M40-44: Milton Rotich Runs Away With It in Utica

• Milton Rotich wins M40-44 in 46:40 (5:00/mi), the only finisher in the group to break 47 minutes.
• Jaouad El Jazouli takes 2nd in 46:57 — 17 seconds back — while Sam Morse rounds out the podium in 47:42, a further 45 seconds behind.
• Ricardo Estremera (4th, 49:29) was the strongest closer in the top half of the listed field, posting the 29th-fastest second-half split among women and moving from 34th to 28th in the women's field over the back half.
• Shaun Donegan (5th, 50:55) ran the middle segment in reverse — sitting 32nd among women through 5K, then fading to 38th by the finish.

Milton Rotich set the tone from the gun. The Albuquerque native, running 5:00/mi through Utica's streets on a humid July morning, was never seriously threatened for M40-44 honors. He climbed from 15th to 13th in the women's field over the final 5K — posting the 13th-fastest closing split among women — a sign he had plenty left and was still accelerating when others were hanging on.

Jaouad El Jazouli of Paterson, NJ kept it honest, crossing in 46:57 at 5:02/mi. The 17-second gap to Rotich is real — a pace difference that only grew over the course — but El Jazouli's own 15th-fastest 5K-to-10K split among women shows he was running at genuine elite-field speed through the middle miles. Sam Morse (Syracuse, NY) completed the podium in 47:42, running 5:07/mi and posting the 18th-fastest closing split among women — a strong finish that secured 3rd by a comfortable 1:47 over 4th.

Behind the podium, Estremera's 49:29 was the story of smart pacing: he moved from 34th to 28th in the women's field across the second half, the best sustained move of anyone in the top five listed. Donegan (50:55) had the opposite experience — strong through 5K before fading from 32nd to 38th among women by the tape. The remaining listed finishers from Matthew Lacey (6th, 52:42) through Joshua Belisle (20th, 59:33) spread across a 6:51 window, with a 545-strong M40-44 field making this one of the day's deepest cohorts on the roads.