The North Country spent part of the Memorial Day weekend gathering hundreds of athletes for race day around Cumberland Bay. The Lake City Running Festival returned for its third straight year. Close to 400 athletes from around Northern New York gave it their all to complete the course from start to finish. “Mentally, I told myself I was going to do this the past year,” said Peter Reynolds from Chateaugay, N.Y. “It was a really good feeling to say I finally did, and now I’ve done one bucket list item to cross off.” Participants got to run or walk in a 5 kilometer (KM), 10 kilometer (KM) or half marathon. Everyone started and finished at the Plattsburgh City beach, while running right alongside Lake Champlain. Those who participated in the half marathon ran as far as the U.S. Oval Park before finishing their 13.1-mile loop back to the city beach. Julia Ennis, a participant from Plattsburgh, N.Y., participated in the 10 KM run and said she enjoyed taking in all the sights the course had to offer. “Overall, a lot of fun,” Ennis said. “The trial, everything along the water was awesome … I really enjoyed all the bystanders cheering us along the way.” While the fans brought their energy to the athletes, the Lake City Running Festival knew the importance of also keeping the energy levels of their runners high. Volunteers were scattered across various mile markers providing Gatorade and water to keep everyone moving. One team who dedicated their time to support was the Lake Champlain Waves, a local youth swim team which features middle and high school athletes from all over Clinton County, N.Y. “We’re here to support our local runners,” said Maddison Mero, one of the volunteers from the Lake Champlain Waves Swim team. “It’s super important. We don’t want anything bad to happen to them on their race. We want them to be as comfortable as they can running or walking.” The Waves are one local team who was directly impacted by the race year after year. Proceeds collected from the Lake City Running Festival are donated to North Country Health and Wellness (NCHW) an organization which provides scholarship funds for local youth athletes to support their financial needs to compete for sports clubs and teams like the Lake Champlain Waves. “We really want to help some low-income kids that might not be able to afford to do club sports,” said NCHW president Hayden Reidy. “They might not be able to afford uniforms or anything like that for school sports, so we give scholarships to those kids to help them do those types of things.” At the conclusion of all the running, an after-party featuring food and music took place at the Plattsburgh City beach. Adirondack Foord Therapy provided the snacks which accompanied live music performance by Abi Allen, a local musician from Peru, N.Y. “It just keeps people here a little bit longer,” Reidy said. “Keeps them outside, gets them more active.” Reidy, who has been the Lake City Running Festival director for the past three years, hopes to bring back the race for many years to come. It all comes down to more new runners signing up and returning runners coming back, who are on board with supporting an important cause. “It makes it even better,” Reynolds said. “Helping the kids out and doing stuff for a good cause, that’s a big part of it.” It’s a cause that also hits home for Ennis. The former Plattsburgh State women’s soccer goalie knows how important fundraising events like these are to supporting a sports team. “As a former athlete myself, I understand how much fundraising helps,” Ennis said. “Donations and support really help the young athletes … any opportunity I have to give back to them is awesome.” The Lake City Running Festival is expected to make its return to Plattsburgh in 2026.
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. —
The North Country spent part of the Memorial Day weekend gathering hundreds of athletes for race day around Cumberland Bay.
The Lake City Running Festival returned for its third straight year. Close to 400 athletes from around Northern New York gave it their all to complete the course from start to finish.
“Mentally, I told myself I was going to do this the past year,” said Peter Reynolds from Chateaugay, N.Y. “It was a really good feeling to say I finally did, and now I’ve done one bucket list item to cross off.”
Participants got to run or walk in a 5 kilometer (KM), 10 kilometer (KM) or half marathon. Everyone started and finished at the Plattsburgh City beach, while running right alongside Lake Champlain. Those who participated in the half marathon ran as far as the U.S. Oval Park before finishing their 13.1-mile loop back to the city beach.
Julia Ennis, a participant from Plattsburgh, N.Y., participated in the 10 KM run and said she enjoyed taking in all the sights the course had to offer.
“Overall, a lot of fun,” Ennis said. “The trial, everything along the water was awesome … I really enjoyed all the bystanders cheering us along the way.”
While the fans brought their energy to the athletes, the Lake City Running Festival knew the importance of also keeping the energy levels of their runners high. Volunteers were scattered across various mile markers providing Gatorade and water to keep everyone moving. One team who dedicated their time to support was the Lake Champlain Waves, a local youth swim team which features middle and high school athletes from all over Clinton County, N.Y.
“We’re here to support our local runners,” said Maddison Mero, one of the volunteers from the Lake Champlain Waves Swim team. “It’s super important. We don’t want anything bad to happen to them on their race. We want them to be as comfortable as they can running or walking.”
The Waves are one local team who was directly impacted by the race year after year. Proceeds collected from the Lake City Running Festival are donated to North Country Health and Wellness (NCHW) an organization which provides scholarship funds for local youth athletes to support their financial needs to compete for sports clubs and teams like the Lake Champlain Waves.
“We really want to help some low-income kids that might not be able to afford to do club sports,” said NCHW president Hayden Reidy. “They might not be able to afford uniforms or anything like that for school sports, so we give scholarships to those kids to help them do those types of things.”
At the conclusion of all the running, an after-party featuring food and music took place at the Plattsburgh City beach. Adirondack Foord Therapy provided the snacks which accompanied live music performance by Abi Allen, a local musician from Peru, N.Y.
“It just keeps people here a little bit longer,” Reidy said. “Keeps them outside, gets them more active.”
Reidy, who has been the Lake City Running Festival director for the past three years, hopes to bring back the race for many years to come. It all comes down to more new runners signing up and returning runners coming back, who are on board with supporting an important cause.
“It makes it even better,” Reynolds said. “Helping the kids out and doing stuff for a good cause, that’s a big part of it.”
It’s a cause that also hits home for Ennis. The former Plattsburgh State women’s soccer goalie knows how important fundraising events like these are to supporting a sports team.
“As a former athlete myself, I understand how much fundraising helps,” Ennis said. “Donations and support really help the young athletes … any opportunity I have to give back to them is awesome.”
The Lake City Running Festival is expected to make its return to Plattsburgh in 2026.
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