Men's Race: Shadrack Kimining Edges a Four-Man Thriller in 2:10:17

• Kimining wins by 4 seconds over Tesfu Twelde (2:10:21), with Dominic Ondoro (2:10:32) and Matthew Richtman (2:10:45) completing one of the tightest men's podiums in recent Twin Cities Marathon memory — all four within 28 seconds.
• Kimining posted the fastest men's split from 20K–25K, the stretch that effectively broke the race open and secured his lead for good.
• Twelde's 10K–15K surge was the fastest men's split on that segment, while Ondoro owned 15K–20K and Richtman ran the second-fastest 10K–15K split — each man had his moment, but none could string it together like Kimining.
• Cosmass Kiplimo and Will Norris finished 5th and 6th in 2:12:32 and 2:12:33, respectively — separated by a single second after 26.2 miles.

Shadrack Kimining, 28, from Iten, Kenya, ran a tactically smart race from the front. He slotted into second at the opening checkpoint before seizing the lead — a position he would not surrender again. His average of 4:58 per mile across the full 26.2 miles, into a 21 mph wind on a cool, blustery October morning, tells the story of a runner who ran controlled and deliberate from wire to wire.

The real drama lived in the chase pack. Tesfu Twelde (2:10:21) was anything but a passenger — his 10K–15K split was the fastest among all men, and he clawed his way from 6th at the opening checkpoint to 2nd by the finish. Dominic Ondoro, 36, from Grand Prairie, TX, was the most aggressive mover of the early miles, running in 2nd at 10K before slipping back and then grinding back up to claim 3rd in 2:10:32. Richtman, just 24 years old out of Elburn, IL, was a steady presence throughout, running the second-fastest 10K–15K split and holding 4th from the midpoint all the way home in 2:10:45.

Fifth and sixth place produced their own quiet drama. Cosmass Kiplimo, a Minneapolis local, and Will Norris of Charlottesville, VA, ran the final miles in lockstep — Kiplimo in 2:12:32, Norris in 2:12:33. One second after more than two hours of racing. Behind them, Ben Olson (7th, 2:14:35) was the second local in the top ten, finishing in his home city of Coon Rapids, MN, with a 5:08/mi average that put him well clear of the next wave.