Men's Marathon: Zingelman surges from eighth to steal it in the final lap

• Caleb Zingelman won in 3:59:37 (9:09/mi), posting the fastest men's split on the final Lap 4→Finish stretch to overturn a deficit and claim the title.
• Rogelio Del Rio led wire-to-wire through four checkpoints before fading to 5th in 4:09:57 — the biggest position swing in the men's field.
• Yoshi Fuentes, 54, climbed from 10th to 3rd overall among the men (4:06:37), running the fastest men's split on Laps 2–3 to claw his way onto the podium.
• Xavier Duarte (4:42:14) edged Jordan Mathews (4:42:16) for 8th — two seconds the margin after 26.2 miles in the rain.

The men's race in Sacramento had a clear early story: Rogelio Del Rio, 28, went to the front immediately and stayed there. He held 1st through the Out & Back, Lap 1, Lap 2, and Lap 3, posting the fastest men's split across the Out & Back and Lap 1 to build his lead. With one lap to go, Del Rio looked like the winner. He was not.

Caleb Zingelman had spent most of the race buried in the pack — as far back as 8th among the men at the first checkpoint. But he was moving. By Lap 3 he was 3rd, and on the final stretch he uncorked the fastest men's split of anyone on Lap 4→Finish, sweeping past the leaders to win in 3:59:37 at 9:09/mi. Arturo Aparicio, 38, matched that closing energy with the second-fastest men's split on the same segment and held on for 2nd in 4:00:53 — just 1:16 behind. Del Rio, who had nothing left after leading for so long, slipped all the way to 5th in 4:09:57.

The subplot of the day belonged to Yoshi Fuentes. At 54, the Sacramento runner was 10th after the opening checkpoint, then 7th, then 6th, steadily grinding through cold, wet conditions — 51°F, light rain, 14 mph wind — on his way to 3rd in 4:06:37. His fastest men's split on Laps 2 and 3 was the engine of that climb, and he finished 37 seconds ahead of Jimmy Watson (4th, 4:07:14) to lock up the podium. At the other end of the age spectrum, 17-year-old Charlie Vanness finished 13th in 5:24:54, and 75-year-old James Yee closed out the men's field in 8:43:40 — completing the marathon on a miserable February morning, which is its own achievement.