M25-29: Billy Ulrich Navigates SF's Hills to Take the Title

• Billy Ulrich wins in 2:27:48 (5:38/mi), the fastest M25-29 finish by nearly three minutes over runner-up Ian Tibbals (2:30:43).
• Jack Rosencrans was the field's biggest mover, climbing from 19th among men at the early checkpoints all the way to 5th by the finish in 2:34:43.
• Ian Tibbals backed up his 8th-place men's finish here in 2025 (2:35:56) with a podium — slicing nearly five and a half minutes off that mark to claim 2nd in 2:30:43.
• Six seconds separated 6th (Sean Rager, 2:37:59) from 7th (Ian Miller, 2:38:10), the tightest gap in the top ten.

Billy Ulrich came to San Francisco and put on a masterclass in race management — though the data shows it wasn't a wire-to-wire cruise. The Boulder runner was as high as 1st among men and as low as 2nd at multiple checkpoints, trading position throughout before ultimately sealing the win at 2:27:48, a 5:38/mi average across 26.2 miles of San Francisco's punishing terrain in 59°F winds gusting to 15 mph. He also posted the fastest men's split on the 2M–4M stretch, a sign of where he put the hammer down early.

Ian Tibbals made the trip from Rye, NY worth every mile. After finishing 8th among men here in 2025 in 2:35:56, he returned and transformed that result into a podium, finishing 2nd in 2:30:43 — a 5:13 improvement on the same course. He was methodical about it too, moving steadily from 8th among men at the gun to 3rd by mile 18, then holding firm. His 2nd-fastest men's split on the 18M–20M stretch was the surge that cemented his place on the podium.

Jordan Crist (3rd, 2:32:05) was strong early — his 2nd-fastest men's split on the 2M–4M segment matched Ulrich's aggression off the line — and he held his position well, sitting 5th among men by mile four and finishing exactly where he stood. Jack Rosencrans told a different story entirely: buried 19th among men through the early miles, he ran the 2nd-fastest men's split on the 20M–22M segment and picked off position after position down the stretch, arriving 5th in 2:34:43. In a field of 1,176 M25-29 finishers, those late-race moves are how you make your mark.