Boston 2025 M75-79: Hieb Leads a Field of 52 Through Hopkinton to Copley Square

• John Hieb (CA) won the M75-79 age group in 3:43:14 (8:31/mi), finishing more than six minutes clear of the field.
• Jinho Kim ran 3:49:15 (8:45/mi) for second, with Paul Baswell (AL) and Fred Barbaro separated by just 26 seconds for third and fourth — 3:55:28 and 3:55:54.
• Ron Wightman (NY) was the only man in the top five to fade through the second half, slipping steadily from his early positioning before finishing fifth in 3:58:54.
• Gene Dykes (PA) rounded out the top 20 in 4:31:16 (10:21/mi), part of a 52-man field that stretched across nearly two hours of finishing times.

John Hieb set the tone early and never let it go. Running 8:31/mi through Boston's famously uneven course — the opening downhills, the Newton miles, the long grind to Boylston — he crossed in 3:43:14, a margin of more than six minutes over second place. That kind of separation in a 52-man M75-79 field at one of the six World Marathon Majors is a commanding performance by any measure.

Behind him, Jinho Kim ran a strong and steady 8:45/mi to claim second in 3:49:15, showing consistent improvement through the back half of the race — his tracking data shows him climbing from 12,239th among men at the early checkpoint all the way to 11,446th by the finish, a sign he was reeling in runners as others faded. Baswell and Barbaro ran nearly in lockstep for third and fourth, separated by only 26 seconds across 26.2 miles, with Baswell's 8:59/mi edging Barbaro's 9:00/mi pace in the end.

Ron Wightman told a different story. Starting with strong positioning — 10,949th among men early on — he gradually drifted back through each checkpoint, ultimately finishing fifth in 3:58:54. That's still a sub-4-hour marathon at 75-to-79 years old on Patriots' Day, which deserves its own moment of recognition. Behind him, Ulrich Schmidt through Jose Alfaro filled out the top 20 in a tight band from 4:07:51 to 4:31:36, with 32 more finishers completing the age group's full story across the finish line on Boylston Street.