M50-59 at American River 50: Henriquez Dominates While the Podium Battles Through the Final Miles

• Selvin Henriquez won the M50-59 group in 8:14:01 (9:53/mi), holding 3rd among men from start to finish.
• 80-minute gap separates Henriquez from runner-up Greg Bricca — the largest margin on the podium.
• Bricca posted the 3rd-fastest men's split on the Last Gasp→Finish segment, a strong close to seal 2nd place.
• Ofer Kadar climbed from 22nd to 14th among men over the course of the race, locking up 3rd in M50-59 with a 9:56:32.

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Selvin Henriquez, 50, from El Sobrante, made the M50-59 race look almost straightforward. Running at a 9:53/mi clip — a full 96 seconds per mile faster than anyone else in the group — he sat 3rd among men at every checkpoint and never wavered. His most striking segment came between Rattlesnake Bar and Last Gasp, where he posted the 2nd-fastest men's split on that stretch in the entire field. In a 50-mile race, that kind of sustained efficiency tells the real story: Henriquez didn't just lead from the front, he led cleanly.

Behind him, Greg Bricca (55, El Dorado Hills) and Ofer Kadar (51, Sunnyvale) had very different journeys to the podium. Bricca ran a measured race through the middle miles but turned on the jets late, recording the 3rd-fastest men's split on the Last Gasp-to-Finish segment to close in 9:34:05. Kadar was the bigger mover of the two — sitting 22nd among men early and still 22nd at the midpoint, he surged through the back half to finish 14th among men and 3rd in M50-59 at 9:56:32.

The battle for 4th was decided well before the finish. Mark Blackwell (55, Oakland) had been aggressive early, climbing from 21st to 14th among men by the second checkpoint, and he held enough of that ground to cross in 10:06:48. The 5th and 6th spots went to Tracy Plaster and Grant Carboni in near-identical times — 11:22:13 and 11:22:41 respectively — just 28 seconds apart after more than 11 hours of running.

The back of the M50-59 field showed the full range of the American River 50. Stephane Mc Duff made the trip from Greenfield Park, Quebec to finish 8th in 11:47:39, while Murugan Balasubramanian of Rocklin closed out the group's 16 finishers in 13:30:06 — still moving at 16:12/mi through 50 miles of California trail on a clear April morning.