M70-74: Harbhajan Singh Runs Away With It in San Francisco

• Harbhajan Singh (70, Fresno) won M70-74 in 1:52:11 — an 8:33/mi effort that put 16+ minutes between him and the rest of the field.
• Milton Lorig (73, Oakland) edged Leopoldo Rosales (71, South San Francisco) for 2nd place, 2:08:34 to 2:10:19 — a 1:45 gap that Rosales was actually closing late.
• Rosales ran the strongest final stretch in the group, posting the 956th-fastest split on the 11.9M-to-Finish segment — quicker than Lorig's closing effort and better than Aldana's on the same stretch.
• Eight M70-74 finishers covered a remarkable 1:30:50 spread from first to last, from Singh's 8:33/mi to Martin Angel Gamboa's 15:29/mi finish in 3:23:01.

Harbhajan Singh, 70, turned in a performance that was simply in a different gear. His 8:33/mi average through the hills of San Francisco left the rest of M70-74 well behind — 16 minutes and 23 seconds separated him from runner-up Milton Lorig. Singh did fade slightly through the back half, slipping from 467th to 581st among men as the field caught up in relative terms, but no one in M70-74 was going to touch him. He crossed in 1:52:11.

Behind Singh, the real contest was between Lorig and Rosales. Lorig held 2nd through much of the race, but Rosales — who started slowly, sitting deep in the men's field at the early checkpoint — ran himself into contention with a strong back half. Rosales posted the better closing split from 11.9 miles to the finish, and the gap shrank to 1:45 at the line. It wasn't quite enough, but it was a genuine charge. Otto Aldana (70, Chicago) finished 4th in 2:19:51, with Robert Perez (70, San Mateo) rounding out the top five in 2:25:11.

Martin Chee (70, San Francisco) finished 6th in 2:38:39 on his home course, followed by Rafiki McDougald (74, Oakland) in 3:01:53 — the oldest finisher in the group at 74, still covering 13.1 miles through the city. Martin Angel Gamboa, 73, making the trip from Durango, completed the course in 3:23:01 to close out M70-74.