Men's 5K: Gagnon Blazes to the Front in San Francisco

• Alexandre Gagnon wins in 17:15 (5:33/mi), the fastest men's finish of the 2025 race and a full 35 seconds clear of 2nd place.
• Rynan Pardilla, age 16, finishes 2nd in 17:50 — the standout age story of the men's race, a Daly City teenager outrunning a field of 766 men.
• Dante Cantini (18:08) edges Ian Rodney (18:23) and Joseph Lam (18:24) for 3rd, with just 16 seconds separating the 3rd, 4th, and 5th-place finishers.
• The 2024 men's winner, Johan David (18:07), is absent from the top finishers — Gagnon's 17:15 would have bested that mark outright.

Cold, damp, and blustery — 56°F, light rain, and 13 mph wind off the Bay — the 2025 San Francisco Marathon 5K served up genuine racing weather. Alexandre Gagnon of Montréal answered it with the sharpest performance of the men's field, crossing in 17:15 at a 5:33/mi clip. That's faster than any men's winning time in the editions on record here, and it wasn't close at the front: Gagnon's 35-second margin over 2nd place was a commanding wire-to-wire statement.

The real subplot of the men's race belonged to 16-year-old Rynan Pardilla of Daly City. Running a 5:44/mi average to finish 2nd in 17:50, Pardilla didn't just beat the vast majority of the 766-man field — he beat every adult in it except Gagnon. That's a result worth underlining. Fellow teenager Dylan Tai, 17, of Milpitas also made his presence felt, coming home 9th in 19:57.

Behind Pardilla, the race for the podium was a genuine fight. Dante Cantini (Berkeley, 18:08) held off Ian Rodney (San Francisco, 18:23) and Joseph Lam (San Francisco, 18:24) — those two local runners separated by just one second in 4th and 5th. Shunya Tamada of Aichi rounded out the top six in 19:31, and from there the field tightened into a dense pack: places 11 through 18 were decided across barely 33 seconds, from Gregory Furey's 20:22 to Brenden Jacoby's 20:55.

Lawrence Chiu, 41, of San Rafael deserves a mention as 10th in 20:05 — the top finisher among the men in their 40s visible in the results, running a steady 6:28/mi in conditions that asked something extra of everyone on the course.