M40-44 at the 2026 NYC Half: Cassidy Runs Down the Field

• Michael Cassidy wins in 1:09:36 (5:19/mi), the fastest M40-44 time on a crisp 40°F morning from Prospect Park to Central Park.
• 53 seconds cover the top four — Chani (1:10:29), Lizano (1:10:48), and Baltrusch (1:10:52) all finish within a minute of the winner.
• Cesar Lizano's closing surge: the 44-year-old from San José moved from 72nd to 57th among men over the course of the race, posting the 48th-fastest split in the men's field on the 20K-to-finish stretch.
• Luke Baltrusch fades late: sitting 46th among men at 15K, he slipped back to 59th by the finish — the sharpest late-race retreat among the top five.

Michael Cassidy controlled the M40-44 race from start to finish. The Staten Island 40-year-old ran 5:19/mi across 13.1 miles and steadily climbed the men's field as the race wore on — moving from 51st to 44th among men by the finish — capping it with the 42nd-fastest split in the field over the final 20K-to-finish segment. In a group of 1,837 finishers, that kind of sustained pressure is how you put a race away.

Behind him, the battle for second through fourth was genuinely absorbing. Hafid Chani of Paterson, NJ held second at 1:10:29, backed by the 47th-fastest 5K-to-10K split in the men's field. Cesar Lizano — the oldest man on the podium at 44 — was the day's most compelling mover, climbing steadily all race long and finishing third in 1:10:48 with a strong closing leg. Luke Baltrusch of Chicago had looked like a podium threat through 15K, running as high as 46th among men, but he couldn't sustain it and settled for fourth at 1:10:52, just four seconds behind Lizano.

Jose Garcia rounded out the top five in 1:11:53, though his race ran in the opposite direction from Lizano's — he drifted from 74th to 78th among men as the miles accumulated. Jeremy Guidoni (1:12:20) and Fleet Hower (1:12:57) filled out the next tier, with seven seconds separating sixth through eighth as Hisato Suetsugu and Ryan Marshall finished within seconds of each other. The cool, calm conditions — 40°F and barely a breath of wind — gave everyone a fair shot, and the M40-44 group delivered some of the sharpest racing of the morning.