M90-94 at Peachtree: Levine leads six nonagenarians through Atlanta's July heat

• Michael Levine, 91, wins the M90-94 race in 1:32:52 — a 14:57/mi pace that put clear daylight between him and the rest of the field.
• Lee Hackworth, 92, finishes 2nd in 2:03:53, more than 31 minutes back, with his strongest relative segment coming on the final push to the finish.
• Jere Allen (2:19:49) and Sid Davis (2:33:56) round out the middle of the field in 3rd and 4th, separated by 14 minutes and change.
• Six men in their 90s crossed the finish line on a warm, humid July 4th morning in Atlanta — every one of them.

There are races within races at Peachtree, and then there is the M90-94 field — six men, all in their nineties, covering 6.2 miles through Atlanta on a 75-degree morning with humidity hovering near 70%. Michael Levine of Sandy Springs set the tone from the gun. Running at a 14:57/mi average, he was never seriously threatened, and his gender placement actually improved over the final stretch of the course — moving from 19,442nd to 19,205th among all men in the field — a sign he was finishing with something left while others around him faded.

Lee Hackworth of Chamblee made it interesting in one respect: at 92, he is the oldest runner on this podium, and he backed up a 2:03:53 finish with his best relative segment on the 5M-to-finish stretch, where his split ranked ahead of others around him. The gap to Levine — 31 minutes — tells the real story of how dominant the winner was, but Hackworth's closing effort was the sharpest of anyone not named Levine.

Jere Allen (Birmingham, AL) and Sid Davis (Atlanta) held steady through the middle miles, finishing 3rd in 2:19:49 and 4th in 2:33:56 respectively. Neither made dramatic moves through the field — Allen's gender placement barely shifted across all six checkpoints — but steady is its own kind of impressive at 92. Charles Teague of Dunwoody came home 5th in 3:25:35, and Richard Taylor of Atlanta closed out the group in 3:33:33, just eight minutes separating the two. All six finished. On a holiday morning in Georgia, that is the headline that matters most.