M65-69 Marathon: Jong Kim edges out a 34-second thriller at the front

• Jong Kim wins M65-69 in 3:56:21 (9:01/mi), holding off David Lamb by just 34 seconds.
• David Lamb finishes 2nd in 3:56:55 (9:02/mi); Sangho Seo takes 3rd in 3:58:17 (9:05/mi) — the top three are separated by under two minutes.
• Jose Barragan (4th, 4:06:47) is the lone 68-year-old on the podium fringe, running 9:25/mi to finish 8+ minutes clear of 5th.
• 24 men finished M65-69 on a warm Long Beach morning — 72°F with 73% humidity adding a real tax on the back half.

The top of M65-69 delivered one of the tightest finishes in the field. Jong Kim of Valencia crossed in 3:56:21, but David Lamb of Pacific Palisades was right on his heels at 3:56:55 — 34 seconds the difference after 26.2 miles. What makes it a genuine catch-up story is how it got there: Lamb was moving through the men's field more aggressively in the early miles (entering the final stretch ranked higher in the men's standings than Kim), but Kim found another gear over the 20M-to-finish segment, posting the 635th-fastest split on that closing stretch compared to Lamb's 752nd — enough to hold the gap and seal the win. Sangho Seo of Los Angeles ran a steady 9:05/mi to claim 3rd in 3:58:17, though his 20M-to-finish split (1,009th-fastest on that segment) tells the story of a man who gave a little ground late while still banking enough time to hold the bronze.

Jose Barragan, at 68 the oldest man in the top four, ran a composed 9:25/mi from Lemoore to finish 4th in 4:06:47 — a clear margin over 5th-place Beom Nyeon Kim (4:22:23, 10:00/mi). Behind them the field spread considerably, with Michael Hunt (6th, 4:35:21), Koji Takeda (7th, 4:38:45), and Paul Hernandez (8th, 4:40:11) clustered within five minutes of each other. Greg Clarke (11th, 5:08:43) and John Keel (12th, 5:09:05) staged their own quiet duel, finishing just 22 seconds apart, while Nabil Chakoukani (13th, 5:09:36) and Keizo Amakawa (14th, 5:10:05) were separated by a mere 29 seconds — two mini-battles playing out deep in the pack. Vien Chiem rounded out the listed finishers in 20th place with a 6:09:40 — every crossing a win on a humid October morning in Long Beach.