Shamrock Marathon F75-79: Brothers Takes the Title in Virginia Beach

• Betty Brothers won the F75-79 race in 5:29:01 (12:33/mi), finishing 609th among women overall.
• Jackie Hobbs completed the marathon in 6:33:20 (15:00/mi), crossing 1:04:19 behind Brothers.
• Hobbs posted the 847th-fastest women's split from the half to 30K, a stretch where she moved steadily forward through the women's field.

Just two women lined up in the F75-79 field at the 2026 Shamrock Marathon, and both of them finished — no small feat across 26.2 miles in Virginia Beach's thick 95% humidity and steady 11 mph wind.

Betty Brothers, age 79 and racing on home turf in Virginia Beach, led from the front and never relinquished it. She clocked a 12:33/mi average on her way to a 5:29:01 finish, and her early effort was sharp enough to register the 460th-fastest women's split on the 5K-to-10K stretch. The back half of the race told a different story — her position in the women's field slipped steadily from 462nd at the halfway point to 689th at the finish — but the pace held well enough to secure the win by over an hour.

Jackie Hobbs, 75, making the trip from Huntsville, Alabama, ran a contrasting race entirely. Where Brothers faded through the women's field in the second half, Hobbs moved the other direction — climbing from 953rd among women near the start all the way to 877th by the finish. Her strongest stretch came between the half and 30K, where she put up the 847th-fastest women's split in the field, steadily reeling in runners ahead of her. At 15:00/mi and a final time of 6:33:20, she crossed the line well back of Brothers, but the forward momentum through the closing miles was a story in its own right.

Two finishers, two very different races — and both of them earned it on a humid March morning in Virginia Beach.