M70-74: Douglas Herz Runs Away With It in Fresno

• Douglas Herz, 73, wins the M70-74 group in 1:43:13 — a 7:52/mi pace that left the field nearly 22 minutes behind.
• Michael Kunz (2nd, 2:05:05) and Steve Behlen (3rd, 2:08:35) battled for the podium, separated by just 3:30 at the line.
• Behlen faded in the back half — he entered the 10K checkpoint well-placed among the men's field, then slipped considerably; Kunz held stronger, moving up from 384th to 329th among the men over the same stretch.
• Philip Hollingsworth (8th, 3:00:05) and Ben Bergstrom (9th, 3:07:07), both 74, crossed within seven minutes of each other — the oldest two in the field trading blows deep into the race.

Douglas Herz was in a category of his own on Sunday. The 73-year-old from Pleasanton ran 1:43:13 — a 7:52/mi clip that would be competitive in far younger company — and he proved it, climbing from 189th among the men at the first checkpoint all the way to 107th by the finish. His second-half split was the 98th-fastest among the men from 10K to the line. That is not a man managing a race; that is a man racing it.

The real drama in M70-74 played out behind him. Michael Kunz (2nd, 2:05:05, 9:33/mi) and Steve Behlen (3rd, 2:08:35, 9:49/mi) ran close enough through the early miles that the podium order was genuinely in question. But their trajectories diverged sharply in the second half. Behlen had been moving well through the opening 10K, then faded — his place among the men slid from 317th to 368th after that mark. Kunz, meanwhile, recovered from a slight early slip and reeled in spots all the way to the finish. The 3:30 gap between them tells the story of a catch-up, not a wire-to-wire battle.

Further back, Don Rickels (4th, 2:11:25) and Michael Fitzgerald (5th, 2:15:37) both ran strong second halves, each climbing through the men's field from 10K onward. Tom Kozera rounded out the top six in 2:24:49. Paul Ronshausen (7th, 2:47:07), Philip Hollingsworth (8th, 3:00:05), Ben Bergstrom (9th, 3:07:07), and Arnoldo Vargas (10th, 3:21:27) completed a full field of ten finishers — every one of them a half marathon at 70 or older, which is its own kind of statement.