M65-69: Daley Dominates the Streets of San Francisco

• Bob Daley (1st, 25:09) ran 8:06/mi to win M65-69 by a commanding 2:24 over runner-up Haroon Rashid.
• Haroon Rashid (2nd, 27:33) and Steve Christofferson (3rd, 27:49) were separated by just 16 seconds, with Rashid running an 8:52/mi average to Christofferson's 8:57/mi — Rashid held the edge by running the back half faster.
• KevinB Jones (4th, 29:28) was the only local San Franciscan on the podium fringe, clocking 9:29/mi on home streets.
• 17 finishers completed the M65-69 race, spanning a range from 25:09 to 1:00:34.

Bob Daley made the trip from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and made it count. His 25:09 finish at 8:06/mi was the class of the M65-69 field on a breezy San Francisco morning — 60°F with a 17 mph wind that nobody out there could ignore. Daley also moved steadily through the men's field as the race progressed, climbing from 162nd to 152nd in the broader men's standings and posting the 140th-fastest split on the 2.5K-to-finish segment among men. This was a wire-to-wire statement.

Behind him, Haroon Rashid of Hollis, NY and Novato's own Steve Christofferson waged the race's tightest battle. Rashid crossed in 27:33 (8:52/mi) and Christofferson in 27:49 (8:57/mi) — 16 seconds the difference between silver and bronze over 3.1 miles. Rashid's stronger back half, where he posted the 220th-fastest men's split on the closing segment to Christofferson's uncredited finish, was enough to hold the position. KevinB Jones (4th, 29:28, 9:29/mi) gave the home crowd something to cheer, but couldn't close the gap to the podium.

The field spread out considerably from there. Rick Wilson (5th, 34:02) and Joseph Kohut (6th, 34:58) ran in the 11-minute-per-mile range, with Peter Ahedo (7th, 36:22) and Pierre Leproux (8th, 36:29) — the latter making the trip all the way from Thionville, France — separated by just seven seconds. Joseph Wackerman of nearby Petaluma brought it home last in 1:00:34, completing all 17 finishers across a span of more than 35 minutes from first to last.