M40-49: Brian Perry Dominates in the Rain

• Brian Perry, 49, won M40-49 in 1:25:02 (6:30/mi) — nearly 35 minutes clear of 2nd place.
• Perry led wire-to-wire, holding 1st among the men from the opening segment through the finish.
• John Deterding, 40, edged Jedediah Smith, 47, for 3rd in M40-49 — separated by 3:04 at the line.
• 11 finishers spread across a 1:18:26 window from first to last.

Brian Perry made the M40-49 race his own from the gun. Running at 6:30/mi on a cold, wet Sacramento morning — 51°F, light rain, 14 mph wind — the 49-year-old from Rocklin never relinquished his lead among the men, sitting 1st throughout every checkpoint. His 1:25:02 wasn't just a win; it was a statement, arriving nearly 35 minutes ahead of the next M40-49 finisher. He also posted the fastest split on the Out & Back→Lap 1 segment among the men, underscoring that his dominance wasn't a matter of conservative early pacing — he was simply running in a different gear.

Behind Perry, the real contest was for the podium. Jedediah Smith — the 47-year-old Anchorage native whose name seems tailor-made for this race — crossed in 2:00:22 to claim 2nd, while Sacramento's John Deterding, the youngest man on the podium at 40, finished 3:04 back in 3rd with a 2:03:26. Deterding had been 9th among the men through the early going before moving up one spot on the final segment to seal his podium place.

The mid-pack told its own story. Daric Aguinaga (44, Carmichael) and Trung Hoang (43, Sacramento) traded positions through the race — Aguinaga sat one spot ahead of Hoang early before Hoang moved past him to finish 4th in 2:12:20 to Aguinaga's 5th in 2:16:00. Stanley Zeto, Kyle Miller, and Stephen Stringer filled out places 6 through 8, all finishing within about seven minutes of each other. Jinsheng Huang closed out the M40-49 field in 2:43:28, completing a 1:18:26 spread from first to last — a reminder of just how wide a range this age group can cover on a tough winter morning.