Men's Race: Simon Ricci's Back-Half Blitz Wins San Francisco

• Simon Ricci, 24, wins in 2:31:42 (5:47/mi), running the fastest split among all men on the 18-to-24-mile stretch to blow the race open.
• Sumner Jones, 21, leads early — running the fastest men's split on the opening 2.2-to-5.7-mile segment — but fades to 2nd at 2:38:47, seven minutes back.
• Trevor Houchens and Aaron Gruen finish 3rd (2:39:21) and 4th (2:39:37) — just 16 seconds apart — with Houchens posting the 2nd-fastest closing split (24 miles to finish) in the men's field.
• Zach Speno, 29, is the race's biggest mover — advancing from 24th to 5th across the men's field with the 6th-fastest late split on the 18-to-24-mile leg.

San Francisco's notorious hills and 94% humidity made for a demanding morning, and the men's race played out exactly as those conditions often demand: patience punished the bold, and the runner who waited longest to strike won. Simon Ricci, a 24-year-old local, spent the first two-thirds of the race lurking as low as 11th before methodically climbing into contention. His decisive move came between miles 18 and 24, where he posted the fastest split in the entire men's field on that stretch — and by the time he crossed the line at 2:31:42, the race was never in doubt.

Sumner Jones, 21, had looked like the man to beat for much of the morning. The Cleveland runner seized the lead early by running the fastest men's split on the 2.2-to-5.7-mile segment and held it through the halfway mark. But Ricci's surge on the back half was too much to absorb, and Jones faded to 2nd at 2:38:47 — a 7:05 gap that tells the story of where the race was decided.

Behind Jones, Providence teammates Trevor Houchens (3rd, 2:39:21) and Aaron Gruen (4th, 2:39:37) ran the podium's closest battle — just 16 seconds separating them at the tape. Houchens edged ahead on the strength of the 2nd-fastest closing split in the men's field from mile 24 to the finish, while Gruen had been the stronger early runner, sharing the 3rd-fastest split on that opening segment with Jones's pace.

Rounding out the top five, San Francisco's own Zach Speno, 29, delivered the race's most dramatic charge — moving from 24th all the way to 5th with a powerful 18-to-24-mile leg. Ryan Martin (6th, 2:42:30), Spencer Tate (7th, 2:42:32), and Quinn Coyle (8th, 2:43:01) completed a tightly bunched group just behind, separated by a combined 31 seconds across three finishers.