M25-29 Half Marathon: Carrillo Defends San Francisco Turf with a 1:12:37 Victory

• Eddie Carrillo wins in 1:12:37 (5:32/mi) — a 33-second improvement on his 5th-place finish here in 2022 (1:13:10), this time taking the M25-29 title outright.
• Jack Rager pushes him all the way — 2nd in 1:12:51, just 14 seconds back at 5:33/mi.
• A significant gap to 3rd — Joseph Grovers crossed in 1:17:48 (5:56/mi), nearly five minutes behind Rager.
• 444 finishers completed the M25-29 race on a cool, humid San Francisco morning.

Eddie Carrillo came back to San Francisco knowing exactly what this course demands — and delivered a sharper, more decisive performance than his 2022 effort. Running 5:32/mi across the 13.1 miles, the 28-year-old San Francisco native shaved 33 seconds off his own time from a year ago and moved from 5th all the way to the top step. The real story was the middle segment: on the 5M–10.9M stretch, Carrillo posted the 3rd-fastest split in the men's field, a surge that moved him from 9th among men up to 4th — the decisive stretch of his race.

Jack Rager made him earn it. The 25-year-old ran a composed 5:33/mi and posted the 5th-fastest men's split on that same 5M–10.9M segment, holding 6th among men through the middle miles and finishing there. The 14-second gap between Carrillo and Rager reflects two athletes running at a genuinely different gear — close at the line, but Carrillo's middle-miles surge was the separating move. Rager's 1:12:51 is a strong mark in its own right in a field of 444.

Joseph Grovers (3rd, 1:17:48) and Kenneth Albin (4th, 1:18:34) rounded out the top four, with Grovers holding a comfortable 46-second cushion over Albin. Ethan Lee (5th, 1:18:51) and Justin Mayer (6th, 1:19:00) were separated by just nine seconds, while Andrew Lewis (7th, 1:19:42) and Juan Ignacio Adame (8th, 1:20:05) kept the chase pack tight through the top ten. Tyler Yep (10th, 1:23:25) and Kyle Johnson (11th, 1:23:34) finished nine seconds apart deeper in the field, with John McCann (12th, 1:23:50) close behind.