M50-54 at the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half: Pineda Morales Leads a Fast New York Sweep

• Guillermo Pineda Morales won the M50-54 group in 1:16:10 (5:49/mi), the fastest time in a field of 1,073 finishers aged 50–54.
• Gustavo Campiz was 52 seconds back in 2nd at 1:17:02, with Miguel Angel Ferrer — who ran the 4th-fastest finish time — slotting into 3rd on the final standings at 1:17:54.
• The gap from 1st to 3rd was just 1:44, but from 3rd to 5th it opened to another 2:05, marking a clear break at the top of the M50-54 field.
• Neil Dixon, making the trip from Chesterton, England, was the race's biggest mover in this group — climbing from outside the top 450 men at 5K all the way to 3rd in M50-54 by the finish.

Pineda Morales, 53, from Ridgewood, NY, ran a controlled and composed race through the Prospect Park-to-Central Park course on a crisp 40°F morning. His 5:49/mi average was the standard-setter for the entire M50-54 field, and he closed with one of the sharpest final segments in the group — posting the 138th-fastest split among all men on the 20K-to-finish stretch, a strong push when many runners were fading.

The more dramatic story unfolded a few places back. Ferrer, running out of Madrid, was charging early — he had the 237th-fastest men's split in the field on the 5K-to-10K segment and sat as high as 150th among men at that point. But he couldn't sustain it; by 20K he had slipped to 288th among men and eventually finished 4th in M50-54 despite his faster raw time than Dixon. Dixon, meanwhile, was doing the opposite — still 456th among men at 5K, he reeled off the 191st-fastest men's split in the field on the 15K-to-20K leg and worked his way all the way to 3rd. His negative-split strategy, executed over 13.1 miles in cool but honest conditions, was the most visually satisfying arc in the group.

Behind the top five, the competition remained tight from 6th through 20th place, with Jason Smith (1:20:08), Sean Muldoon (1:20:39), and Julio Sauce (1:21:37) rounding out a solid chasing pack. In a field of 1,073, breaking 1:20 in M50-54 on this course was a genuine benchmark — and only six men managed it.