M20-24: Troy Hill Dominates Virginia Beach in 1:10:09

• Troy Hill won the M20-24 field in 1:10:09 (5:21/mi), leading among the men from start to finish and posting the fastest second-half split in the men's field.
• Ashton Blackwell finished 2nd in 1:13:17 — a 3:01 gap back — having placed 8th in this same race in 2025 (1:12:55), making this year's runner-up result a step up on the podium.
• Connor McGrath (3rd, 1:23:17) and Mark Bredeck (4th, 1:23:38) were separated by just 21 seconds after 13.1 miles, with McGrath posting the 14th-fastest 20K-to-finish split among the men.
• Vaden Padgett (5th, 1:25:33) and Patrick Driscoll (6th, 1:25:37) finished just 4 seconds apart, the tightest gap anywhere in the top ten outside the podium.

Troy Hill turned the M20-24 race into a solo time trial. Running at 5:21/mi through 55°F humidity on Virginia Beach's roads, he held 1st among the men at every checkpoint and saved his sharpest effort for the back half, posting the fastest second-half split in the men's field. The 3:01 gap he built over Blackwell by the finish line tells the story: this was never close at the front.

Ashton Blackwell's 2nd-place finish in 1:13:10 is worth its own beat. A year ago at this same race he crossed in 1:12:55 — 15 seconds faster — but finished 8th. This time he ran slightly slower and came away with a podium. The field around him was simply stronger, and he climbed it.

Behind the top two, the race got genuinely interesting. McGrath and Bredeck ran nearly in lockstep through the closing miles — McGrath's strong 20K-to-finish split helped him hold off Bredeck by 21 seconds for 3rd. Further back, Padgett clawed his way up from 72nd among the men at the opening checkpoint all the way to 5th by the finish, one of the bigger moves in the field, before Driscoll nearly erased the gap entirely — just 4 seconds separated them at the line.

The rest of the top 20 filled out with a cluster of Virginia Beach locals and Hampton Roads runners, with Michael Giles and Patrick O'Donnell both stopping the clock at 1:28:39 for 10th and 11th. In a 258-runner M20-24 field, the depth was real — and the front end delivered a race worth watching.