Masters Male: Stowers Dominates a Foggy 50-Miler in Sacramento

• Steve Stowers won the Masters Male race in 6:47:29 (8:09/mi), finishing more than an hour ahead of the field.
• The gap from 1st to 2nd was 1:06:03 — Stowers was in a race of his own.
• Ken Bujer secured 2nd in 7:53:32 (9:28/mi), holding off Elijah Hall by 1:34:47.
• Stowers posted the 4th-fastest split in the field on the Lap 6→Lap 7 segment — still surging late in a 50-mile effort.

Three men toed the line for the Masters Male race at the Jed Smith Ultra Classic, and Steve Stowers, 60, from Bozeman, MT, made it look like a training run by comparison. Running at 8:09 per mile across 50 miles of Sacramento fog, Stowers crossed in 6:47:29 — a margin of over an hour on his nearest competitor. He wasn't just winning; he was moving through the broader men's field too, climbing from 6th among men after the early laps all the way to 5th by the finish.

What makes Stowers's performance especially striking is that he wasn't coasting to the line. On the Lap 6→Lap 7 segment — deep into the back half of a 50-mile race — he posted the 4th-fastest split in the field on that stretch. At age 60, he was still pushing when many runners are simply surviving.

Ken Bujer, 41, from Arnold, CA, ran a composed race of his own, holding his position steadily through the middle miles and finishing in 7:53:32 at 9:28 per mile. He also showed some late-race strength, recording the 7th-fastest split in the field on that same Lap 6→Lap 7 segment. Elijah Hall, 52, of Sacramento, was the local entrant and got the job done in 9:28:19 — a solid finish on a foggy, humid morning — though he faded slightly through the middle laps before steadying to cross the line.

In a three-man Masters Male field, every place matters, and Stowers claimed his decisively.