M70-74 Half Marathon: Montgomery runs away with it in under two hours

• Robert Montgomery, 73, wins in 1:58:53 (9:04/mi), the only M70-74 finisher to break the two-hour mark.
• Joel Kizner closes the gap late — trailing by roughly 1:20 at the midpoint, he finished just 1:18 behind Montgomery at 2:00:11, running the second half faster than the leaders to nearly pull within sight of the top.
• Jesus Hernandez and Charles Springer finished 3rd and 4th in 2:07:12 and 2:07:37 — separated by just 25 seconds after 13.1 miles.
• Nathan Aguayo posted the strongest finish of any top-five runner, recording one of the faster closing splits (10.8M to finish) in the field to move up and claim 5th in 2:13:18.

Robert Montgomery, 73, from Upland, set the tone early and never let up. Moving steadily through the men's field — from 2,071st at the first checkpoint to 1,563rd by the finish — he held a consistent 9:04/mi to cross the line in 1:58:53, the lone sub-two-hour performance among all 30 M70-74 finishers on a cool, humid Long Beach morning. That's a statement finish at any age.

Joel Kizner, 70, from Lakewood, gave chase and made it interesting. He actually tracked closer to Montgomery's gender placement through the first half, but his second-half split pace was slower than Montgomery's closing surge, leaving him 1:18 back at 2:00:11. Still, Kizner's 9:10/mi average made him the clear runner-up and the second-fastest man in the group.

The battle for the podium's bottom step was the race's tightest duel. Jesus Hernandez (2:07:12) and Charles Springer (2:07:37) ran nearly the entire course within striking distance of each other, with Springer actually moving through the field more aggressively in the early miles before Hernandez held him off by 25 seconds. Springer's gender placement drifted from 1,760th to 2,200th across the race — a sign of a fade in the back half — while Hernandez ran more evenly to secure 3rd.

Behind them, the field spread out considerably. Ramiro Viramontes (6th, 2:19:14) through Richard Oberlin (20th, 3:03:01) covered a wide range of paces, with Shigeru Kitahama of Japan adding an international flavor in 9th at 2:31:55. All 30 finishers completed the course, and that, on a humid fall morning in Long Beach, is worth recognizing on its own.