M45-49: John Damen Runs Away from the Field in 2:41:43

• John Damen, 46, wins by 14:36 — the Moraga runner's 6:10/mi average left the rest of M45-49 well behind.
• Tightest battle of the day: 5th vs. 6th — Kevin Galligan (3:17:22) and Peter Gregg (3:17:32) were separated by just 10 seconds after 26.2 miles.
• Galligan's closing kick — his 145th-fastest split among all men on the 24M-to-finish stretch helped him hold off Gregg for 5th.
• 319 finishers made M45-49 one of the race's deepest fields, with a 35-minute spread separating the winner from 20th place.

John Damen didn't just win M45-49 — he dominated it. Running 6:10/mi through San Francisco's wind-whipped, fog-edged streets on a 59°F morning, the 46-year-old from Moraga crossed in 2:41:43, a time that would challenge the top of most open fields. His moves data tells the story of a man steadily hunting down runners ahead of him: he climbed from 30th to 18th among the men over the course of the race, a relentless, methodical advance. He even posted the 10th-fastest men's split on the 18M–20M segment, a stretch where many marathoners are already negotiating with their legs.

Adrian Ludwig, the San Francisco local, was the clear runner-up in 2:56:19 at 6:43/mi — a notably different pace from Damen's but a comfortable margin clear of 3rd. Hendrik Fuhrmann, making the trip from Dresden, rounded out the podium in 3:11:23, climbing steadily through the men's field from 225th to 172nd by the finish — a consistent, patient effort across 26.2 miles.

William Ng (4th, 3:15:03) and Kevin Galligan (5th, 3:17:22) both ran strong second halves, with Ng improving his men's standing from 489th all the way to 219th — one of the bigger climbs in the group. Galligan, meanwhile, used the final stretch to his advantage, posting the 145th-fastest men's split from 24M to the finish and edging Peter Gregg by just 10 seconds for 5th. Gregg (6th, 3:17:32) ran essentially the same finish time on the clock — the gap was real, but razor-thin.