Men's Marathon: Ladson Surges Past Toso for the Win

• Jonathan Ladson, 2:40:37 (6:08/mi) — took the lead with the fastest men's split on the 4.8M–6.7M segment and never looked back.
• Luke Toso, 2:45:10 — led through the first three checkpoints with the fastest men's split on 2.5M–4.8M, but couldn't hold off Ladson's mid-race move.
• Paulo Amaral, 2:49:09 — a steady, unshaken 3rd from gun to tape, the 45-year-old from Lowell posting the 3rd-fastest split on 2.5M–4.8M.
• Cole Jensen, 11th in 3:15:40 — the 2024 champion returns, but 35 minutes off his winning pace from a year ago.

The men's race in Bismarck had a clean narrative arc: Luke Toso, racing on home turf, went to the front early and held it through the first half. The local favorite ran the fastest men's split on the 2.5M–4.8M segment and carried his lead into the back half — but Jonathan Ladson, making the trip from Woodbridge, VA, had other plans. Ladson, sitting in 2nd from the opening miles, struck on the 4.8M–6.7M stretch, posting the fastest men's split on that segment to seize the lead. From that point on, the race was his, and he crossed in 2:40:37 at a 6:08/mi clip.

Toso held firm in 2nd, finishing in 2:45:10 — a 4:33 gap to the winner and a strong result in his own right. Behind him, Paulo Amaral was the model of consistency, sitting 3rd at every single checkpoint and never wavering. At 45 years old, his 2:49:09 — the 3rd-place finish at 6:27/mi — was the kind of performance that commands respect in a men's field of 144.

Brayden Pawluk (4th, 2:51:57) and Seth Kelly (5th, 2:52:55) rounded out a tight top five, with both men logging standout splits late in the race — Pawluk ran the 2nd-fastest split on the 21.9M–23.8M segment, Kelly the 3rd-fastest on the same stretch, a sign that both were still pushing hard deep into the final miles. The 58-year-old Ryan Shrum deserves a mention too: 9th overall among the men in 3:14:22 at 7:25/mi, one of the more quietly impressive results in the field.