Long Beach Half Marathon M65-69: Noehren Leads Wire to Wire

• Mark Noehren won the M65-69 race in 1:37:50 (7:28/mi), pulling clear of the field in the first half and holding on to finish nearly 3 minutes ahead of 2nd place.
• Terry Whelan (2nd, 1:40:56) and John Araujo (3rd, 1:41:44) separated the podium by just 48 seconds, with Whelan logging a strong closing split to hold off Araujo.
• A significant gap opened after the podium: 4th-place Nigel Grainger finished in 1:51:12 — more than 9 minutes back of Noehren.
• 73 men finished in the M65-69 race, with times ranging from 1:37:50 to well past 2:16 for the listed finishers.

Mark Noehren, 68, from Huntington Beach, was the class of the M65-69 field from the opening miles. His move data tells the story clearly: he entered the second segment already surging through the men's field, climbing from 848th to 337th among men by the midpoint at 5.5M, and his 7:28/mi average was a full 14 seconds per mile faster than runner-up Terry Whelan. On the 5.5M–10.8M stretch he posted the 168th-fastest split among the men — a standout effort that effectively locked up the win before the back half even began.

Behind him, Whelan (65, Northridge) and Araujo (67, Placentia) ran a tight race for the podium. Whelan finished in 1:40:56 at 7:42/mi, while Araujo clocked 1:41:44 at 7:46/mi. The gap between them was 48 seconds, but Whelan's closing split — the 381st-fastest among men on the 10.8M-to-finish stretch — helped him secure second as Araujo faded slightly in the final segment after moving well through the middle miles.

The real story below the podium is the gap. Grainger (4th, 1:51:12, 8:29/mi) and Jeff Hollenbeck (5th, 1:52:58, 8:37/mi) ran close to each other in the back half — Grainger's second-half split ranked 914th among men, Hollenbeck's 1,093rd — but neither could threaten the top three. Rod Powell rounded out the top six in 1:53:28, just 30 seconds behind Hollenbeck. The 59°F morning with calm winds was about as good as it gets for October racing in Long Beach, and the times across the top of the M65-69 field reflect it.