Two Cities Marathon M25-29: Gaul Runs Away With It

• Brian Gaul (Union City, CA) won the M25-29 age group in 2:46:27 (6:21/mi), climbing from 14th to 9th among men overall by the finish line.
• River elms ran a strong negative split, moving from 38th to 15th among men overall and posting the 7th-fastest 23M→25.2M split in the men's field.
• Devin Fiorentino made one of the biggest moves of the day, surging from 51st to 19th among men overall and delivering the 8th-fastest 25.2M→Finish split in the men's field.
• Bill Van Cleve and Connor Matthews finished 6th and 7th in M25-29 in identical displayed times of 3:06:22 — Van Cleve edged ahead by the slimmest of margins.

Brian Gaul put together a controlled, dominant performance on Fresno's flat point-to-point course. Running 6:21/mi across 26.2 miles, he finished in 2:46:27 — nearly seven minutes clear of second place — and his second-half push, which ranked 9th-fastest among men on that stretch, confirmed he wasn't coasting. He climbed from 14th to 9th among men overall by the finish, a steady and efficient run from start to tape.

Behind him, river elms and Devin Fiorentino told a story of patience rewarded. Elms (2:53:08, 6:36/mi) spent the first half buried in the men's field before reeling off the 7th-fastest 23M–25.2M split among men and landing 2nd in M25-29. Fiorentino (2:55:16, 6:41/mi) was even more dramatic — sitting 51st among men at the halfway point before a relentless late charge, capped by the 8th-fastest closing split in the men's field, carried him all the way to 3rd. Both men ran the second half considerably faster relative to their peers than the first, making the final miles the real race for the podium.

Jensen Davis (4th, 3:00:43) and Lucas Versluys (5th, 3:03:05) rounded out the top five, with Versluys posting the 25th-fastest 13.1M–18M split among men — a mid-race surge that kept him in contention through the back half. The age group drew 60 finishers in all, with a spread from Gaul's 2:46 down through the 3:30s and beyond, making it one of the deeper M25-29 fields on the day.