X25-29: Haywood Holds Off Gay in a Front-Loaded Battle at Peachtree

• Andrew Haywood won the X25-29 field in 44:19 (7:08/mi), crossing nearly half a minute clear of runner-up Jacques Gay (44:48).
• Jacques Gay was the strongest finisher of the day, posting the 2nd-fastest split on the final mile-to-finish stretch among the women's field — climbing from 8th to 4th in the broader women's standings by the tape.
• A wide gap separated the top two from the rest: C.g. Kline took 3rd in 49:58, more than five minutes back, with Andrew Elmer 4th in 51:47.
• The field spanned a remarkable 1 hour, 32 minutes from Haywood's winning 44:19 to Taylor Thomas's 2:16:35.

Andrew Haywood owned the front of this race from the opening mile, settling into 2nd in the broader women's field and never relinquishing that position through the first four checkpoints. His 7:08-per-mile average was the class of the X25-29 field, and his 2nd-fastest split on the 1M-to-2M segment signals he wasn't just surviving the Atlanta heat and humidity — he was pushing through it. The win was comfortable but earned.

The most dynamic run of the morning belonged to Jacques Gay. Starting the race 8th in the women's field, Gay steadily worked his way forward checkpoint by checkpoint — 7th, then 6th — before a decisive closing kick that included the 2nd-fastest final-mile split among the women lifted him to 4th overall in that broader field. Within the X25-29 group, he finished a clear 2nd in 44:48, just 29 seconds behind Haywood. That closing surge was the race's sharpest individual move.

Behind the top two, C.g. Kline and Andrew Elmer ran a composed middle race, finishing 3rd and 4th in 49:58 and 51:47 respectively. Kline held steady at 9th in the women's field throughout, while Elmer tracked one spot back. Brittany Whelan rounded out the top five in 1:01:32, the last finisher inside the hour-plus threshold before the field spread dramatically across the back half of the 18-person group. From Lance Madow's 1:05:29 in 6th to Taylor Thomas's 2:16:35 in 18th, the X25-29 race told two very different stories on the same July morning in Atlanta.