M70-74: Kunz Claims Fresno with a Sub-2:06 Effort

• Michael Kunz won the M70-74 age group in 2:05:06 (9:33/mi), finishing more than 2 minutes ahead of runner-up Steve Behlen.
• The top three — Kunz, Behlen, and Doug Fraleigh — were separated by just 2:45, while 4th place Don Rickels trailed Fraleigh by nearly 15 minutes.
• Kunz was the strongest mover in the field, climbing from 535th to 368th among men across the race's three tracked checkpoints.
• Nine men aged 70–74 finished on a warm Fresno morning — 74°F and clear — making every one of those 13.1 miles a genuine test.

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Michael Kunz, 71, ran the most controlled and progressive race in the M70-74 group. Starting somewhere in the middle of the men's field at 535th, he steadily worked his way forward — reaching 432nd by the 10K mark and 368th by the finish. That kind of sustained forward momentum over 13 miles, at a 9:33/mi clip, was the defining performance of the age group.

Steve Behlen (73, Clovis) and Doug Fraleigh (70, Fresno) waged a close battle for the podium. Behlen crossed in 2:07:17 and Fraleigh in 2:07:51 — just 34 seconds apart after more than two hours of racing. Both men ran nearly identical paces through the 1M–10K segment, and their men's field positions tracked closely throughout. Behlen held a slight edge in the middle miles and never let it go.

Behind the top three, the race spread out considerably. Don Rickels (74) finished 4th in 2:22:45, and Timothy Geddert (73) was 5th in 2:28:40 — a gap of nearly six minutes between them. Rogers Speer, Tom Kozera, Pedro Segura, and Arnoldo Vargas rounded out the group, with Vargas completing the course in 3:16:56 at a 15:01/mi pace — a determined finish under the Fresno heat.

Nine men in their seventies finishing a half marathon in 74-degree sunshine deserves its own acknowledgment. Kunz took the win, but every finisher in this group earned it.