M80+ Marathon: Geelhoed Holds Off Little in a Battle of Attrition

• Glenn Geelhoed (Derwood, MD) won M80+ in 7:01:06 (16:04/mi), finishing just over two minutes clear of the only other finisher in the field.
• Dan Little (Madill, OK) crossed in 7:03:09 (16:08/mi) to claim 2nd — a margin of 2:03 separating the two men.
• Both athletes spent much of the race moving steadily through the men's field, each climbing hundreds of places in the final miles.
• The margin at the finish — 2:03 — belies a race that was tightly contested for most of its 26.2 miles, with the two men tracking nearly identical positions through the mid-race checkpoints.

Two men. Twenty-six miles. A finish line that came with two minutes and three seconds of separation — and a whole lot of earned pride on a crisp 43°F morning in Arlington.

Glenn Geelhoed set the tone from the gun, running a 16:04/mi average to cross in 7:01:06 and claim the M80+ title. What makes his finish particularly striking is the late-race surge through the men's field: his position among men improved from around 10,069 at the first checkpoint all the way to 9,919 by the finish, a steady, relentless climb that continued right through the final stretch. His 40K-to-finish split ranked among the men's field as well, underscoring that he was still moving with purpose when many others were fading.

Dan Little of Madill, OK ran a remarkably parallel race. His men's field position tracked almost step-for-step with Geelhoed's through every checkpoint — from 10,086 near the start down to 9,923 at the finish — and his 16:08/mi average tells you this was no fading performance. Little's 25K-to-30K split was a strong segment in its own right. But Geelhoed had just enough, and the 2:03 gap at the tape was the final word.

At the Marine Corps Marathon — "The People's Marathon," organized by the U.S. Marine Corps and offering no prize money — finishing is the statement. These two men made theirs loud and clear.