M40-44: Van 'T Riet Dominates San Francisco's 40s Field

• Gerrit Pieter Van 'T Riet won M40-44 in 1:21:19 (6:12/mi), finishing 6th among men overall — a commanding margin of 1:38 over runner-up Oleksandr Skorokhod.
• Skorokhod (2nd, 1:22:57) and Bertrand Celerier (3rd, 1:24:53) locked up the podium, with Celerier a further 1:56 back.
• Baizhan Kanafin was the race's biggest mover in M40-44, surging from 47th among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 26th by the finish to claim 4th in 1:27:45.
• A tight three-way cluster closed out the top seven: Pablo Cruz (6th, 1:28:23) and Fei Shi (7th, 1:28:46) finishing within 23 seconds of Lokesh Dhakar (5th, 1:28:13).

Gerrit Pieter Van 'T Riet, the 44-year-old from Amsterdam, was simply in a different gear. His 6:12/mi average held steady throughout — he sat 6th among men from the opening checkpoint to the finish line without ever being seriously threatened. His strongest relative moment came late: he posted the 4th-fastest split among men on the 11.05M-to-Finish stretch, meaning he was still pressing hard when others were managing the closing miles of San Francisco's demanding course.

Skorokhod and Celerier were the other early movers, both posting strong splits on the 1.81M–5.34M segment — 6th- and 8th-fastest among men respectively on that stretch. Celerier, however, gradually slipped from 8th among men at the halfway point to 11th by the finish, suggesting the back half cost him. Skorokhod held steadier, maintaining 7th among men through most of the race before a slight fade to 8th at the line — still a convincing 2nd-place finish in 1:22:57.

The race's best storyline behind the podium belonged to Kanafin. Starting conservatively — 47th among men through the first checkpoint — he methodically worked his way through the field, eventually settling into 4th in M40-44 at 1:27:45 (6:42/mi). Just 28 seconds behind him, Dhakar (5th, 1:28:13) was doing something similar from the other direction, climbing from 39th among men to 27th. Their paces — 6:42 versus 6:44/mi — were close but Kanafin's earlier patience gave him the cushion. Cruz (6th, 1:28:23) and Shi (7th, 1:28:46) rounded out a genuinely competitive mid-pack battle, with just 33 seconds separating 5th through 7th across 336 finishers in the age group.