M35-39 Half Marathon: Wilks Runs Down the Field to Claim the Age Group

• Joshua Wilks won the M35-39 group in 1:13:54 (5:38/mi), climbing from 17th to 13th among men over the course of the race.
• Ermin Mujezinovic was just 17 seconds back at 1:14:11 — the closest gap on the podium — while Nathaniel Bishop rounded out the top three in 1:17:16.
• The gap from 3rd to 4th was only 24 seconds (Bishop 1:17:16, Chang 1:17:40), making for a tight battle just off the podium.
• Dashiell Quasebarth was the biggest mover in the top 10, surging from 63rd to 42nd among men on his way to 5th in the M35-39 group.

Virginia Beach handed the M35-39 field a tough afternoon — 71°F, 73% humidity, and a 17 mph wind off the coast. That makes what Joshua Wilks did all the more striking. Running 5:38/mi, the 35-year-old Va. Beach local didn't just lead from the front; he kept picking people off, moving from 17th to 13th among men across the back half of the race and posting the 6th-fastest split in the men's field from 20K to the finish. That closing surge is what separated him from Ermin Mujezinovic.

Mujezinovic, representing West Point, NY, was the sharpest runner in the middle miles, recording the 9th-fastest men's split from 10K to 15K — but he couldn't quite reel in Wilks when it mattered most. His 1:14:11 finish was a strong second, just 17 seconds behind the winner in a race where that gap felt like a chasm by the final stretch. Nathaniel Bishop (1:17:16) and Jordan Chang (1:17:40) waged their own private battle for the final podium spot and the fourth position, separated by only 24 seconds after 13.1 miles.

Further back, Dashiell Quasebarth delivered one of the more compelling stories in the M35-39 group. Starting deep in the men's field — 63rd at the first checkpoint — the Norfolk native reeled in runner after runner, ultimately finishing 5th in the age group with a strong 20K-to-finish split that ranked 34th among men. Adam DeSanctis was just three seconds behind him at 1:22:14, making the 5th-6th gap one of the race's tightest outside the podium. All told, 346 men finished in M35-39, with the top 20 alone spanning nearly 18 minutes of racing — a testament to just how competitive this group was from front to back.