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

• Margaret Kopacz won the F60-64 age group in 42:45 (8:36/mi), finishing more than a minute and a half clear of the field.
• Susan Sheets (44:08) and Catherine Horan (44:15) battled closely for 2nd and 3rd — just 7 seconds separating them at the line.
• 4th through 5th were equally tight: Michelle Haskiell (44:25) and Michele Moyer (44:38) were separated by only 13 seconds.
• 243 women completed the F60-64 race on a mild but humid Virginia Beach morning — 62°F with 76% humidity and a light 9 mph wind off the coast.

Margaret Kopacz made the F60-64 race look commanding from the start. Running 8:36 per mile through the streets of Virginia Beach, the Chesapeake native posted a 42:45 that no one in the age group came close to matching. Her nearest challenger, Susan Sheets, finished in 44:08 — meaning Kopacz had built a margin of 1:23 over a field of 243 women. That's not a win you stumble into; that's a controlled, confident performance from wire to wire.

Behind Kopacz, the real drama played out in the fight for 2nd. Sheets, of Virginia Beach, held off fellow 60-year-old Catherine Horan of Clifton by just 7 seconds — 44:08 to 44:15. Both women ran nearly identical paces through the middle miles, with Sheets logging the 228th-fastest women's split on the 2M–4M stretch and Horan right on her heels with the 233rd. A 7-second gap over 8 kilometers is razor-thin, and Horan will know exactly where she needed to find a few more seconds.

The cluster just outside the podium was equally tight. Michelle Haskiell (44:25) and Michele Moyer (44:38) rounded out the top five within 13 seconds of each other, keeping the pressure on through the finish chute. From there, the field spread out more noticeably — Mary Jo Blackmore took 6th in 45:16, Kazuko Ray 7th in 45:48, and Holly Scott 8th in 46:49 — each separated by comfortable margins. With 243 finishers across the age group, the F60-64 field at Shamrock 2025 was a deep and competitive one, and Kopacz stood clearly above them all.