M30-34: Becker dominates as Ceballos Madrigal returns stronger

• Brock Becker won the M30-34 age group in 1:17:09 (5:53/mi), finishing 4th among men overall and posting the 4th-fastest 10K→Finish split among men.
• Jorge Ceballos Madrigal ran 1:20:34 to finish 2nd — 18 seconds faster than his 8th-place finish here in 2023 (1:20:52), this time landing on the podium.
• Han Lin climbed from 23rd to 13th among men across the race, posting the 11th-fastest 10K→Finish split among men to claim 3rd in 1:23:14.
• A four-way cluster from 8th through 11th finished within 3 minutes and 35 seconds of each other, spanning 1:31:19 to 1:35:54.

Becker was untouchable in the M30-34 age group, crossing in 1:17:09 at a 5:53/mi clip — a full 3:25 clear of the field. He held 5th among men through the first two checkpoints before surging to 4th by the finish, and his 10K→Finish split ranked among the fastest in the men's field. There was no drama at the front; this was a wire-to-wire command performance.

The real story behind Becker was a genuine return trip for Ceballos Madrigal. He ran this same race in 2023, finishing 8th among men in 1:20:52. This year he came back, shaved 18 seconds off that time, and stepped onto the podium in 2nd place at 1:20:34. It's a satisfying arc — same course, same October morning, measurably better result. He was particularly sharp on the opening 1M→10K segment, posting the 7th-fastest split among men on that stretch, though he couldn't quite hold that position through the finish, settling at 7th among men overall.

Han Lin was the age group's most compelling mover. Starting 23rd among men, he worked his way to 18th by 10K, then put together the 11th-fastest 10K→Finish split in the men's field to close out 13th among men and claim 3rd in M30-34 in 1:23:14. Nicholas Hurst rounded out the top four in 1:24:00, while Xiong Vang's 1:28:00 gave him a clear 5th. Behind them, Jorge Carmona (1:30:01), Donovan McKinney (1:30:28), and Jonathan Hart (1:31:19) filled out a competitive middle tier before a tight cluster of runners from Erick Corona through Ryan McKelvey all finished within two minutes of each other around the 1:35–1:36 mark.