Rocket City Marathon M40-44: Suetsugu edges Uyemura in a 19-second thriller

• Hisato Suetsugu wins M40-44 in 2:41:38 (6:10/mi), holding off Trevor Uyemura by just 19 seconds.
• Joe Verellen ran the 9th-fastest men's split on the 10K→Half segment but faded dramatically — entering the final stretch 8th among men, he finished 5th in M40-44 at 2:50:15.
• Cheng Nie and Steven Claremon both posted the 23rd-fastest men's split on their respective segments and delivered strong closing halves, finishing 3rd (2:46:59) and 4th (2:49:12).
• Kristopher Marin raced a full weekend across three distances — 6th among men in the 5K and 6th among men in the 10K — before finishing 13th in M40-44 here at 3:07:21.

In 29°F cold and a 16 mph wind, Hisato Suetsugu of Peachtree City, GA, claimed the M40-44 title in 2:41:38 — a 6:10/mi average that held up through the finish. Trevor Uyemura of Vienna, VA, pushed him every step of the way, crossing in 2:41:57 at 6:11/mi. That 19-second margin tells the story of two men running nearly the same race, but Suetsugu's mid-race move was decisive: he posted the 4th-fastest men's split on the 10K-to-Half segment, climbing from 13th to 7th among men, then held on to seal the win.

Uyemura's own trajectory was a steady grind in the other direction — 14th among men through 10K, 15th at the half, and then a strong 16th-fastest men's split on the Half-to-20M stretch that helped him claw back to 12th among men by the finish. He ran Suetsugu down but not quite enough.

The most dramatic arc in the top five belonged to Joe Verellen of White Lake, MI. He was flying through the first half — 7th among men at 10K, 9th at the half, with the 9th-fastest men's split on that segment — but the back half of the race told a different story. By the finish he had slipped to 36th among men, crossing in 2:50:15. That late fade opened the door for Cheng Nie (2:46:59, 6:22/mi) and Steven Claremon (2:49:12, 6:27/mi), both of whom ran strong closing segments to claim 3rd and 4th.

Kristopher Marin of Centerville, OH, deserves a separate mention: he raced the 5K and 10K earlier in the weekend, placing 6th among men in both, and then came back to run 3:07:21 for 13th in M40-44 — a full multi-race weekend in the Rocket City cold.