M40-44: Marzolf Blazes to 34:42 in the Fresno Heat

• Sean Marzolf won the M40-44 group in 34:42 (5:35/mi), posting the 5th-fastest closing split (1M→Finish) among all men in the field.
• Courtney Curtis was just 1:28 back at 36:10 (5:49/mi), with the 6th-fastest closing split among the men — a clear 1-2 punch from the top of the age group.
• Quinn Zweigle and Chris Ellis ran nearly identical races, separated by only 31 seconds (47:30 vs. 48:01) for 3rd and 4th.
• Places 12 and 13 — Kazi Rahman and Keith Curry — finished in the exact same recorded time of 56:39, though the official order separates them.

Seventy-four degrees and clear skies in Fresno made for honest racing conditions, and Sean Marzolf was the standout answer. The 42-year-old from Sanger ran 34:42 at a 5:35/mi clip — a pace that had him surging through the men's field from 8th at the mile mark all the way to 1st by the finish. That closing split ranked 5th among all the men, which tells you exactly how sharp that final push was.

Courtney Curtis gave chase with real conviction. His 36:10 and 5:49/mi average also came with a top-10 closing split among the men, and he mirrored Marzolf's trajectory almost perfectly — starting 10th among men, finishing 2nd. The 1:28 gap between them is decisive on paper, but the parallel arcs of their races make for one of the cleaner head-to-head stories of the day.

Behind the top two, the group spread out considerably. Quinn Zweigle (3rd, 47:30) and Chris Ellis (4th, 48:01) were locked in their own private contest for the final podium spot, Zweigle edging it by half a minute. Noel Estrada rounded out the top five in 49:32. From there, the field stretched across a wide band from Manuel Lopez's 50:16 to Cesar Torres's 1:05:29 at 20th — 35 men in all, representing a full range of effort on a warm Central Valley morning.