Shamrock'n 10K M40-44: Ruspil runs away with it in Reno-to-West-Sac style

• Mathew Ruspil won the M40-44 group in 35:49 (5:46/mi), finishing 30 seconds clear of runner-up Aaron James.
• Ruspil and James both posted blistering second halves — the 3rd- and 4th-fastest 5K→Finish splits among all men in the field, respectively.
• Danny Abell climbed from 13th to 10th among men in the back half, locking up 3rd in M40-44 with a 40:03.
• A field of 83 finishers made this one of the day's deeper age groups, with nine men bunched between 49:11 and 49:34.

Mathew Ruspil set the tone from the gun and never let it slip. The 42-year-old from Reno crossed in 35:49 at a 5:46-per-mile clip — a pace that would be comfortable for plenty of elite runners but is something else entirely in a 40-44 age group. Aaron James, also 42 and racing on home turf in Sacramento, gave chase and held his own, finishing in 36:19, but the 30-second gap tells you Ruspil had another gear James simply couldn't match.

What makes both performances even sharper is where they earned them. Ruspil's 5K-to-finish split ranked 3rd among all men in the race, and James's ranked 4th — meaning these two were essentially running down the back half faster than almost everyone in the men's field. Neither faded; they accelerated.

Danny Abell made the most interesting move of the group's race, climbing from 13th to 10th among men between the halfway point and the finish — good enough for 3rd in M40-44 at 40:03. His 8th-fastest men's split on that second 5K shows he was hunting people down, not just holding on. Collin Turk held 4th steady at 41:40, while Ryan Nelson rounded out the top five in 44:27.

Behind them, the race got genuinely crowded. Steve Larrabee (49:11), Kenrick Hartman (49:23), Kent Ellis (49:26), and Jonathan Dear (49:34) were separated by just 23 seconds across places 8 through 11 — a reminder that in a group of 83, the battle for mid-pack bragging rights can be just as fierce as the one at the front.