San Francisco Marathon 5K — M45-49: Gackstetter Takes the Win in the Fog

• Edwin Gackstetter (age 49) claimed the M45-49 title in 24:15 (7:48/mi), holding off Jason Rzepka by 13 seconds.
• Jason Rzepka finished 2nd in 24:28 (7:53/mi) — the only other sub-25-minute finish in the field.
• A nearly 90-second gap separated 3rd-place Kyu-Han Kim (25:30) from 4th-place Billy Wages (26:53), marking the sharpest drop-off in the top five.
• 23 finishers toed the line in the M45-49 field on a cool, damp San Francisco morning — 53°F and 95% humidity along the waterfront.

Edwin Gackstetter, the oldest man in the top five at 49, ran the most controlled race at the front. His 7:48/mi average held up across all 3.1 miles to deliver a 24:15 and the M45-49 title. Rzepka (45, Berkeley) pushed him every step of the way, crossing in 24:28 at 7:53/mi — a clear second-best pace in the field, but 13 seconds short of the top spot. That gap is narrow enough that a single strong mile in either direction could have flipped the result, making this one of the tighter title battles on the morning.

Kyu-Han Kim (46, Palo Alto) was a comfortable third in 25:30 at 8:12/mi, more than a minute clear of the next challenger. Billy Wages (48, San Francisco) came in 4th at 26:53 (8:39/mi), and Gabriel Desjardins (45, San Francisco) rounded out the top five in 27:34 (8:52/mi) — a spread of over two and a half minutes across positions three through five, showing the podium was well-settled by the finish line.

The field spread wide from there. Rishi Agrawal (46, Cupertino) was 6th in 28:37 before a significant jump to Salvador Tovar's 32:36 in 7th. Jeff Cook (49, Plymouth, MN) was the final individually listed finisher in 20th at 54:10 — and three more M45-49 runners completed the course beyond him. All 23 men who started finished, a full field navigating the Bay's signature gray chill with nothing but a finish line in front of them.