Rio Del Lago 50K F60-69: Moss edges Svahn by six seconds in a 50K thriller

• M.c. Moss won the F60-69 age group in 8:10:02 (15:46/mi), the fastest of three finishers in the group.
• Jan Svahn crossed in 8:10:08 — just six seconds back — for 2nd in F60-69 after leading the women's field as high as 24th before fading to 30th among women at the finish.
• Karen Wilkes, at 69 the oldest in the group, finished 3rd in 8:16:35, running the most consistent women's field position of the three, holding 30th–32nd among women through the back half.
• Both Moss and Wilkes posted the 26th-fastest women's split on the Beals Point 2→Granite Beach 1 segment; Svahn was right there with the 27th-fastest on that same stretch.

Three women in their 60s covered 50 kilometers through Granite Bay on a warm, clear November day — 72°F with little wind — and two of them finished so close that a casual glance at the clock would call it a draw. It wasn't. M.c. Moss, 66, of Grass Valley crossed the line in 8:10:02, and Jan Svahn, 68, of Rancho Cucamonga followed six seconds later at 8:10:08. Six seconds across more than eight hours of running. That's a margin of roughly one step per mile.

What makes the result more remarkable is that Svahn actually looked like the stronger early mover — she climbed as high as 24th among all women before gradually settling back through the field. Moss, meanwhile, tracked a steadier arc, hovering around 28th–31st among women for most of the race and closing with enough left to hold on. Her 26th-fastest women's split on the Granite Beach 1→Granite Beach 2 segment suggests she was still moving well deep into the course.

Karen Wilkes, 69, of Granite Bay ran her own quiet race to claim 3rd in F60-69 at 8:16:37 (15:59/mi). She was the most positionally stable of the three, locked into 30th–32nd among women from midrace onward, and she matched Moss's 26th-fastest women's split on the Beals Point 2→Granite Beach 1 leg. Running a 50K in your hometown at 69 and finishing it strong is its own kind of statement.