Williamsburg Area Running

Shamrock Sportsfest

2002

Piggott Wins $1,000 Prize Money at Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach

By Rick Platt

With a little bit of Shamrock luck, and overcoming some of the most difficult conditions ever in the 30-year history of the Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon, former Lafayette High runner John Piggott had the biggest prize-money payday of his life Saturday in Virginia Beach.

Running a full marathon (26.2 miles) is best done in cool temperatures on a flat course with little wind. The Shamrock race is always flat as a pancake, but is notoriously windy along the Atlantic Ocean. Usually the mid-March temperatures are an ideal 40s or 50s at the start, sometimes rising into the 60s during the marathon. Saturday was the hottest ever for Shamrock, sunny, with the day's high of 83 degrees just two degrees off the record 85. About a third of the marathon starters could not finish in the wind and heat, an unusually high percentage.

Piggott, who ran a personal record 2:30:45 at last November's Richmond Marathon, was in shape to better that time. His performance at February's Running Crab Half Marathon in Hampton showed he was capable of a sub-2:30. And his pace Saturday was on that target through thehalf-marathon point (1:14 for the 13.1-mile mark, after going through 10 miles in the 55's). However, the heat and changeable, swirling winds caught up with the leaders. "Everywhere we went, the wind was in your face," said Piggott. "It was against you the whole race."

The former Williamsburg resident (now living in Newport News) went through 20 miles in 1:55, but slowed dramatically the last six miles. "It was hot," said Piggott. He was the second runner across the finish line in 2:38:35, which should have been good for the runnerup prize money of $600. However Piggott's Shamrock luck came when race winner Ben Rosario (in 2:34:14, the second slowest winning time in race history, and only 17 seconds off the slowest) talked to Piggott inside the Virginia Beach Pavilion and said, "You'll probably get the [$1,000 first-place] prize money, cause I'm still in college." Rosario, 22, of St. Louis runs for Truman State College in Kirksville, Mo., and he had placed 10th in the NCAA Division II indoor 5,000 meters one week earlier. He had never run longer than 21 miles before Shamrock.

Prior to Shamrock, Piggott had earned a total of $800 lifetime in prize money. Saturday's haul more than doubled that amount. One other area runner placed in the top ten overall and received prize money. Henry Gleisberg, 45, of Yorktown ran an eighth-place 2:52:38, which earned him $300 as the first Masters (40-and-over) runner.

Irina Suvorova of Russia won the women's race in 2:58:04, while three-time Colonial Half Marathon Masters champion Sheri Segal of Virginia Beach was the women's Masters winner in 3:18:30.

The Colonial Road Runners were a surprise winner of the open men's marathon team competition, as the expected winners, the host Tidewater Striders or the Final Kick running store teams, among others, either did not field a team, or could not finish three runners in the heat. The CRR team was William and Mary freshman Mark Engelbert (3:29:25, 4th, men 24-and-under), York High teacher and coach Jeff MacGuinness (3:35:42) and Lewis Jones (4:23:12).

Other area marathon finishers were Dennis Manske (3:19:42, 2nd men 55-59), Joseph Ashman (3:27:47), Joe McConnell (3:33:13), Daniel Deptula (3:39:24), Lee Miller (3:42:15), Kara Falcone (3:43:04, 2nd, women 30-34), Quan Nim, (3:45:09, 5th, women 25-29), Jim Wingo (3:46:05), Dan O'Brien (3:50:09), Michael Zyracki (3:56:08), Peter Azzopardi (4:00:19), Tim Clapp(4:07:51), Katharina Fowler (4:08:41), Mark Dix (4:11:47), Michael Williams (4:13:57), Dennis Dobbins (4:19:31), Joseph DeMarco (4:23:04), Mike Ryan (4:25:37), Jeanine Hoelker (4:28:29), Edmund Hoelker (4:28:34), Wenda Ribeiro (4:35:15), Barbara Ivey (4:35:36), Manuel Moreton (4:43:34), Brian Miller (4:45:27), Earnest Roy (4:47:57), Stephen Casey (4:52:03), Sean Thompson (4:58:19), Bradley Hansen (5:15:46), Joseph Majcher (5:37:59), Hilary Johnson-Lutz (6:01:21), Houston Tucker (6:09:58), Kat Lindsay (6:13:13), Christine Laurance (6:13:14), Kathy Mathis (6:47:28) and Tracey Knowles (6:47:29).

In the open 8K team competition, the Colonial Road Runners women's team lost by just 36 seconds, 2:41:45 to 2:42:21 to the Tidewater Striders. On the CRR team were Anna Pichrtova (6th overall, 27:42), Alison Holinka (7th overall, 28:53), Laura Hanson (34:01, 4th, 20-24), Lindsay Kent(35:18, 1st 14-and-under) and Sarah Chapman (36:27, 4th, 14-and-under). The top five overall received prize money, so Pichrtova and Holinka just missed. Pichrtova, the winner of February's Colonial Half Marathon in a course record 1:15:02, had won $10,000 two weeks earlier by placing third in the Los Angeles Marathon in a PR 2:33:25.

Mike Mann (25:53, 1st, 30-34) and Andre Smith (26:27, 2nd, 25-29)were 12th and 17th overall in the open men's 8K, dominated by Kenyans, who took the top nine places (including winner John Itati in 22:37). Kenyans swept the top four spots for the women, including winner Gladys Asiba(25:57).

Area award winners in the Masters 8K were Valerie Plyler (35:00,5th, women 40-44), Carol Talley (35:06, 4th, women 45-49), Joan Coven(38:34, 1st, women 60-64), Sylvia Boecker (48:19, 4th, women 60-64) and Steve Tyndall (32:29, 5th, men 50-54).