M35-39: Mazzanti Dominates Virginia Beach at 5:10 Pace

• Robert Mazzanti won the M35-39 age group in 25:39 — a 5:10/mi average that put more than 5 minutes and 20 seconds of daylight between him and 2nd place.
• Matthew Fiano (31:01) and Steven Preskitt (31:57) separated the 2nd and 3rd spots by 56 seconds, while the gap from 3rd to 4th was another 40 seconds.
• The top-15 spanned just 9:27 from Mazzanti's 25:39 to James Hala's 35:06 — with the tightest cluster between 8th and 14th, where six men finished within 51 seconds of each other.
• 270 men finished in the M35-39 age group, making it one of the race's deeper fields.

Robert Mazzanti, 37, out of Richmond, turned in a performance that was in a class of its own on a mild Virginia Beach morning — 62°F with a light breeze off the coast. His 25:39 and 5:10/mi clip weren't just fast enough to top the M35-39 age group; they were fast enough to hold 3rd place among the men throughout the race, a position he never relinquished from the 2-mile mark onward.

Behind him, the race for the podium had some real substance. Matthew Fiano (35, Virginia Beach) ran a composed 6:14/mi to claim 2nd in 31:01, while Steven Preskitt (35, Toano) came in at 31:57 to lock up 3rd. Ryan Davis and Steve Thornton rounded out the top five within 52 seconds of each other, both hovering around 6:34–6:36 pace.

The middle of the field told a story of tight racing. From Jonathan Allen in 8th (33:52) through David Chatman in 14th (34:42), seven men covered less than a minute of clock time — the kind of racing where a strong final mile could easily reshuffle four or five places. Ken Fay, making the trip down from Plainville, CT, slotted neatly into 6th at 33:22, just ahead of a pack of Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads locals who dominated the field numerically.

With 270 finishers, the M35-39 age group was a substantial field, and Mazzanti's margin made the win look almost effortless — though a 5:10 average over 8 kilometers in late-winter humidity suggests anything but.