Shamrock Half Marathon F65-69: Sheppard Wins It in Virginia Beach

• Susan Sheppard (Midlothian, VA) took the F65-69 title in 2:06:48 (9:40/mi), finishing 1:17 clear of the field's runner-up.
• Linda Kennedy ran the fastest 5K→10K split among the top three, clocking a 9:46/mi average for 2nd place in 2:08:05 — but faded through the back half to finish 1:17 behind.
• Torill Rieger held 3rd in 2:10:14 (9:56/mi), a further 2:09 back, while Maria Jacob made the most dramatic move of the race — climbing from well outside the top 1,500 women at the start to finish 4th in 2:15:44.
• The top 20 spanned just over 37 minutes, with 44 women finishing across the F65-69 field on a humid, breezy Virginia Beach morning.

Susan Sheppard of Midlothian crossed in 2:06:48 to claim the F65-69 win — a 9:40/mi effort that held up across the full 13.1 miles at 95% humidity and an 11 mph wind off the coast. Her gender-place tracking tells a nuanced story: she drifted back slightly through the middle miles before recovering ground from 15K onward, posting one of the stronger late-race efforts in the field. At 69 years old, she was the oldest finisher in the top three.

Linda Kennedy (Alexandria, VA) made her move early. Her 5K→10K split was the fastest of any top-three finisher in that segment, and she climbed as high as 722nd among women by 10K. But the back half cost her — she slipped to 833rd among women by the finish — and Sheppard's steadier pace proved decisive. Kennedy's 2:08:05 was good for 2nd, 1:17 behind the winner.

Torill Rieger (Norfolk, VA) ran a consistent but gradually fading race, moving steadily back through the women's field from 5K onward to finish 3rd in 2:10:14. The real momentum story of the race, though, belonged to Maria Jacob (Virginia Beach, VA). Starting deep in the women's field — around 1,528th among women at the first checkpoint — she ran progressively faster relative to the field, climbing all the way to 1,189th by the finish. Her 2:15:44 and 10:21/mi average earned her 4th.

Patricia Chandler (The Villages, FL) rounded out the top five in 2:19:53, with Kathleen Ohara (Oak Park, IL) 6th in 2:23:06 and Kathleen Magoon (Bettendorf, IA) 7th in 2:27:45. The battle for 8th through 13th was tight — Joni Aaron (2:28:24), Karen Manos (2:29:31), Jennifer Jeffers (2:34:01), Cynthia Major (2:34:39), Cindy Pavelchik (2:35:03), and Susan Moss (2:35:12) were separated by just under seven minutes across six spots.