SF Marathon Half: Cliff Lentz Dominates the M55-59 Field

• Cliff Lentz, 57, wins in 1:19:53 — a 6:06/mi clip that left the rest of the M55-59 field well behind.
• Francisco Guzman edges David Gallegos for 2nd — 1:33:49 to 1:34:53, a 64-second gap after 13.1 miles.
• Gang Qin closes hard — the 4th-place finisher posted one of the 81st-fastest splits in the women's field on the 10.9M-to-finish stretch, same split rank Guzman earned on the middle segment.
• Tight battle at 6th and 7th — Keith Chan (1:45:32) and Rene Dagenais (1:45:36) finished just four seconds apart.

Cliff Lentz of Brisbane, CA turned in a performance that was simply in a different class among the 57 finishers in M55-59. His 6:06/mi average produced a 1:19:53 finish — nearly 14 minutes clear of second place — and his progression through the men's field told the same story: he moved steadily from 28th to 23rd among men as the race wore on, even registering the 25th-fastest split in the women's field on the 2.95M-to-5M stretch. At 57, he ran like the course belonged to him.

Behind Lentz, the real racing happened in a tight cluster. Francisco Guzman (1:33:49, 7:09/mi) held off David Gallegos (1:34:53, 7:14/mi) for the runner-up spot, with Guzman's stronger middle segment — one of the 81st-fastest women's splits from 5M to 10.9M — proving the difference. Gallegos ran a comparable pace on that same stretch but couldn't quite close the gap. Gang Qin (1:35:32, 7:17/mi) finished 4th, finishing the strongest of the trio over the final miles with one of the 81st-fastest women's splits from 10.9M to the line.

Pasquale Romano rounded out the top five in 1:42:28, nearly seven minutes back of Qin but showing his own late charge with one of the 127th-fastest women's splits on the closing stretch. Then came the closest finish of the day: Keith Chan (6th, 1:45:32, 8:03/mi) and Rene Dagenais (7th, 1:45:36, 8:03/mi) were separated by just four seconds after 13.1 miles in San Francisco's cool, humid morning air. Michael Stolnicki (8th, 1:47:33) and a pair of near-identical finishes from Oreste Donzella (9th, 1:49:34) and David Fowler (10th, 1:49:35) kept the middle of the field equally competitive.