THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603140119
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
THE GLAMOUR EVENT in this year's two-day Shamrock Sportsfest, which begins this afternoon with a sports and fitness expo, is the Open 8K run, not the marathon.
The reason: organizer Jerry Bocrie is importing a field of fleet-footed Kenyans, led by 20-year-old Lazarus Nyakeraka, who has zipped to glory in three of 10 middle-distance races in the United States in the past two years.
As a matter of fact, Nyakeraka was barely nosed out in the 1994 Shamrock 8K by fellow Kenyan Josephat Machuka, who bounded over the 5-mile beachfront course in 22 minutes and 9 seconds, despite gusty Atlantic winds.
Another reason the 8K has overshadowed the marathon, says Bocrie, who founded the Shamrock in 1973, is that he cannot offer the big prizes to world class distance runners - stipends in the $200,000 to $300,000 range - that events such as the Boston Marathon or the New York Marathon can. Winners of the Shamrock Marathon, Open 8K and Masters 8K get $1,000 each.
Nevertheless, Bocrie has been able to attract a top woman marathoner, Ukrainian Lyubou Klochko, 36, who won the March 3 marathon in Los Angeles. Klochko trotted off with the $15,000 top prize. Saturday, however, she'll compete in the Shamrock's Open 8K, not the marathon.
Lack of more big corporate sponsors to underwrite the Shamrock operational costs and prize offerings has kept the event from developing into a program of truly world class prominence, Bocrie argues. While the city contributes $8,000 to $10,000 annually in police, fire and cleanup services, a lot more money is needed to attract fields of more than 10,000 participants to the race.
Hopefully, says Bocrie, this may be remedied with some wider national exposure. This year for the first time the Shamrock races will be filmed for later release on ESPN.
It will be a five-minute segment on the sports TV network, said James B. Ricketts, who heads the city's Convention and Tourism Development Department, and it will place the name and image of Virginia Beach before a wide national audience.
``Next year we hope to expand that to 30 minutes,'' Ricketts added.
Besides the 100 or so ``elite'' runners imported to Virginia Beach from Kenya, Russia, England and other parts of the United States, Bocrie predicts a total field of 4,000 participants in the series of Shamrock races starting at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Pavilion Convention Center with the Masters 8K. The marathon kicks off at 9 a.m. The Open 8K, featuring the ``elite'' field, begins at 9:30 a.m.; the 5K walk begins at 10 a.m. and the children's mini marathon starts at 10:45 a.m.
Of the 4,000 expected Saturday morning, most will be locals or in-state runners, many of them last-minute sign-ups, Bocrie said. They will be folks who want to shake off winter's rust with a brisk and often windswept lope around the city's Oceanfront landscape.
One local who has been preparing for the marathon is B.J. Samuel, 44, mother of two teenage boys and an avid outdoors woman.
Samuel, wife of a NationsBank executive who moved to the city a little over two years ago from Alexandria, said she ran competitively for the first time last year in the Shamrock 8K run and became hooked on the sport.
So she joined the Tidewater Striders, a local runners' organization, and set her sights on competing in the Shamrock marathon this year. For the past few months, Samuel has followed a rigorous daily training regimen. After sending her two sons off to school each morning, she dons her running togs and sets out on distances of 8, 10, 15 and finally 20 miles. Recently, she has been reducing the distances, winding down for the big race.
She also has prepared sartorially for the competition, or rather for the uncertainties of the weather facing marathoners on race day. ``I bought three outfits, just in case,'' she said.
Her goal beyond the Shamrock, says the peppy and garrulous Samuel, is to qualify for the 1997 Boston Marathon - the granddaddy of them all.
To do this, she must be able to cover a 26.2-mile marathon course in 3 hours and 50 minutes. Her immediate goal is to run the Shamrock in 4 hours and 20 minutes and step up her training to pare down her time to meet Boston Marathon requirements.
The Shamrock has become the Beach's traditional rite of passage from winter to spring, attracting hordes of veteran and novice runners to limber up and expose pallid limbs to the whims of the fickle Hampton Roads climate.
It is always a festive time, when competitors, family members and friends enjoy a certain outdoorsy camaraderie and partake of the good life that only the Oceanfront has to offer.
And while the effort is therapeutic to participants, it has had only a moderately salutary effect on the city's resort businesses, say tourism gurus like Ricketts and Rick Anoia, chairman of the Resort Leadership Council. The council is an umbrella lobbying group representing resort hoteliers, restaurant and shop owners.
Gauging from past experience, Ricketts says the Shamrock usually results in the booking of some 400 Oceanfront hotel rooms out of 7,500 at the Oceanfront and 11,000 citywide, for a two-night period. Nice, but not outstanding.
``One thing with the Shamrock,'' says Anoia, ``a lot of people will stay with friends (in the city), but there are some hotel rooms to be derived from it.
``They do support the restaurants. It's one of those events that generates a lot of nice camaraderie.''
``In terms of room nights generated, it's not the same thing as the Columbus Day soccer tournament,'' adds Mary Pat Fortier, executive director of the Virginia Beach Hotel and Motel Association.
But Oceanfront innkeepers like Robert H. Vakos, who operates the Colonial Inn on Atlantic Avenue at 29th Street, and James H. Capps, owner of the Breakers Motel on Atlantic and 16th Street, view the Shamrock weekend as the welcome end of a normally dormant winter season. Both inns are among 12 listed in this year's Shamrock brochure as establishments that offer discount rates to race participants.
``It kicks off our spring,'' said Vakos. ``We do well with the Shamrock. They have special needs so we have to work around that, but they're a good group. If the weather is good we will do well here.''
Adds Capps, ``It's a good event and it will pretty much fill us up by Friday and Saturday. It's been that way for me for the last six or seven years. It comes at a time when when we need it.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover photo]
THE PACK IS BACK
Staff photos by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
One local runner who has been preparing for the Shamrock Marathon is
B. J. Samuel, 44, mother of two teenage boys. She ran competitively
for the first time in last year's 8K race and became hooked. She has
followed a rigorous daily training regimen.
Lack of more big corporate sponsors has kept the event from
developing into a program of truly world class prominence, Shamrock
Marathon founder Jerry Bocrie says.
1994 staff file photo
A total field of about 4,000 participants is expected for the series
of Shamrock races starting at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Pavilion.
Staff photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Shamrock founder Jerry Bocrie said this year's event will get wider
national exposure. For the first time, the races will be filmed for
later release on ESPN, a five-minute segment.
SHAMROCK EVENTS
All activities take place at the Pavilion Convention Center on
19th Street unless otherwise noted.
Friday 2-10 p.m. - sports and fitness expo; packet pickup and
registration.
5-8 p.m. - pasta dinner.
5-10 p.m. - hospitality room open.
7:30 p.m. - runners' clinic.
Saturday 7 a.m.-3 p.m. - sports and fitness expo.
7 a.m. until races start - packet pickup and registration.
8:30 a.m. - masters 8K starts.
9 a.m. - marathon starts.
9:30 a.m. - open 8K starts.
10 a.m. - 5K walk starts.
10:45 a.m. - childrens' mini marathon starts.
Noon - 8K and masters 8K awards.
1:30 p.m. - marathon awards.
7:30 p.m. - party for race participants at the 24th Street Park
on Atlantic Avenue.
by CNB