M70+ Marathon: Hsieh holds off Simpson in a battle of Sacramento's oldest finishers

• Richard Hsieh, 78, of Las Vegas won the M70+ group in 7:34:48 (17:22/mi), finishing 20:34 ahead of his only rival.
• Jim Simpson, 84, of Huntington Beach completed the marathon in 7:55:22 (18:09/mi) — remarkable at an age most runners have long since retired from 26.2 miles.
• Simpson, the elder of the two by six years, was the steadier pacer across the early laps before Hsieh pulled clear on the back half.
• Both men posted competitive late splits: Hsieh ran the second-fastest Lap 4→Finish split among the men, Simpson the third-fastest on the same closing stretch.

Two men, two very different decades of life, one shared finish line in Sacramento's January fog. Richard Hsieh and Jim Simpson were the entire M70+ field at the Jed Smith Ultra Classic Marathon, and between them they put in over fifteen hours of combined running through 50-degree, fog-soaked conditions along the course.

Hsieh, at 78, set the pace that mattered. His 17:22-per-mile average held steady through the laps, and by the Lap 4 stretch he was pulling away — posting the second-fastest closing split among the men in the broader field, a genuine show of strength late in a race that long since weeds out anyone not prepared for the grind. He crossed in 7:34:48 to claim the M70+ win outright.

Simpson's story may be the more remarkable one. At 84 years old, he ran every lap at a composed 18:09-per-mile average and never wavered from 24th place among the men through the entire race — a portrait of controlled, disciplined execution. His 7:55:22 finish is simply what it is: an 84-year-old completing a marathon, full stop.

The gap between them — just over twenty minutes — is almost beside the point. What the M70+ group delivered on a foggy Sacramento morning was a reminder that the distance belongs to anyone willing to keep moving forward.