Kaua'i Half Marathon M35-39: Lewis Runs Away With It

• Kevin Lewis won the M35-39 group in 1:25:18 (6:30/mi), finishing more than 6 minutes 47 seconds clear of the runner-up.
• Alexandre Wilhelm (1:32:05) and Jason Woodward (1:33:34) claimed 2nd and 3rd, separated by just 89 seconds — the tightest battle on the podium.
• Kyle Bettis posted the 22nd-fastest split in the field on the HALF→11.05 Mile segment, edging out Dominik Braun's 27th-fastest on the same stretch to secure 5th over 4th by just 31 seconds.
• The gap from 1st to 20th stretched nearly 33 minutes, reflecting a wide spread of pace across 82 finishers in the M35-39 group.

Kevin Lewis turned this into a solo time trial. Running 6:30 per mile through Kauaʻi's warm, humid morning — 77°F with 69% humidity at the start — the Erie, Colorado man was never seriously threatened. He held 9th among men at the first checkpoint, slipped briefly to 10th, and held that position to the line. The margin of victory, nearly seven minutes, says everything about how far ahead of this field he was operating.

Behind him, Wilhelm and Woodward ran a composed, measured race. Wilhelm's 7:01/mi average earned him 2nd in 1:32:05, while Woodward — the oldest man on the podium at 39 — crossed in 1:33:34 at 7:08/mi. Neither cracked under the conditions; they simply ran within themselves and let the race come to them.

The fight for 4th and 5th was the most tactically interesting stretch of the day. Braun and Bettis were separated by just 31 seconds at the finish, but Bettis had the stronger back half — his 22nd-fastest split on the HALF→11.05 Mile segment was noticeably sharper than Braun's 27th-fastest on the same stretch. Bettis climbed from 29th to 27th among men in that segment; Braun faded slightly from 24th to 26th. Small margins, real moves.

Shane Guinan, running on home soil out of Princeville, was the first local finisher in 6th at 1:39:33. The next cluster — Seroczynski, Nuttall, Valera Aguilera, Archer, and Wang — all finished within about 65 seconds of each other between 1:44:31 and 1:45:46, making positions 7 through 11 the most compressed section of the entire M35-39 result sheet.