Rio Del Lago 50K M30-39: Feher Runs Away With It

• Andrew Feher won the M30-39 group in 4:14:35 (8:12/mi), more than 17 minutes clear of second-place Tyler Raposa.
• Feher posted the fastest split on the Beals Point 1→Willow Creek segment among the men, a stretch that helped him lock up his lead in the middle portion of the race.
• Raposa's 2nd-fastest Willow Creek→Beals Point 2 split among the men was the standout leg of his runner-up effort, helping him hold off Jose Arreola by nearly six and a half minutes.
• The M30-39 field spread wide: 13 finishers, with nearly four hours separating Feher's winning time from Prasanth Kotaru's 8:00:40 at the back.

Andrew Feher, 38, out of Sacramento, was never truly threatened. He entered the race sitting 1st among the men overall and, despite slipping briefly to 4th at one checkpoint, reasserted himself and came home 2nd among the men — a remarkable sustained effort at 8:12 per mile across 50 kilometers of Sierra Nevada foothills terrain on a warm, clear November day. In the M30-39 group, it was never close: his 4:14:35 stood in a class of its own.

Tyler Raposa (34, Rocklin) was the most dynamic presence behind him, climbing from 5th to 3rd among the men at one point before settling into 6th by the finish line overall. His 4:31:37 was a strong second, and his blazing Willow Creek→Beals Point 2 split showed he had real speed on that mid-race stretch. Jose Arreola, also from Rocklin and just 30 years old, ran a composed race — moving from 16th among the men at the first checkpoint all the way to 7th by the finish — to claim third in the M30-39 group in 4:38:00.

Andrew Stekol Moore (35, Menlo Park) rounded out the top four in 5:02:09, while the back half of the field stretched out across a wide range of finishing times. Marcus Worthington (37, El Dorado Hills) and Eric Hadden (34, Fair Oaks) were separated by just under five minutes in 7th and 8th, providing one of the few tight battles in a group that was otherwise spread across the course.