Lake Placid Marathon & Half Marathon
June 8, 2025
Lake Placid
Road
500-1000
Some Hills
High: 68°
/ Low: 50°
Overview
Nestled in the northernmost corner of northern New York’s Adirondack Park, the town of Lake Placid welcomes more than 2,000 runners each summer for its annual marathon, half-marathon and relay event, taking runners on a tour of the park and the area that hosted the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics.
Participants will certainly get a feel for the town’s Olympic past as the race course passes such notable sights as its National Sports Academy, Horseshow Grounds and Olympic Ski Jump and Speedskating Oval arena. The race was recently ranked by a Runner’s World magazine survey as the 2nd-best destination race in the United States.
As Lake Placid is set in the picturesque Adirondack Mountains, the course includes plenty of terrain you might expect in such a hilly region, with some flat stretches combined with a number of moderate uphills and downhills as well as a few steep climbs in elevation.
Course Description
The course’s most significant hills occur at the ski jump area near mile 5 and at the finish near Lake Placid High School. Race organizers say they are not overly daunting, however, describing them as “reasonable but fair.”
The out-and-back course is mostly free of traffic and consists mainly of paved roads with a brief (less than a mile) stretch of dirt trail terrain as the course winds through the Horseshow Grounds.
Much of the first half of the race takes runners past the Mirror Lake waterfront and offers beautiful views of nearby Whiteface Mountain.
