M65-69 Marathon: Skitsak Dominates as Fresno's Own Wins at Home

• Mykhaylo Skitsak took the M65-69 title in 3:56:38 (9:02/mi), the only finisher in the group to break four hours.
• Puttappaiah Muniyappa was a clear runner-up at 4:11:55 (9:36/mi) — 15:17 back but well clear of the rest.
• The tightest battle of the day: Brien Dodd (4th, 5:14:59) and Ken Clark (5th, 5:16:56) finished just 1:57 apart after 26.2 miles in 74°F heat.
• Kevin Caruso rounded out the nine-man field in 6:32:28 (14:58/mi), nearly 2:36 behind 8th-place Richard Newton (5:48:53, 13:18/mi).

Nine men aged 65–69 toed the line in Fresno on a warm November morning — 74°F and sunny — and Mykhaylo Skitsak made it look like his personal backyard. The Fresno resident ran a composed 9:02/mi to finish in 3:56:38, the only man in the group to crack four hours and the clear class of the field from start to finish. His moves data tells the story of a confident, progressive race: he worked his way steadily through the broader men's field, climbing from 270th among men at the opening checkpoint all the way to 204th by the finish line.

Puttappaiah Muniyappa of Cupertino ran a disciplined effort of his own, clocking 4:11:55 at a 9:36/mi pace to claim second. He, too, was a mover in the broader field — surging from 375th among men early on all the way to 256th at the finish — but the 15-minute gap to Skitsak was never seriously in doubt. Randy Comfort of Hanford took third in 4:54:45 (11:15/mi), a further 42-plus minutes back, leaving the top three well separated by the tape.

The real drama played out further down the leaderboard. Brien Dodd (Orange, CA) and Ken Clark (Clovis, CA) spent the back half of the race in a close contest, with Clark actually posting the 185th-fastest split among men in the 10K-to-half stretch — a notable mid-race surge. But Clark faded in the closing miles while Dodd held steadier, and Dodd crossed in 5:14:59 to Clark's 5:16:56, a margin of just under two minutes after more than five hours of racing. Raef Guirges (5:36:04) and an anonymous 65-year-old (5:36:48) finished nearly side by side in sixth and seventh, with Richard Newton (5:48:53) in eighth and Kevin Caruso closing out the group in 6:32:28.