M75-79: Brian Smith Wins a Battle of the 76-Year-Olds

• Brian Smith took the M75-79 title in 2:19:50 (10:40/mi), finishing 1:15 ahead of runner-up Charles Curran.
• Four of the top five finishers — Smith, Curran, Burgess, and Milliken — are all age 76, making for a remarkably tight age cluster at the front.
• Richard Burgess and William Milliken finished just 24 seconds apart (2:27:19 vs. 2:27:43), with Burgess running a faster closing stretch to edge ahead.
• The M75-79 field spanned nearly 1:43 from first to last, with Dennis Mori completing the course in 4:02:36 (18:30/mi) to round out all nine finishers.

Brian Smith of Folsom ran a composed 10:40/mi to claim the M75-79 title at the Shamrock'n Half Marathon, finishing in 2:19:50 on a clear, mild morning in West Sacramento. His margin over Charles Curran of Sacramento was 1:15 — comfortable enough, but Curran was no pushover, running 10:46/mi and actually climbing through the men's field across the back half of the race, moving from well outside the top 1,400 men to 1,437th by the finish. Smith, meanwhile, drifted slightly in the men's standings over the second half, suggesting Curran was the one making up ground — but he never quite closed the gap that mattered.

The real drama in the M75-79 group played out in the battle for third. Richard Burgess of Lincoln and William Milliken of Roseville were separated by just 24 seconds at the line — 2:27:19 to 2:27:43 — but they got there differently. Burgess was the stronger closer, running a notably faster Mile 11-to-finish split than Milliken and climbing past him in the men's field over that final stretch. Milliken had actually been running ahead of Burgess for much of the race, but Burgess reeled him in when it counted. Fifth-place John Schwaner of Sacramento finished in 2:35:10, a solid 11:50/mi across the full 13.1 miles.

Behind the top five, the field spread out considerably. Robert Rinker, the eldest in the group at 79, came home in 3:07:39. Robert Lien (3:37:01), James Geary (3:48:37), and Dennis Mori (4:02:36) — all three also 79 — completed the nine-man M75-79 field, each earning their finish on a course that asks plenty of anyone, let alone athletes in their late seventies.