Shamrock 8K: Margaret Kopacz Tops the F60-64 Field in Virginia Beach

• Margaret Kopacz (age 60, Chesapeake) won the F60-64 group in 42:45 — an 8:36/mi pace that put more than a minute and a half of clear air between her and the rest of the podium.
• Susan Sheets and Catherine Horan finished 2nd and 3rd in 44:08 and 44:15 respectively — just seven seconds separating them across 8 kilometers.
• Places 3 through 5 were packed into a 23-second window: Horan (44:15), Michelle Haskiell (44:25), and Michele Moyer (44:38) ran nearly shoulder-to-shoulder the entire way.
• A strong field of 243 finishers in the F60-64 age group made this one of the most competitive 60-64 women's races on the morning.

Margaret Kopacz set the tone from the start and never let it slip. Running 8:36 per mile on a mild but humid Virginia Beach morning — 62°F with 76% humidity and a 9 mph wind off the coast — she crossed in 42:45, a margin of 1:23 over second-place Susan Sheets. That kind of gap in a race that takes most runners under 50 minutes is decisive.

Behind Kopacz, the real drama was a three-way chase for the podium. Sheets (44:08) held off Horan (44:15) by seven seconds, with Horan in turn just ten seconds ahead of Haskiell (44:25). Moyer rounded out the top five at 44:38 — meaning four runners finished within 30 seconds of each other for positions 2 through 5. Any of them could have swapped places with a single strong finishing push.

Further back, the field spread out steadily but stayed competitive well into the standings. Mary Jo Blackmore (6th, 45:16), Kazuko Ray (7th, 45:48), and Holly Scott (8th, 46:49) kept the pace honest through the mid-pack, while the top 20 all came in under 51 minutes. With 243 women completing the race in the F60-64 age group, Kopacz's win stands atop a genuinely deep field — earned with pace and separation, not just by showing up.