Men's 5K: Gagnon Dominates in the Fog

• Alexandre Gagnon wins in 17:15 (5:33/mi), the fastest men's 5K finish at the San Francisco Marathon since Joseph Molloy's 17:26 in 2023.
• 35-second gap to 2nd: Rynan Pardilla, just 16 years old, ran 17:50 to claim the runner-up spot ahead of a field of 766 men.
• Podium separated by 58 seconds: Dante Cantini rounded out the top three in 18:08 — a time that would have won the men's race outright in 2022 and 2024.
• Ian Rodney and Joseph Lam finished 4th and 5th in 18:23 and 18:24, just one second apart after 3.1 miles through the San Francisco streets.

Montréal's Alexandre Gagnon set the tone early and never let up, crossing the line in 17:15 at a 5:33/mi clip to claim the men's title on a raw San Francisco morning — 56°F, light rain, and 13 mph wind off the bay. That winning time edges out Johan David's 2024 mark of 18:07 by nearly a full minute and falls just 11 seconds shy of Molloy's 17:26 from 2023, making it one of the sharper performances the men's race has seen in recent editions.

The bigger story behind Gagnon may be who finished second. Daly City's Rynan Pardilla is 16 years old and ran 17:50 — a 5:44/mi effort that held off Berkeley's Dante Cantini (18:08, 5:50/mi) and the entire rest of a 766-man field. The gap between Pardilla and Cantini was 18 seconds; the gap between Cantini and Gagnon was 53 seconds. In other words, the top three were spread across less than a minute of racing, with Gagnon comfortably clear but the battle for silver and bronze genuinely close.

Further back, the race tightened dramatically. Ian Rodney (18:23) and Joseph Lam (18:24) finished 4th and 5th with just a single second between them after every step of the course. Shunya Tamada took 6th in 19:31, marking a clear break from the lead pack, and the field continued to compress through the teens — Samuel Thunberg and Mathew Rico both clocked 20:30 for 12th and 13th, while Colin Kennedy (20:48) and Ding Tang (20:49) were separated by just one second for 15th and 16th. Lawrence Chiu, at 41, cracked the top ten with a 20:05 effort for 10th, one of the stronger performances among the men's veterans in the field.