconds further back in 11th.