Long Beach Marathon Men: Esteban Prado Storms the Back Half to Take the Title

• Esteban Prado, 25, wins in 2:26:31 (5:35/mi) — the fastest men's finish of the day, climbing from 6th at the halfway point all the way to 1st.
• Three-way battle for the podium: just 2:12 separated Prado from 3rd-place Kevin Quinteros Lopez (2:30:11), with Ethan Widlansky slotting in at 2nd in 2:29:36.
• Tesfaye Wosene, 44, leads at the first checkpoint — the oldest man in the top five ran from the front before fading to 5th in 2:31:58 (5:48/mi).
• Tight mid-pack racing: 14th-place Xiaowang Wang (2:45:12) and 15th-place Ali Toomes (2:45:13) were separated by a single second across 26.2 miles.

Esteban Prado of Fountain Valley didn't announce himself early. Sitting 6th among the men at the halfway mark, he was a threat lurking in the pack while Tesfaye Wosene — a 44-year-old from Temecula — was out front setting the early pace. But Prado was building. By mile 20 he had climbed to 3rd, and over the final 6.2 miles he made his decisive move, posting the 4th-fastest men's split on the 13.1-to-20-mile stretch and then closing the deal to cross the line in 2:26:31 at 5:35/mi. That's the kind of negative-split execution that wins marathons.

The battle for 2nd and 3rd was its own compelling subplot. Kevin Quinteros Lopez of Fontana was actually the men's leader at the halfway point — he ran the 4th-fastest split among the men between miles 5.5 and 13.1 — but he couldn't hold that advantage over the final third of the race. Ethan Widlansky of Santa Monica, who had been as low as 4th at mile 20, came surging back to claim 2nd in 2:29:36, edging Quinteros Lopez (2:30:11) by 35 seconds. Bryce de Venecia, 31, out of Chicago, rounded out the top four in 2:30:43, posting the 5th-fastest men's split from mile 20 to the finish — a strong close that nearly caught Quinteros Lopez but came up 28 seconds short.

Wosene's story deserves its own moment. The 44-year-old led the men's field through the early miles and was still 2nd at mile 5.5, but the pace took its toll and he finished 5th in 2:31:58. Still, running 5:48/mi for 26.2 miles at 44 in 72°F humidity is a performance that most of the 3,400-man field would envy. Down the leaderboard, the battle between Xiaowang Wang (14th, 2:45:12) and Ali Toomes (15th, 2:45:13) was settled by a single tick of the clock — a fitting reminder that close racing happened at every level of this field.