M40-44: Mbelenzi runs away from the field at Shamrock

• Dennis Mbelenzi won the M40-44 race in 2:35:55 (5:57/mi) — nearly 18½ minutes clear of runner-up Erik Small.
• Small (2:54:25) and Marc Runyan (2:55:24) were separated by just 59 seconds for 2nd and 3rd, with Ben Adams-Hopkins (2:56:32) and Ryan Davis (2:56:55) a further minute back in 4th and 5th.
• Justin Leddon (2:59:22) and Kevin Pulley (2:59:26) went stride for stride to the line, finishing 6th and 7th just four seconds apart.
• Brad Walawender of Virginia Beach crossed 10th in 3:03:37, the last man home under 7:00/mi pace.

Dennis Mbelenzi, 44, turned in one of the dominant individual performances of the day at Virginia Beach. Running 5:57/mi across 26.2 miles in 55°F humidity, he crossed in 2:35:55 and was never seriously threatened within the M40-44 field. His race unfolded with patience — he sat around 5th among the men early, drifted back slightly through the middle miles, then steadily climbed back to 8th among the men by the finish, posting the 6th-fastest split in the field on the 35K-to-25.2-mile stretch to close out the race with authority.

Behind him, the real drama played out in a tight cluster chasing 2nd place. Erik Small (2:54:25, 6:39/mi) held off Marc Runyan (2:55:24, 6:41/mi) by 59 seconds for the runner-up spot. Small had posted the 38th-fastest split in the field on the 20K-to-half-marathon segment, while Runyan ran the 43rd-fastest split in the field on the 35K-to-25.2-mile leg — a sign that Runyan was making up ground late, but not quite enough. Ben Adams-Hopkins (2:56:32, 6:44/mi) and Ryan Davis (2:56:55, 6:45/mi) rounded out the top five within a 23-second window, Adams-Hopkins having posted the 38th-fastest split in the field on the 5K-to-10K segment and Davis the 49th-fastest second-half split.

The 6th and 7th spots produced the closest finish of the group: Justin Leddon (Richmond, VA) clocked 2:59:22 and Kevin Pulley (White Marsh, MD) 2:59:26 — four seconds in 26.2 miles. Isaac Morgan followed in 8th at 3:00:26, and Joshua Lamothe 9th at 3:02:30, before Brad Walawender closed out the top ten at 3:03:37. All told, 179 men competed in M40-44 at Shamrock 2026, with the top twenty all finishing under 7:32/mi — a genuinely competitive field from top to bottom.