Masters Men at Rio Del Lago 100: Rydman Runs Down the Field

• Jacob Rydman wins in 17:31:49 (10:31/mi), the fastest Masters Men time and the fastest split between Granite Beach 1 and Rattlesnake Bar 1 among the men.
• John Lofthus finishes 2nd in 18:28:14 — 56 minutes back — posting the fastest Cool→No Hands 2 split among the men.
• Jeremy Meyers pulls off the biggest charge of the race: entering the men's field somewhere around 53rd at the first checkpoint, he climbed all the way to 5th by the finish.
• 81 Masters Men finished Rio Del Lago 100, with the top 20 alone spanning nearly 7.5 hours from first to last.

Jacob Rydman didn't just win Masters Men — he hunted the entire men's field. His checkpoint progression tells the story: he was 7th among men at the first mark, then 5th, then 3rd, then 2nd, and finally seized the lead and never let it go. Running 10:31 per mile across 100 miles in 72°F heat is a performance that speaks for itself, and his split between Granite Beach 1 and Rattlesnake Bar 1 was the fastest of any man on that stretch. He finished in 17:31:49 — a time that would test any runner, masters or otherwise.

John Lofthus ran a measured, consistent race to claim 2nd in 18:28:14, and his Cool→No Hands 2 split was the sharpest among the men on that segment — a sign he had something left in the back half. Dennis Boic rounded out the podium in 19:31:19, posting the second-fastest split on that same Cool→No Hands 2 stretch, suggesting the two were genuinely racing each other through the late miles even as Rydman had long since pulled clear.

The most dramatic arc of the day belonged to Jeremy Meyers of Cool, CA. He was buried deep in the men's field early — 53rd at the first checkpoint — but ran progressively stronger as the race wore on, clocking the 3rd-fastest Rattlesnake Bar 2→Granite Beach 2 split among the men and ultimately finishing 5th in 20:51:26. He edged 4th-place Alex Suchey by just 1:44 at the line, despite Suchey having carried a significant positional advantage for much of the race. In a 100-miler, patience and late-race legs can rewrite the standings entirely — and Meyers proved it.