Shamrock 8K F60-64: Kopacz Claims Virginia Beach Crown

• Margaret Kopacz wins in 42:45 (8:36/mi), more than 1:20 clear of the field in a 243-woman F60-64 race.
• Susan Sheets surges from 425th among women at the first checkpoint to 228th at the finish, the biggest climb in the top 20 — powered by the 156th-fastest 2M→4M split among women.
• Top-five separated by just 1:53 — Kopacz aside, four runners finished between 44:08 and 44:38.
• Holly Scott, 64, places 8th in 46:49 — the oldest athlete in the listed top ten, running 9:25/mi on a warm, humid Virginia Beach morning.

Margaret Kopacz, 60, of Chesapeake, made her intentions clear early and never let up. Running 8:36/mi, she crossed in 42:45 — a margin of 1:23 over the nearest challenger. Her second half told a subtler story: her gender place slipped from 169th to 172nd on that stretch, meaning others were moving through the women's field faster, but no one in F60-64 could touch her. The win was decisive.

Behind Kopacz, the battle for the podium was genuinely tight. Susan Sheets of Virginia Beach finished 2nd in 44:08 (8:53/mi) after one of the race's most dramatic position swings — she was 425th among women through the first checkpoint before charging through the middle miles with the 156th-fastest 2M→4M split in the women's field. Catherine Horan (44:16, 8:54/mi) held 3rd, just eight seconds back, while Michelle Haskiell (44:26, 8:56/mi) and Michele Moyer (44:38, 8:59/mi) rounded out the top five. That quartet covered 30 seconds — a real race within the race.

Further back, Mary Jo Blackmore (6th, 45:16) and Kazuko Ray (7th, 45:49) ran solid middle-of-the-pack efforts before Holly Scott's 8th-place 46:49 stood out as the top finish among the 64-year-olds in the listed field. Terri Pignone (9th, 47:18) and Karen Leavis (10th, 47:43) closed out a top ten that spanned just under five minutes from first to last — a competitive, tightly-bunched F60-64 field on a warm, breezy Virginia Beach morning.