M25-29: Gregory Takes the Age Group in 1:10:43 After a Race-Long Duel

• David Gregory won the M25-29 age group in 1:10:43 (5:24/mi), rallying from 5th among men at the midpoint to claim the top spot by the finish.
• John Walker led the men's field through the first 15K before fading to 6th among men — his early pace couldn't hold in 71°F heat and 17 mph winds.
• The top three — Gregory (1:10:43), McGowan (1:11:17), Walker (1:11:28) — finished within 45 seconds of each other across 13.1 miles.
• Nicholas Arnecke was the age group's biggest mover in the back half, climbing from 12th among men at the start to 9th by the finish.

Virginia Beach's mid-March warmth showed up as a genuine factor on Sunday — 71°F, 73% humidity, and a 17 mph wind made 5:24/mi look every bit as hard as it sounds. David Gregory handled those conditions better than anyone in the M25-29 age group, swinging between 2nd and 5th among men through the first 20K before locking down the win in the closing stretch. His 5:24/mi average held remarkably steady given the conditions, and his fastest split of the race came on the 5K–10K segment — the quickest of any man in the field on that stretch.

The real drama in the early miles belonged to John Walker. The Norfolk runner sat 1st among men from the gun through 15K, dictating the pace at 5:27/mi overall. But the back half of the course told a different story: Walker slipped to 6th among men over the final segments and couldn't reclaim ground, finishing 3rd in the age group at 1:11:28. Scott McGowan, meanwhile, ran the steadier race — holding 4th or 5th among men throughout and finishing 2nd at 1:11:17, just 34 seconds behind Gregory.

Behind the podium, Colin SyBing (4th, 1:12:50) and Nicholas Arnecke (5th, 1:13:19) both posted strong closing splits — SyBing's 20K-to-finish was the 5th-fastest among men on that segment, Arnecke's the 8th — separating themselves from Jake Sutor (6th, 1:13:31) by a slim margin. In a 384-person age group on a tough weather day, every second of that gap was earned.