Cleveland Marathon 5K — M65-69: Randy Turk Runs Away with It

• Randy Turk, 67, finished in 25:27 (8:11/mi) — nearly seven minutes clear of 2nd place, the widest winning margin in the M65-69 field.
• The podium battle was tight: Charles Crowley (32:15), Charles Woods (32:44), and Robert Wilson (33:01) were separated by just 46 seconds across three spots.
• Positions 5 and 6 were even closer: Rick Oliver (33:41) and Brendan Mullally (33:46) finished just five seconds apart.
• 16 men completed the race, ranging from Turk's 8:11/mi to Gerri Venuto's 22:26/mi — a remarkable spread across the M65-69 group.

Randy Turk made this one look easy. The 67-year-old from Avon Lake rolled through the 5K in 25:27 at an 8:11-per-mile clip — a pace that would be brisk for runners half his age, let alone on a humid May morning in Cleveland with a 15 mph wind in play. His margin of victory over Charles Crowley was 6 minutes and 48 seconds, which in a 5K is less a race than a statement.

Behind Turk, the real competition unfolded in a tight cluster. Crowley (65, Shaker Heights) held off his neighbor Charles Woods (69, also Shaker Heights) by 29 seconds, with Wilson (65, Brecksville) another 17 seconds back in 4th. Three men, three Northeast Ohio zip codes, 46 seconds of daylight between them — that's a genuine race within a race. Just beyond them, Oliver and Mullally staged their own duel, separated at the finish by a mere five seconds after 3.1 miles.

The back half of the field told a different story — one of grit over speed. Thomas Stromann, Steven Tucky, Nick Miller, Ikwo Umosen, Maurice Evans, and Gerri Venuto all crossed the line, each earning their finish on a muggy morning that had no shortage of reasons to stay home. Venuto, finishing 16th in 1:09:43, logged every step just the same as Turk did. That's the M65-69 group in full: one dominant performance at the front, a dogfight in the middle, and 16 men who showed up and got it done.