M60-64 at Rocket City: Belcher runs away with it

• Rick Belcher won the M60-64 group in 3:39:49 (8:23/mi), finishing more than four minutes clear of runner-up Michael Cramarosso.
• Calvin Shiroma made the most dramatic move of the race, climbing from well outside the top 10 at the start to claim 3rd in M60-64 with a powerful back half.
• David Mazenko (5th) ran a strong middle stretch but faded on the final leg, slipping from 4th to 5th in the closing miles.
• Positions 19 and 20 — David Degroote and Steve Bradley — finished in the same clock time of 4:49:43, though the results separate them by place.

Rick Belcher, 60, of Brentwood, TN, was in command from the gun and never relinquished it. Running at 8:23 per mile through a warm, humid Huntsville morning — 60°F and 85% humidity is no small ask for 26.2 miles — he held his position in the men's field steady through the first half and then surged past several runners between the halfway mark and the finish, landing at 3:39:49. Michael Cramarosso of Elmhurst, IL gave chase but couldn't close the gap, crossing in 3:44:09 to claim a solid second.

The subplot of the race belonged to Calvin Shiroma, who made the trip all the way from Honolulu and ran a textbook negative-split strategy. He was buried deep in the men's field at the 10K mark but reeled in competitor after competitor, posting the strongest second-half surge in the M60-64 group and finishing 3rd in 3:54:26. Fourth went to Michael Blancato (3:58:13), who ran a measured and consistent race from start to finish. Mazenko, in 5th, showed well through the middle miles before the closing stretch took its toll.

Robert Milhouse and Eric Sheffield ran nearly identical races, finishing 6th and 7th just 41 seconds apart — Milhouse in 4:07:42, Sheffield in 4:08:23 — in a tight battle that likely came down to those final miles on tired legs. All 34 finishers in the M60-64 group deserve credit for taking on a humid December marathon; Belcher just made it look easier than most.