M50-54 at CIM 2024: Rawal runs away with it

• Sanjay Rawal won the M50-54 group in 2:32:56 (5:50/mi), finishing nearly 5 minutes clear of second place in a field of 437.
• Trent Fifield ran the strongest second half in the top five, climbing from well outside the top 300 men to 218th among men by the finish — the most dramatic positive split in the group's top finishers.
• Charles Smith and Tao Chen finished 8th and 9th in 2:47:17 and 2:47:19 — two seconds apart after 26.2 miles.
• The top 20 spanned just 21 minutes, from Rawal's 2:32:56 to Eduardo Arias's 2:53:56, reflecting a deep and competitive M50-54 field.

Sanjay Rawal, 50, from Jamaica, NY, turned in one of the day's most commanding performances anywhere in the M50-54 group. His 2:32:56 at 5:50 per mile wasn't just a win — it was a statement. The gap to second-place Trent Fifield stretched to nearly five full minutes, a margin that made the outcome look settled long before the finish line. Rawal's position among the men did drift gradually across the race — from 107th to 133rd among men — suggesting the overall field's faster runners pulled away late, but within the M50-54 group, he was untouchable.

Fifield's race told a different story. The 52-year-old from Saint Charles, IL started conservatively — 342nd among men at the first checkpoint — and spent the entire race reeling people in. By the finish he had moved to 218th among men, one of the sharpest climbs through the field among the top finishers in the group. His 2:37:56 earned him a clear second place. Jason Ryf of Oshkosh, WI rounded out the podium in 2:39:58, also finishing strongly with one of the better 40K-to-finish splits in the group.

The race for fourth and fifth was tighter than the times suggest. Eduardo Ledesma (2:43:13) and Jeff Maybach (2:43:47) were separated by just 34 seconds, both finishing in the 6:14–6:15 per mile range. Further back, the Smith-Chen battle at 8th and 9th — two seconds apart after 26.2 miles — was the closest duel of the day. On a mild December morning in Sacramento, the M50-54 group delivered genuine racing from top to bottom.