M60-64: Dain Thien Runs Away from a Tight Fresno Showdown

• Dain Thien won the M60-64 group in 3:50:21 (8:47/mi), finishing more than 9 minutes clear of the field.
• Stephen Mendyk and Javier Cruz staged a thriller for 2nd — separated by just 2 seconds at the line (3:59:39 vs. 3:59:41).
• Cruz was the stronger finisher, posting the 141st-fastest split in the field on the 25.2M→Finish stretch to nearly reel in Mendyk — but came up just short.
• Seven men finished in M60-64 in conditions that were warm for a marathon — 74°F and clear — making every sub-4:00 effort worth noting.

Dain Thien, 60, from San Jose, controlled this race from early on and never let it slip. His gender place improved steadily from 298th at the first checkpoint all the way to 172nd by the finish — a sustained, progressive move through the field at 8:47 per mile that left no drama about the M60-64 title. His strongest segment came late: the 23M–25.2M stretch, where he posted the 137th-fastest split in the field, a sign he was still accelerating while others were fading in the Fresno heat.

The real drama unfolded behind him. Stephen Mendyk, 64, of Fresno, and Javier Cruz, 63, of Bakersfield, ran almost identical races to a near-identical finish. Mendyk held the edge through much of the second half, but Cruz was clearly the stronger closer — his 141st-fastest split in the field on that final 25.2M-to-finish segment was sharper than anything Mendyk produced down the stretch. Cruz clawed back ground but couldn't quite complete the pass, losing 2nd place by two seconds after 26.2 miles.

Lance Rensch, 62, making the trip from Sioux Falls, SD, crossed 4th in 4:15:48, and Jiming Huang, 61, of Hayward, rounded out the top five in 4:19:36 — both putting up respectable efforts in the heat. Roehl Caragao and Rafael Pinto completed the seven-man M60-64 field, with Pinto's 5:16:32 a reminder of just how long a warm-day marathon can feel at mile 25.