M65-69 at the Kaua'i Marathon: Baroffio Edges Shiroma in a Close Battle at the Front

• Bryan Baroffio won the M65-69 group in 3:56:24 (9:01/mi), holding off Calvin Shiroma by just 1 minute 52 seconds.
• Calvin Shiroma ran 3:58:16 (9:05/mi) — 4 seconds per mile back — to claim 2nd, while Gilles Cote finished 3rd in 4:16:22.
• Cote's second half was exceptional: the 4th-fastest second-half split among the women's field — a remarkable surge through the back half of the course.
• A significant gap separated the top three from the rest: Rick Wilson (4th, 6:00:29) crossed more than two hours after Cote.

Bryan Baroffio, 67, from Grand Junction, Colorado, took the M65-69 title in 3:56:24 — a 9:01-per-mile effort through Kaua'i's 77°F, humid morning air. He was a steady mover through the men's field, climbing from 56th among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 38th by the finish. That kind of progressive strength is hard to manufacture, and on a day like this — warm, sticky, with the island doing its best to slow everyone down — it tells a real story about pacing discipline.

Calvin Shiroma, 65, of Honolulu, ran almost stride for stride with Baroffio. At 9:05 per mile, he was just four seconds per mile slower across the whole course, and the final gap of 1:52 reflects how close this really was. Shiroma tracked a nearly identical trajectory through the men's field, sitting within a place or two of Baroffio at every checkpoint. He never quite had the legs to close it down, but 2nd in 3:58:16 is a strong result in its own right.

Gilles Cote, 68, of Kalaheo — racing practically on home soil — had a race of two very different halves. He dropped deep into the men's field by the halfway mark before launching a second-half charge that produced the 4th-fastest second-half split in the entire women's field — a benchmark that underscores just how aggressively he came home. He finished 3rd in 4:16:22.

Behind the top three, Rick Wilson (6:00:29), Larry Grossman (6:22:15), and David Hunt (6:27:19) completed the six-man M65-69 field, all finishing within 27 minutes of each other but more than two hours adrift of Cote. All six got across the line — no small thing on a humid Kaua'i morning.