M70-74: Tom Cali Owns California International

• Tom Cali won the M70-74 group in 3:32:58 (8:07/mi), finishing nearly 7 minutes clear of runner-up Michael Whalen.
• Yee and Howard staged the closest battle of the day: Steve Yee (3:44:29) and Jim Howard (3:44:48) were separated by just 19 seconds after 26.2 miles.
• Cali's late-race strength was real — he climbed from roughly 2,828th among men at the 10K mark to 2,485th by the finish, passing hundreds in the back half.
• 26 men aged 70–74 finished CIM 2024, with the top 20 ranging from 3:32 to 5:22.

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Tom Cali of Pasadena made the M70-74 race look like a solo time trial. Running 8:07 per mile across 26.2 miles on a mild Sacramento morning — 59°F, barely a breeze — he crossed in 3:32:58, a margin of 6 minutes and 50 seconds over Michael Whalen of Newport Beach. Whalen was steady throughout, holding his position among the men's field remarkably well from start to finish, but he never had an answer for Cali's pace.

The real drama unfolded a few minutes behind them. Steve Yee, racing in his home city of Sacramento, and Jim Howard of Applegate traded nearly identical splits across the full course — both clocking 8:34 per mile on average — before Yee edged Howard by 19 seconds, 3:44:29 to 3:44:48. It's worth noting that Yee got there differently: he was moving well early, posting one of his stronger relative splits in the 5K–10K stretch, while Howard faded slightly in the closing miles, slipping back through the men's field from 25K onward. Same finish time on the clock, very different journeys to get there.

David Howse rounded out the top five in 3:55:55, the only man in the leading group to crack the four-hour barrier after Yee and Howard. Scott Perrault (4:01:05) and Michael Zaroukian (4:10:22) led the chase pack, while the back half of the field spread across a wide range — from Charles Weston's 4:13 to Velizar Roganovic's 5:22 — a testament to how differently a marathon can unfold across 26 men all navigating the same roads at 70-plus.