M70+ at Jed Smith Ultra Classic 30K: Nur dominates, Flanigan endures

• Jacob Nur won the M70+ age group in 2:08:49 — a 6:55/mi average across 30 kilometers of foggy Sacramento roads.
• James Flanigan, 76, claimed 2nd in 4:12:52, finishing the course at 13:34/mi.
• Nur posted the fastest men's split on Lap 2 through the finish among all men in the race.
• Flanigan's 11th-fastest men's split on Lap 2 through the finish showed he found another gear late, climbing from 15th to 12th among the men by the finish.

With only two finishers in the M70+ age group on a cool, fog-draped morning in Sacramento, the story here is less about competition and more about what these two men were even doing on the start line — and the answer, written in their finish times, is remarkable.

Jacob Nur, 70, was simply in a different race. His 2:08:49 — a 6:55-per-mile clip through 30 kilometers — would turn heads in any age group. He held steady at 2nd among the men throughout, never wavering from that position across all four tracked checkpoints, and then delivered the fastest men's split of the entire Lap 2-to-finish segment. That's not a comfortable cruise to the tape; that's a strong man running hard to the end.

James Flanigan, 76 years old and six years Nur's senior, crossed in 4:12:52. The gap between them is wide on paper, but Flanigan's race had its own arc worth noting: he moved from 15th among the men down to 12th over the final stretch, and his Lap 2-to-finish split ranked 11th among the men — meaning he was passing people when it mattered. At 13:34 per mile, he was working every step of those 30 kilometers in the damp 50-degree fog.

Two men, two very different paces, one shared finish line. Nur takes the age-group win decisively. Flanigan, at 76, simply finishing a 30K ultra earns its own headline.