NB35-39 Men: DeGroff-Kirchgraber Leads a Three-Man San Francisco Showdown

• Michael DeGroff-Kirchgraber won the NB35-39 race in 1:02:16 (10:01/mi), posting the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 5K-to-Finish segment in the entire field.
• K. Stromer finished 2nd in 1:10:54 (11:25/mi) — 8:38 back of the winner.
• Binx Yezhe Lin rounded out the three-man field in 1:36:09 (15:28/mi), finishing 33:53 behind DeGroff-Kirchgraber.

Three NB35-39 runners toed the line in San Francisco on a breezy, humid July morning — 60°F with a 15 mph wind off the bay — and Michael DeGroff-Kirchgraber of El Cerrito made his presence felt from the start. He crossed in 1:02:16 at a 10:01/mi clip, but the more telling number came on the back half of the course: his 5K-to-Finish split ranked 3rd among all women in the field, a mark that underscores just how hard he pushed when it mattered most. He also navigated a shift in the broader men's standings along the way, moving from 2nd to 3rd among men as the race developed — a sign the field around him was competitive even if his NB35-39 lead was never seriously threatened.

K. Stromer, the San Francisco local, held a steady 11:25/mi to claim 2nd in 1:10:54 — solid running on a course that doesn't forgive anyone who goes out too fast on its rolling terrain. The 8:38 gap to DeGroff-Kirchgraber was real and consistent; Stromer ran his own race rather than chasing a gap he couldn't close. Binx Yezhe Lin, the youngest of the three at 35, completed the NB35-39 field in 1:36:09 at 15:28/mi, crossing 33:53 after the winner. On a windy San Francisco morning, all three got it done.