M25-29: Zach Speno Runs Down the Field to Take San Francisco

• Zach Speno wins in 2:42:24 (6:12/mi), pulling clear of 607 M25-29 finishers on a cool, fog-draped San Francisco morning.
• Quinn Coyle posts the 2nd-fastest second-half split in the men's field, charging from 27th to 8th among men en route to a 2:43:01 runner-up finish — 37 seconds behind Speno.
• Jason Yen (2:45:15) and Adam Suczewski (2:45:49) complete a tight podium, separated by just 34 seconds, with both logging top-10 splits among men on the 18-to-24-mile stretch.
• Domenico Davino fades from 9th to 14th among men across the second half, finishing 5th in 2:48:55 — a cautionary contrast to the surging runners behind him.

Speno ran the kind of race San Francisco's punishing hills demand: patience early, then power late. Starting 24th among men, he methodically climbed the leaderboard — reaching 15th by the halfway point — before an explosive 18-to-24-mile segment (the 6th-fastest men's split on that stretch) vaulted him all the way to 5th among men. He held that position to the tape, finishing in 2:42:24 at 6:12/mi to claim the M25-29 title outright.

The most compelling chase came from Quinn Coyle. The 26-year-old from San Francisco was still 27th among men at mile 18, but his second-half split — the 2nd-fastest in the entire men's field — tells the story of a runner who found another gear when others were grinding. He crossed in 2:43:01, just 37 seconds shy of Speno, making the gap at the line far smaller than the gap in their late-race paces.

Behind the top two, Yen and Suczewski ran nearly in lockstep. Yen's 6:18/mi average produced a 2:45:15 for third, while Suczewski's 6:19/mi earned him fourth in 2:45:49 — both men recording top-10 men's splits on the 18-to-24-mile segment and holding their positions through the finish. Davino, meanwhile, had started the race as the most aggressive of the group — sitting 9th among men early — but gradually gave back those gains, ultimately finishing 5th in 2:48:55.

Samuel Karl (2:50:19) and Prashanth Narasimhan (2:50:22) rounded out the top seven just three seconds apart, with Bastian Heitmann (2:52:02), Alex Mira (2:52:36), and Hiroki Yamashita (2:53:45) filling out the top ten in a M25-29 field where sub-2:54 was the standard for the first eleven finishers.