SF Marathon Half: Fahey Takes NB50-54 in a Two-Man Battle Through the City

• Johnny Fahey (Brentwood, CA) wins NB50-54 in 2:12:14 (10:05/mi), finishing 4:37 ahead of the field's only other finisher.
• Alejandro Alvarado Diesta-Troutman (San Leandro, CA) crosses in 2:16:51 (10:26/mi) — and came into race day already on the podium, having claimed 3rd in Saturday's 5K.
• Both men posted their sharpest split of the race on the 2.13M→6.62M stretch — Fahey the 6th-fastest on that segment among the women's field, Alvarado Diesta-Troutman the 9th-fastest.

It was a small but spirited NB50-54 field — just two finishers — but the race told a real story. Johnny Fahey set the tone from the gun, gradually climbing through the broader women's field from 9th to 6th place by the finish, running a composed 10:05-per-mile pace across 13.1 miles to clock 2:12:14. That was the winning time, and it wasn't particularly close.

The most telling stretch of the race came between miles 2.13 and 6.62, where both men found another gear. Fahey posted the 6th-fastest split on that segment among the women's field, while Alejandro Alvarado Diesta-Troutman was right behind him at 9th-fastest — a genuine moment of racing within the race. After that segment, however, their paths diverged. Alvarado Diesta-Troutman, who had tracked from 8th to 10th in the women's field through the middle miles, couldn't hold Fahey's pace and finished in 2:16:51 at 10:26/mi — a 21-second-per-mile gap that compounded over 13.1 miles into a 4:37 final margin.

What gives Alvarado Diesta-Troutman's Sunday a fuller shape is what he did the day before: a podium finish — 3rd — in the Saturday 5K. Racing hard on back-to-back days and still completing a half marathon in 2:16:51 is no small thing. Fahey takes the NB50-54 title, but Alvarado Diesta-Troutman's weekend double deserves its own mention.