Cross Country And Track & Field's Carter Wins Male 70+ Division Of Lake Placid 10K
The 20th annual Lake Placid Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10K event was hosted on Sunday, June 8.
The 20th annual Lake Placid Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10K event was hosted on Sunday, June 8.
Tom Carter, head coach of the women's and men's cross country teams and associate head coach of the women's and men's track & field teams, participated in the 10K portion of the event.
Tom was the 21st overall finisher in the event, 16th among men, and 1st among men 70 years old and up. After being considered the champion of the male 70+ division, the 2025 Lake Placid 10K marks yet another win in Carter's storied running career. In fact, this is back-to-back wins for Carter at the Lake Placid event. In 2024, Carter was the first finisher among men 70 years old and up in the half marathon.
The 2024 Lake Placid Half Marathon and the 2025 Lake Placid 10K have been two incredibly successful and rewarding races for Tom. He finished 188th out of 628 finishers with a personal best time of 1:55:57, a pace of 8:51 per mile, in the half marathon in 2024. And now this summer, Carter was the 21st finisher out of 176 runners, on a personal best time of 50:27, a pace of 8:05 per mile, in the 10K.
Carter, who has won more than 500 races in his running career, described his win in this particular event as the one that he is most proud of and happiest about. In the first half of the race (5K), Tom set a personal best time of 23:37, a 7:38 per mile pace. His participation in the 10K marked the start of his 55th year of competitive running. These most recent experiences at Lake Placid have brought joy to Carter's life in that he has been able to return to racing after he was sidelined for four years due to a hip injury. The return was made possible only by Tom learning how to run while using a walker in order to the reduce the impact, as directed by his surgeon Dr. Seth Greenky of Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists in East Syracuse, NY.
Carter's continued success for such a prolonged period of time is a result of his focus and positivity. Tom operates with a great deal of dedication and deliberateness toward his craft, and the thing that he loves to do, running. He makes sure not to get distracted by vices, and he treats his body with the utmost respect by eating and drinking healthily and training and stretching every day, so that his body will allow him to keep enjoying his passion for as long as he can.
These qualities of positivity, determination, focus, and intelligence are what he has bestowed upon his student-athletes for many years. And he continues to do so to this day. It is one of the reasons why Carter, who is currently the longest tenured coach in the SUNY system, has been able to make such a transformative impact on the hundreds of individuals with whom he has interacted during his time as a professor within the Physical Education department and as a coach of the cross country and track & field programs.
Carter's passion is running, and it is through living out his own passion that he has helped others find theirs. He hopes to encourage others to never give up on something they love. He is a testament that as long as they dedicate themselves to it, they can do it for as long as they want.
@BroomeAthletics
