Kaua'i Half Marathon Men: Mccandless Defends, Top Ten Locks In Again

• Tyler Mccandless wins in 1:06:51 — one second faster than his 2025 victory (1:06:52) — holding the lead wire-to-wire at a 5:06/mi clip in 84°F heat.
• The top four hold their exact finishing order from 2025, each clocking one second faster than their prior-year time — a remarkable echo across two editions.
• Ben Bruce climbed from 7th at the 11.05-mile mark to 5th at the finish, running the second-fastest closing split among the men to leapfrog two rivals late.
• Noah Perkins moved from 4th to 3rd between the opening segment and the 11.05-mile mark, then held on for a 1:19:06 finish — third-fastest in the men's field.

Tyler Mccandless came to Kaua'i to defend, and he did exactly that — then shaved a second off the clock for good measure. Running at 5:06/mi through humidity nudging 70% and a 13 mph wind off the coast, the Fort Collins native led the men's race from start to finish and posted the fastest men's split on the back half of the course (HALF→11.05 Mile) to put the result beyond doubt. Back-to-back wins, each one a touch quicker than the last.

Ben Payne, 43, was the story right behind him. The Honolulu runner matched Mccandless's consistency almost beat for beat — 2nd in 2025 in 1:13:02, 2nd in 2026 in 1:13:01 — and claimed the second-fastest men's split on that same closing segment. The gap between them held at roughly six minutes, but Payne's durability across two editions is its own kind of statement.

The most intriguing tactical move came from Ben Bruce. The 42-year-old from Flagstaff sat 7th through 11.05 miles before unleashing the second-fastest closing split in the men's field, surging past two competitors to finish 5th in 1:21:46. Meanwhile, Noah Perkins (3rd, 1:19:06) and Santiago Patino (4th, 1:21:34) had made their moves earlier, both climbing positions in the first half of the race and then holding firm under the Kaua'i heat. The entire top ten — from Mccandless down to Kevin Lewis's 1:25:18 in 10th — mirrored the 2025 order exactly, each man one second quicker than his prior finish. In a field of 656 men, that kind of collective consistency is almost stranger than the racing itself.