Masters Men Half Marathon: Bailey Leads a Sharp Front Pack at Run the Parkway

• Keith Bailey won the Masters Men field in 1:21:12 (6:12/mi), posting the 3rd-fastest men's split from Mile 4 to the finish — the fastest among all Masters Men over that stretch.
• Jonathan Carter (3rd, 1:24:50) improved on his 5th-place finish here in 2025 (1:25:56), dropping over a minute off his time on the same course.
• Jedidiah Soliz (4th, 1:26:13) was the day's biggest mover in the front pack, climbing from 10th among men to 7th on the Mile 4→Finish leg — the 5th-fastest men's split on that stretch.
• Jacob Nur, age 71, finished 6th in the Masters Men field in 1:32:53 (7:05/mi) — one of the most remarkable results of the morning.

Keith Bailey ran a controlled, confident race through Folsom's parkway course, holding 3rd among men from the opening miles and never wavering. His 6:12/mi average held up all the way to the line, and his Mile 4→Finish split was the fastest of any Masters Men runner — enough to take the win by 1:28 over Mario Garibaldi, who finished 2nd in 1:22:40 (6:18/mi). Garibaldi himself moved up a spot among men on that same closing stretch, making the back half a genuine battle for position.

Jonathan Carter's 3rd-place finish in 1:24:50 is the kind of result worth highlighting: he stood on this same start line in 2025, finished 5th among men in 1:25:56, and came back a year later to run faster and climb the podium. That's a real improvement on a known course. Just behind him, Jedidiah Soliz (4th, 1:26:13) turned in the 5th-fastest men's split from Mile 4 to the finish — moving from 10th to 7th among men in the second half while running a noticeably stronger pace (6:35/mi overall) than Robert Peterson (5th, 1:28:42, 6:46/mi), who faded slightly from 8th to 10th among men over that same stretch.

The Masters Men field ran 91 finishers deep on a cool, calm November morning — 49°F with barely a breath of wind, about as good as race conditions get. Jacob Nur, 71 years old and from Elk Grove, finished 6th in 1:32:53 at 7:05/mi, a performance that stands out across the entire field. Douglas Jeffries, 70, also crossed in the top 20 at 1:53:54. Age was not slowing everyone down.