Shamrock Marathon F60-64: Marchand Leads Wire to Wire for a 4:09 Victory

• Jeanne Marchand, 62, wins in 4:09:36 (9:31/mi) — a 6:45 margin over runner-up Ryn Morrison.
• Ryn Morrison surges from back to front — sitting outside the top 350 among women at the halfway mark, she ran her way to 2nd in F60-64 with a 4:16:21.
• Morrison's strongest stretch: her 30K–35K split ranked 225th among all women — the fastest leg split of anyone in the F60-64 top three.
• 16 finishers completed the F60-64 race, from Marchand's 4:09:36 down to Elizabeth Lindahl's 7:27:28.

Jeanne Marchand of Winchester, CT controlled the F60-64 race from the front, sitting among the top 195 women at 5K and never relinquishing her lead within the group. She did drift back in the women's field through the second half — sliding from around 186th among women at 25K to 240th by 35K — but she steadied through the final stretch, finishing at 9:31/mi for a convincing 4:09:36. No one in F60-64 came close to matching that pace.

The most compelling sub-plot belonged to Ryn Morrison, 61, of South Boston, VA. She was running 381st among women at the opening checkpoint and still 358th at 25K — well off the early pace — but she was quietly reeling people in. Her 30K–35K split was the 225th-fastest among all women in the field, a genuine surge that carried her up to 264th in the women's race by mile 35K. She crossed in 4:16:21 (9:47/mi) for a clear 2nd place, 6:45 behind Marchand.

Susan Sheets, 63, of Virginia Beach rounded out the podium in 4:23:26 (10:03/mi). Sheets ran a measured race — her women's field position hovered in the 290s–350s for most of the day — before posting the 229th-fastest women's split on the 35K-to-finish segment to secure 3rd. Maureen Powers (4:40:27) and Lisa Schmucker (4:41:12) finished 4th and 5th respectively, separated by just 45 seconds after 26.2 miles in Virginia Beach's humid, breezy conditions.