Shamrock 8K M65-69: Beers Dominates in Virginia Beach

• Paul Beers won the M65-69 age group in 32:22 (6:31/mi), nearly 4 minutes clear of second place — the largest gap on the podium.
• Dwight Denlinger claimed 2nd in 36:20, with Douglas Rudley (age 69) rounding out the podium in 39:00.
• A tight cluster formed just outside the top five: 6th through 10th place were separated by just 62 seconds, from Rahn Burleson's 42:01 to Frank Ridgway's 43:03.
• 114 men finished in the M65-69 age group, making it a deep field for a 65-and-older bracket.

Paul Beers, 67, from Roanoke, was in a race of his own on a mild but humid St. Patrick's Day morning along the Virginia Beach coast. His 6:31-per-mile average through 8 kilometers wasn't just fast for the age group — it was untouchable. The nearly four-minute margin over Dwight Denlinger tells the real story: Beers ran at a different gear entirely.

Denlinger, 66, out of Weyers Cave, VA, held second place comfortably in 36:20 at 7:19/mi. Behind him, Douglas Rudley of Virginia Beach showed that age is no barrier — at 69, the oldest man on the podium, he crossed in 39:00 to claim 3rd. Timothy Hodge and Patrick McShea, both Virginia Beach locals, finished 4th and 5th in 41:08 and 41:38 respectively, separated by just 30 seconds.

The mid-pack battle was where the racing got genuinely interesting. Six through ten — Burleson, Baumgardner, Jones, Lounsbury, and Ridgway — were packed into little more than a minute of racing, each man running between 8:27 and 8:40 per mile. James Jones and Kevin Lounsbury were particularly close, finishing 8th and 9th in 42:49 and 42:52 — just three seconds apart. With 62°F temperatures and humidity nudging 76%, holding that pace through the back half of the course was no small feat for any of them.