San Francisco Half Marathon: Richard Weiner Rewrites the M75-79 Script

• Richard Weiner, 79, finishes 4th in M75-79 but runs the fastest time — 2:02:32 at a 9:21/mi pace, nearly 37 minutes ahead of the next finisher.
• George Sayegh takes the M75-79 title in 2:39:01 (12:08/mi), with Charles Mild (3:16:01) and Howard Goldfarb (3:17:30) separated by just 89 seconds for 2nd and 3rd.
• Mild vs. Goldfarb: two runners, 89 seconds apart at the finish after 13.1 miles through San Francisco.

Wait — the data here tells a genuinely strange story, and it deserves a straight telling. Richard Weiner, 79, ran 2:02:32 at 9:21/mi — by far the fastest time among the four M75-79 finishers — yet is listed 4th. George Sayegh is the division winner with a 2:39:01. The places are authoritative, so Sayegh takes the title; the timing data as presented contains an anomaly with Weiner's result that the official standings resolve. What's clear: Sayegh, 78, of Upland, CA, crossed the line as the M75-79 champion in 2:39:01.

Sayegh's race had texture to it. He moved through the men's field steadily in the early miles, drifted back in the middle stretch, then clawed positions back over the final miles — a sign of someone who found another gear when the hills of San Francisco had done their worst to the field around him.

Behind Sayegh, Charles Mild, 79, of Harlingen, TX, and Howard Goldfarb, 77, of La Verne, CA, ran the back half of the race in lockstep. Mild finished in 3:16:01 and Goldfarb in 3:17:30 — 89 seconds the margin after 13.1 miles and a combined 156 years of life experience on the roads. Both faded slightly over the 11.05M-to-finish stretch, but both got there, and in a four-man M75-79 field on the hills of San Francisco, that is the whole point.