M65-69 Marathon: Skitsak dominates as Fresno's own takes the age group

• Mykhaylo Skitsak won the M65-69 group in 3:56:38 (9:02/mi), the only finisher to break four hours in a field of nine.
• Puttappaiah Muniyappa claimed 2nd in 4:11:55 — 15 minutes 17 seconds back, but a clear gap ahead of 3rd.
• Randy Comfort rounded out the podium in 4:54:45, with the final six finishers spanning nearly 1 hour 38 minutes behind him.
• A warm 74°F day in Fresno stretched the back half of the field: four of the nine finishers needed more than 5:14 to finish.

Mykhaylo Skitsak, running in his home city of Fresno, turned in the kind of race that makes the result look inevitable in hindsight. His 9:02/mi average was the class of the M65-69 field, and his progression through the men's field tells the real story of his day — moving from 382nd among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 204th by the finish, passing nearly 180 runners as the miles wore on. He closed with the 140th-fastest split on the final stretch to the finish, a strong end to a controlled effort.

Puttappaiah Muniyappa of Cupertino held 2nd place with a steady hand. His gender-place progression showed some early ground given — sliding from 265th to 296th through the middle miles — before he reeled it back in to finish 256th among men. His 221st-fastest split on the 23M–25.2M segment was a solid late push that cemented his runner-up finish.

Randy Comfort (Hanford, 4:54:45) and Brien Dodd (Orange, 5:14:59) separated 3rd and 4th by just over 20 minutes, with Ken Clark (Clovis, 5:16:56) a mere 1 minute 57 seconds behind Dodd in 5th — the tightest battle on the day. Clark's race had a striking middle surge, jumping from 444th among men to 324th at one checkpoint before fading again, hinting at an uneven effort in the heat. The back three — RAEF Guirges, an anonymous participant, and Richard Newton — finished within 12 minutes of each other around the 5:36–5:48 mark, while Kevin Caruso completed the group in 6:32:28, a determined finish on a warm Fresno afternoon.