M40-49 at Jed Smith Ultra Classic 50K: Sharman Dominates in the Fog

• Ian Sharman won the M40-49 group in 3:26:34 (6:39/mi), finishing 2nd among the men for the bulk of the race.
• Sergey Vasyliev held 3rd among the men from wire to wire, crossing in 3:41:00 — 14 minutes 26 seconds back of Sharman.
• Piotr Kaszkur was the biggest mover in the group, climbing from 12th to 7th among the men across the race's final segments.
• The field of 12 spanned nearly 3 hours 32 minutes from first to last — Sharman's 6:39/mi to Cameron Andelin's 13:28/mi.

On a foggy, humid Sacramento morning, Ian Sharman made the M40-49 race look almost clinical. The 45-year-old from Bend ran 6:39 per mile across 31 miles of wet, heavy air to finish in 3:26:34 — a margin of nearly 15 minutes over the next man in the age group. He sat 2nd among the men for the vast majority of the race and posted the 2nd-fastest men's split on the Out & Back into Lap 1, signaling early that this was his day to lose.

Sergey Vasyliev was the picture of consistency. The San Francisco 42-year-old slotted into 3rd among the men at the gun and never moved — finishing there in 3:41:00 at 7:07/mi, also producing the 3rd-fastest men's split on that same early Out & Back→Lap 1 stretch. Karl Schnaitter of Santa Cruz completed the M40-49 podium in 3:58:03, having moved up from 6th to 5th among the men by the midpoint and holding that position all the way home.

The most compelling subplot behind the podium belonged to Piotr Kaszkur. Starting deep — 12th among the men — the Gold River runner steadily worked his way forward through every checkpoint, eventually landing 7th among the men at the finish. His best work came late: he posted the 4th-fastest men's split from Lap 5 through the finish, a strong closing move in the fog that earned him 4th in the M40-49 group with a 4:00:53.

At the back, Jonathan Strack, Michael Guss, Miles Scotcher, Chris Cardinal, and Cameron Andelin all earned their finishes on a day that demanded patience. Andelin's 6:58:38 closed out the M40-49 field — nearly seven hours of work through Sacramento's damp January air, and a finish is a finish.