Masters Men: Capelli Commands the Parkway at 6:19 Pace

• Marco Capelli (1st, 2:06:17) won the Masters Men field by more than six minutes, averaging 6:19/mi across all 20 miles in 74°F heat.
• Jedidiah Soliz (2nd, 2:12:22) climbed from 20th among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 6th by the finish — the race's most dramatic charge through the field.
• Places 4–7 finished within 62 seconds of each other (2:16:44 through 2:16:54), making the battle for the lower podium the tightest cluster of the day.
• Jacob Nur (10th, 2:19:25) — at age 70 — ran 6:58/mi to crack the top 10 in a 186-finisher Masters field.

Marco Capelli made this race look almost unfair. The 53-year-old from El Dorado Hills crossed in 2:06:17 at a 6:19/mi clip, holding 2nd among the men's field from the opening miles all the way through the finish. He never wavered in position, never got chased down, and capped his dominance with the 2nd-fastest second-half split among the men — meaning he was actually accelerating while the field was fading in the afternoon heat. His margin of victory over 2nd place was 6:05.

Jedidiah Soliz told a very different story. The 43-year-old from Carmichael started buried — 20th among men at the first checkpoint — and spent the entire race hunting people down. By Mile 10 he was 12th, by Mile 15.6 he was 7th, and he ultimately crossed in 2:12:22 for 2nd place, also posting the 4th-fastest second-half split among the men. That kind of sustained surge over 20 miles in the heat is not an accident; it's a race plan executed to the letter.

David Kaffka (3rd, 2:16:17, 6:49/mi) rounded out the podium, also climbing steadily through the second half. Then came a genuine four-way scrum for 4th through 7th: Dario Cantu (4th, 2:16:44), Don Wang (5th, 2:16:52), Corey Phillis (6th, 2:16:52), and Jesse Barragan (7th, 2:16:54) — four athletes separated by just ten seconds after 20 miles. Wang and Phillis share the same displayed time, but the places confirm Phillis edged him out by the slimmest of margins.

And then there's Jacob Nur. The 70-year-old from Elk Grove ran 6:58/mi to finish 10th in a 186-finisher Masters field — a performance that deserves its own sentence, because it earned it.