Masters Men San Francisco Marathon: Bellomy Runs Away With It

• Bill Bellomy won the Masters Men race in 2:45:46 (6:19/mi), finishing more than 5:41 ahead of runner-up Heli Carrillo.
• Heli Carrillo (2:51:27) closed hard, posting the 12th-fastest split in the field on the final push from Mile 25 to the finish to lock up 2nd place.
• Chris Mitchell, 51, worked his way through the men's field all race long, climbing from outside the top 90 men to 51st by the finish — and claimed 4th in Masters Men in 2:53:12.
• Alexander Suchey, age 57, cracked the Masters Men top ten with a 2:58:08, the oldest finisher in the listed top 10.

Bill Bellomy, 40, from Austin, TX, was never seriously challenged. Running 6:19/mi through San Francisco's fog-cooled streets — 56°F and 93% humidity at the start — he moved steadily through the men's field from 28th among men at the first checkpoint to 21st, and ultimately held 23rd among men at the finish. His margin of 5:41 over Carrillo was decisive from early on, and his split from Mile 6.52 to Mile 10.87 ranked 18th-fastest in the field on that segment, a sign he was already pressing the pace through the middle miles when others were settling in.

The race for 2nd and 3rd was more of a slow-motion drama. Heli Carrillo, 49, from Downey, CA, spent much of the race outside the top 80 men — sitting as far back as 85th — before a sustained charge over the final miles swept him to 44th among men and 2nd in the Masters Men field in 2:51:27. Tomohiro Ueno, 43, making the trip from Yokohama, Japan, ran a steadier but ultimately fading line: he was 29th among men early and drifted back to 49th by the finish, holding on for 3rd in 2:52:45 — just 1:18 behind Carrillo.

David Hodge, 41 (San Diego), was the race's most relentless climber among the top five. He started 143rd among men and passed runner after runner through the back half, finishing 62nd among men and 5th in the Masters Men field in 2:54:57, posting the 50th-fastest split in the field from Mile 18 to Mile 25. Behind him, the 6th-through-11th spots were tightly packed — Luis Sanz Villares (2:56:46) through Daniel Abera (2:59:07) covered just over two minutes — before a small gap opened to the 12th-place cluster around 3:02. In a field of 1,347 Masters Men finishers, the depth here was real.