M75-79 Half Marathon: Burgess Takes the Age Group in Folsom's November Heat

• Richard Burgess (age 76, Lincoln) won the M75-79 group in 2:25:24 (11:05/mi), finishing more than six minutes clear of the field.
• Charles Curran (age 76, Sacramento) claimed second in 2:31:48 (11:35/mi), the closest challenger on the day.
• Steven Polansky (age 79, Carmichael) earned third in 2:55:22 (13:23/mi) — the oldest man in the group and still well clear of the final finisher.
• Dennis Mori (age 78, San Leandro) rounded out the four-man group in 3:58:57 (18:14/mi).

Four men in their mid-to-late seventies toed the line in Folsom on a warm November morning — 74°F with broken clouds — and Richard Burgess wasted little time asserting himself. Running at an 11:05/mi clip, the 76-year-old from Lincoln steadily moved through the broader men's field as the race progressed, climbing from 94th to 83rd among men by the finish. His strongest relative stretch came between Mile 4 and Mile 10, where he posted the 80th-fastest men's split in that segment — a controlled, purposeful push through the heart of the course.

Charles Curran, also 76 and racing out of Sacramento, kept things honest in second. His 11:35/mi average was a noticeably slower pace than Burgess's, and a gap of over six minutes separated them at the line — but Curran ran his own steady race, moving from 92nd to 89th among men and posting the 87th-fastest men's split on the second half. No dramatic fade, just consistency.

Steven Polansky, the oldest man in the group at 79, came home third in 2:55:22 — a 13:23/mi effort that required real grit over 13.1 miles in the heat. He finished 23 minutes and change behind Curran but held his composure through the final miles, posting the 98th-fastest men's split from Mile 10 to the finish. Dennis Mori, 78, closed out the group in 3:58:57 at 18:14/mi, crossing the line and completing what is, by any measure, a genuinely impressive feat: four men north of 75 finishing a half marathon on a warm California morning.