M70-74: Milton Lorig Runs Away With It in San Francisco

• Milton Lorig wins in 57:04 — a 9:11/mi average that put more than five minutes between him and 2nd-place Greg Nicoll (1:02:25).
• Three runners finish within 7:23 of each other for the podium: Lorig (57:04), Nicoll (1:02:25), and Larry Asher (1:04:27) — all age 72.
• Nicoll gained ground late, moving up from 1,020th to 998th among men on the final stretch, while Asher made an even bigger move — climbing from 1,182nd to 1,118th — suggesting a strong finish from both chasers.
• Nine finishers completed the M70-74 race in conditions that were cool and damp at 57°F with 88% humidity on the San Francisco streets.

Milton Lorig, 72, from Oakland, was in a class of his own on Sunday. His 57:04 finish at a 9:11/mi clip wasn't just a win — it was a statement. He crossed the line more than five minutes ahead of the next M70-74 finisher, and his late-race split on the 4.62M-to-Finish segment ranked 753rd among men in the broader field — a genuinely strong closing effort that held his lead comfortably intact.

Greg Nicoll (1:02:25, 10:03/mi) and Larry Asher (1:04:27, 10:22/mi) — both also 72 — traded places with the wider men's field down the stretch, each moving up meaningfully in the final segment. Nicoll's closing split was the faster of the two by pace, but Asher's surge from 1,182nd to 1,118th among men was the bigger positional gain. Either way, the two-minute gap between them held, and the podium was settled well before the finish line.

Robert Popalck (4th, 1:13:50) and Mejia Manuel Amaru (5th, 1:14:18) were separated by just 28 seconds — the tightest margin in the entire M70-74 field. Popalck's closing split was faster, ranking 1,282nd among men on that final stretch versus Amaru's 1,486th, meaning Popalck was the one doing the catching. Raji Antoun (6th, 1:17:32), Eric Kan (7th, 1:20:47), Martin Ga (8th, 1:32:23), and Andrei Roschkowsky (9th, 1:40:37) rounded out the nine finishers, with Roschkowsky completing the course in 1:40:37 at a 16:12/mi pace — a determined effort on a humid San Francisco morning.