M65-69 at Two Cities: Silverman runs away with it in Fresno heat

• Alex Silverman won the M65-69 group in 1:39:30 (7:35/mi), finishing more than 13 minutes clear of runner-up Jose Melchor.
• Silverman's surge from the 10K to the finish was the 51st-fastest closing split among all women in the field — a remarkable benchmark for a 68-year-old running in 74°F heat.
• Andy Macias was the race's most dramatic fader: he entered the 10K stretch in the men's top 31, then dropped to finish 4th in M65-69 with a 2:05:25.
• Seventeen men finished in M65-69, with a 90-minute gap separating first (1:39:30) from last (3:09:16).

Alex Silverman, 68, from Oakhurst, made this one look almost easy. Running 7:35 per mile on a warm November morning in Fresno, he built steadily through the first half of the race before unleashing a closing segment that was among the faster finishes in the entire field. By the time he crossed the line in 1:39:30, second-place Jose Melchor was still more than 13 minutes back — a margin that tells the whole story.

Melchor, 65, out of Fresno, had his own strong moment: his 1M-to-10K split ranked 61st among all women in the field, showing genuine early pace before he settled into a 1:52:35 finish. Oscar Guzman, also 65 and also from Fresno, rounded out the podium in 2:00:59, going sub-9:15 per mile to hold off Andy Macias by nearly five minutes.

The most turbulent race in M65-69 belonged to Macias, 69, of Porterville. He was flying through the early miles — tracking among the fastest men in the entire field through the first kilometer marker — but the back half told a different story, and he faded to 4th in 2:05:25. Brad Castillo and Thomas Schroeder, both 69, ran steady and close behind him, finishing 5th and 6th within two minutes of each other.

Further back, the M65-69 field spread wide, with eight men finishing between 2:32 and 3:09. Steve Lam closed out the group in 3:09:16 — still covering 13.1 miles at 68 years old on a warm Fresno afternoon, which is its own kind of result.