GTC's Lee Cook Selected USATF South Carolina Men's Masters Long Distance Runner of the Year

The following is provided by USATF South Carolina Record Keeper Bill Marable. 

At age 80, Lee Cook, had the best year of his running career.  The Greer resident began the year in a new age group and went on to set four new 80-84 state records.  He stated the  year by coming off a bout of plantar fasciitis to what he considers his best race running the Myrtle Beach Marathon in a record time of 4:10:08.  He set an 8K record of 38:51 at the Sunrise Run and added the 5K record of 23:33 at Red White & Blues.  His final record was at the Spinx Run Fest Half Marathon in 1:47:09.  This came 13 days after he won his age group at the Chicago Marathon in 4:12:49.  At the USATF National Masters Track Meet in Huntsville he won the 5K in 24:27 and the 10K in 50:23.

Born in rural central Missouri in 1944 Cook grew up in the small town of Montrose.  His sports through high school were baseball and basketball with no other sports available.  Then at age 20 he was drafted into the Army  and what began as a two year obligation turned into 24 years in the military that included two tours in Vietnam.  His running career started with his first race in 1983.   He ran many local races while living in Huntsville until he retired from the Army in 1989.  Due to long hours and travel on his new civilian engineering job he stopped running at age 44.  At the time he was running 10K in 40 minutes.  In 1994 this same job brought him to Greenville.  After retiring for good in 2007 he joined a gym and began running again and found a previous knee injury had healed.  He joined the Greenville Track Club and has been running consistently since and has been a top age group performer holding nine state records.
    
Although he does not have a coach he follows the guidelines in the book “Run Less, Run Faster” by Furman professors Bill Pierce and Scott Murr.  He gets support from his friends in the GTC and his two daughters.  His biggest cheerleader was his wife who passed away in 2016.

​In winning this award for a first time Cook beat out Gary Bolduc, George Luke, Blake Pratt and Gerry Schauer.