Way Too Cool 10M: Pearson dominates the M60-69 field

• Daniel Pearson (61, Escalon, CA) won the M60-69 group in 1:36:55 at a 9:42/mi pace — nearly 13 minutes clear of second place.
• Sam Mcmanis (65, Flagstaff, AZ) was a distant but comfortable runner-up in 1:49:39 (10:58/mi), over 23 minutes ahead of third.
• The final three — Bob Mctavish (2:31:13) and Jeff Hammond (2:30:43) — finished within 30 seconds of each other for 5th and 6th, with David Lopez (2:29:21) edging both for 4th.
• Bruce Tidrick (63, Modesto, CA) rounded out the seven-man M60-69 field in 2:42:01 (16:12/mi).

Daniel Pearson made this look like a different race entirely. The 61-year-old from Escalon held 6th among men throughout and never wavered, crossing in 1:36:55 at a 9:42/mi clip — a pace that left the rest of the M60-69 field well behind from the outset. He also posted the 6th-fastest men's split on the Fire Station→HWY 49 segment, a sign he wasn't just surviving the course but genuinely racing it.

Sam Mcmanis, the 65-year-old from Flagstaff, was locked into 9th among men from early on and never relinquished that position, finishing in 1:49:39. His 12th-fastest men's split on the HWY 49→Finish stretch was a solid closer, and his 12:44 gap back to Pearson was the story of a race run in a different gear rather than a different effort.

The real drama in this age group played out in the battle for 4th through 6th. David Lopez (60, Citrus Heights) came home in 2:29:21, posting the 42nd-fastest men's split on the closing segment to edge Jeff Hammond — a Cool, CA local racing on home roads — by 1:22. Hammond (2:30:43) and Bob Mctavish (2:31:13, Roseville, CA) were separated by just 30 seconds at the line, with Mctavish's 69 years making his 15:07/mi pace across this course something worth noting on its own terms.

Bruce Tidrick (63, Modesto) finished 7th and last in the M60-69 group in 2:42:01, completing a field that spanned over an hour of finish times — a reminder of just how wide the competitive range runs when you get seven sixty-somethings out on a warm March morning in the Sierra foothills.