M65-69: Civanlar dominates San Francisco's 10K field

• Mehmet Civanlar, 1st — 53:53 (8:40/mi), a commanding 10-minute, 19-second gap over 2nd place
• Closest battle of the day — Emilio Correa (3rd, 1:05:13) and Harry Mita (2nd, 1:04:12) separated by just 61 seconds, with Correa running a faster final stretch to close the gap
• Tightest finish near the back — Joel Fanfelle (7th, 1:16:00) and David Keyes (8th, 1:16:16) just 16 seconds apart
• 16 finishers completed the M65-69 race across a cool, overcast San Francisco morning — 57°F with barely a breath of wind

Mehmet Civanlar, 68, of San Francisco made this race his own from the start. Running an 8:40/mi average, he crossed in 53:53 — nearly ten and a half minutes ahead of the next finisher. That gap isn't a close race with a late surge; it's a wire-to-wire statement. His gender place actually slipped from 406th to 448th on the final stretch, but that's the nature of a deep field catching up late — his M65-69 victory was never in doubt.

Behind Civanlar, the real competition was a three-man chase. Harry Mita, 67, of Glendora held 2nd at 1:04:12 (10:20/mi), but Emilio Correa, 65, making the trip from Bogotá, was closing. Correa ran the 4.62M-to-finish segment as the 931st-fastest split in the field, compared to Mita's 959th — a meaningful catch-up that trimmed the gap to just 61 seconds at the line. Correa finished 3rd in 1:05:13. Kelly Milligan, 67, rounded out the top four in 1:07:25, though his final segment faded relative to the men ahead of him, his gender place slipping from 1,199th to 1,307th on that closing stretch.

Further back, the race delivered its own drama. John Ulrich (5th, 1:11:03) and Francisco Rodriguez (6th, 1:13:01) held their positions cleanly, while Joel Fanfelle (7th, 1:16:00) and David Keyes (8th, 1:16:16) were locked in a tight duel all the way to the finish — just 16 seconds apart after 6.2 miles. At the back of the field, N R Narayan (14th, 1:34:02), Sant Sharma (15th, 1:34:37), and Raghunath Meenakshisundaram (16th, 1:35:35) ran within 93 seconds of each other, making the final three spots a quiet battle of their own on the fog-kissed streets of San Francisco.