Men's 25-Miler: Beard Leads Wire-to-Wire in Auburn

• Scott Beard, 3:42:23 (8:54/mi): held 1st place from start to finish and posted the fastest Rattlesnake Bar→Last Gasp split among the men.
• Tim Larson, 3:54:26 (9:23/mi): locked in 2nd from the opening checkpoint and never relinquished it — 12 minutes back of Beard, with the 2nd-fastest closing split in the field.
• Gary Singh, 4:29:35 (10:47/mi): the day's biggest mover in the top five — sitting 5th at the first check, 3rd by the second, and 3rd at the line — powered by the 3rd-fastest Rattlesnake Bar→Last Gasp split among the men.
• Pete Korn, 59, finished 8th in 5:00:59 (12:02/mi) — one of two 59-year-olds in the top 11, alongside Don Kiser (11th, 5:07:33).

Scott Beard ran a controlled, dominant race across 25 miles of Auburn's American River terrain. Clocking 3:42:23 at an 8:54/mi average, he never left the top spot — sitting 1st at every checkpoint and sealing it with the fastest closing split on the Rattlesnake Bar→Last Gasp segment. Folsom's Tim Larson was equally consistent, shadowing Beard's structure if not his pace, and crossing in 3:54:26 — a 9:23/mi effort that kept him a clear 12 minutes back but well clear of the rest of the field.

The real drama unfolded behind them. Gary Singh, also of Folsom, was buried in 5th at the first checkpoint but ran the Rattlesnake Bar→Last Gasp segment faster than anyone in the field except Beard and Larson. That late surge carried him past competitors and into 3rd at 4:29:35. Daniel Toberman (4th, 4:36:59) and Bryan Mazza (5th, 4:39:22) rounded out the top five — Mazza having moved up from 6th at the midway check on the strength of the 4th-fastest closing split among the men, with just over two minutes separating him from Toberman at the line.

Further back, the men's field told a story of hard-earned finishes across a wide range of experience. Sam Patterson, 51, came home 7th in 4:58:58, while Pete Korn (59, Auburn) and Don Kiser (59, Sacramento) both cracked the top 11 — Korn in 5:00:59 and Kiser in 5:07:33. Garrison Weekes (13th, 5:52:36) and Jeremy Brown (14th, 5:54:59) were separated by barely two and a half minutes, and the back half of the listed field saw seven men finish between 6:11 and 6:21 — a tight cluster grinding through the final miles on a clear, mild April day in Auburn.