Fort Ord 25K M70-79: Pat Brew Takes the Title in a Packed Three-Way Battle

• Pat Brew (age 70, Pacific Grove) won the M70-79 group in 3:10:47 — a 12:17/mi pace across the full 25K.
• Mark Denny and Skip Latham finished 2nd and 3rd separated by just one second (3:17:31 vs. 3:17:32) — not a tie, but as close as it gets.
• Skip Latham posted the fastest closing split of the top three on the Toro Creek→Finish segment — the 49th-fastest in the men's field on that leg — edging Denny's 54th-fastest, but it wasn't quite enough to close the gap.
• The M70-79 group spread from 3:10:47 to 5:53:43 across 7 finishers, a window of nearly two hours and forty-three minutes.

Pat Brew controlled this race from the front. The 70-year-old from Pacific Grove built his lead methodically — his gender standing actually improved from 58th to 57th across the checkpoints, a sign he was running people down in the back half. At 12:17/mi over 15-plus miles of Fort Ord trail, that's a confident, measured effort that no one in the M70-79 group could match.

Behind him, the real drama belonged to Mark Denny and Skip Latham, both from the central coast and both clocking 3:17:32 by the clock — but the timing system separated them by a single second, with Denny in 2nd and Latham in 3rd. Latham actually had the faster Toro Creek→Finish split of the two (49th vs. 54th in the men's field), meaning he was closing, but he simply ran out of course.

Mitsugu Mori (age 74, Carmel) held 4th in 3:23:39, running a composed 13:07/mi and keeping his position relatively stable through the checkpoints. Don Rickels had a tougher afternoon — his gender standing slipped from 78th to 83rd across the race, finishing in 3:57:47. Michael Davis and Daniel Priano rounded out the seven, with Priano's 5:53:43 reflecting a very long day on the trails. Seven men in their 70s finishing a 25K trail run in February fog and 91% humidity — that's the real headline.