M80-99 Half Marathon: Tommy Welch Claims the Age Group at 82

• Tommy Welch, 82, finished in 2:51:52 (13:07/mi avg) to win the M80-99 group.
• Cyrus Rhode Jr, 81, completed the course in 3:27:02 (15:48/mi avg) — 35 minutes 10 seconds back.
• Welch's strongest segment came between 15K and 20K, where he posted the 2,003rd-fastest split among all men in that stretch.
• Both men finished the full 13.1 miles on a warm, windy Virginia Beach morning — 71°F with 17 mph winds and 73% humidity.

Just two runners toed the line in the M80-99 age group at the 2025 Shamrock Half Marathon, and both of them finished — which, given the conditions, is a story worth telling. Virginia Beach served up a legitimately tough day: 71°F, thick humidity at 73%, and a 17 mph wind that would have been felt by every runner on the course.

Tommy Welch, representing College Station, TX at age 82, was the steadier presence throughout. His movement through the men's field tells the tale of a disciplined effort — he climbed from 2,261st among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 2,133rd by the finish, a net gain of 128 places across the race. That kind of progressive advancement doesn't happen by accident; Welch was reeling people in as others faded in the heat. His 15K-to-20K segment was particularly sharp, ranking 2,003rd among men for that stretch.

Cyrus Rhode Jr of Spencer, TN ran a different race. The 81-year-old actually slipped back slightly through the men's field after the early checkpoints — moving from 2,305th to 2,351st by the second split — before steadying in the final stretch. He crossed in 3:27:02, a 15:48/mi average that still represents a full half marathon completed under genuinely difficult conditions.

Welch's margin of victory was 35 minutes and 10 seconds, but the real headline is simpler: two men in their eighties ran 13.1 miles on a hot, windy March morning in Virginia Beach. Both finished. That's the M80-99 age group at Shamrock 2025.