M75-79: John Combs dominates the Shamrock'n 5K

• John Combs, 78, won the M75-79 group in 25:38 — a blistering 8:15/mi that left the field nearly seven minutes behind.
• The gap from 1st to 2nd was 6:53 — larger than the gap from 2nd place all the way down to 7th.
• Eleven men finished, ranging from Combs's 25:38 to Bill Wilkins's 1:34:27 — a spread of over an hour across the group.
• Four men broke the one-hour mark; the final three were separated by just 33 seconds across nearly three minutes of racing near the back.

John Combs of Loomis came to West Sacramento and made it look straightforward. His 25:38 — 8:15 per mile — wasn't just a win; it was a statement. William Janicki of El Dorado Hills was a solid second in 32:31, and Richard Contreras of Rio Linda rounded out the podium in 35:14. Those three finished in a class of their own, with a gap of nearly 17 minutes separating Contreras from 4th-place John A. Delmonte.

The middle and back of the M75-79 field told a different story — a tight, grinding battle across the final stretch of the clock. Delmonte (52:28) and Glenn Bailey (54:14) were separated by under two minutes, and then Benjamin Tiburcio, Dave Pevny, and Gary Jones ran within a minute and a half of each other between 58:17 and 59:44. Bill Howe crossed just past the hour mark at 1:02:53, and Richard Delgado came in at 1:11:31. Bill Wilkins of Gold River closed it out at 1:34:27 — every one of these men earning their finish on a cool, clear St. Patrick's Day morning in West Sacramento.

Eleven men aged 75 to 79 showed up and got it done. Combs took the honors convincingly, but the real depth of this group is in how many of them were still racing each other hard deep into the course.