M60-64: Dain Thien Runs Away from the Field in Fresno Heat

• Dain Thien won M60-64 in 3:50:21 (8:47/mi), finishing more than 9 minutes clear of the next finisher in a seven-man field.
• Second and third were separated by just 2 seconds — Stephen Mendyk (3:59:39) edging Javier Cruz (3:59:41) for the runner-up spot.
• Cruz was the strongest finisher of the trio, posting the 141st-fastest split in the field on the final 25.2M–to–finish stretch to nearly steal second.
• Jiming Huang clocked the 211th-fastest split in the field on that same closing segment, making the last mile-plus his best work of the day.

Running through 74°F Fresno sunshine, Dain Thien made the M60-64 race look straightforward from the gun. The San Jose 60-year-old moved steadily and relentlessly through the men's field — from 298th among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 172nd by the finish — and his 8:47/mi average was a cut above everyone else on the day. His strongest segment came late, posting the 137th-fastest split in the field on the 23M–to–25.2M stretch, a sign he was accelerating while others were hanging on. His winning margin of 9 minutes and 18 seconds was never really in doubt.

Behind him, the battle for second was one of the tightest finishes of the entire race. Stephen Mendyk of Fresno and Javier Cruz of Bakersfield crossed within two seconds of each other — Mendyk in 3:59:39, Cruz in 3:59:41 — after running almost the entire back half in lockstep. Cruz actually had the stronger closing kick, recording the 141st-fastest split in the field from 25.2M to the finish, but Mendyk's earlier cushion proved just enough. Two seconds after 26.2 miles is about as close as it gets without being a tie.

Lance Rensch (4th, 4:15:48) and Jiming Huang (5th, 4:19:36) filled out a respectable mid-pack, with Huang showing a late spark of his own on that closing stretch. Roehl Caragao and Rafael Pinto rounded out the seven-man group at 4:48:29 and 5:16:32 respectively — both finishing what is no small feat on a warm November afternoon in the Central Valley.