Kermit Cadrette has run an estimated 41,000 miles and participated in 71 marathons. He was inducted into the Rome Sports Hall of Fame July 26

By Patricia J. Malin

Move over Carl Lewis—there’s a new hotshot runner in town! Kermit Cadrette is setting records in his age group faster than you can say stop the clock. Considering his age, his feats even surpass those of Michael Phelps, last year’s sensational swimmer in the summer Olympics.

Cadrette will never make it to the Olympics. Yet the robust 71-year-old from Rome has consistently competed against the best seniors in New York state at the Empire State Games. He is also a national champion. He ran the anchor leg for the 2009 national championship 5K team and was an important member of the U.S. National championship cross-country team.

At the recent ESG in Cortland in June, he competed in 22 events (perhaps an individual record in itself) and ran away with 20 medals—including 10 gold in the 70-74 age group.

Cadrette, who has been competing seriously for just 20 years, was inducted into the Rome Sports Hall of Fame on July 26. First, he was honored for his athletic accomplishments. He has run an estimated 41,000 (yes, thousands) miles in his lifetime!

Not to be overlooked are the countless hours he spends working and volunteering in the community. He is helping to coach the Rome Free Academy boys’ and girls’ track and field team, as well as the school’s basketball team this summer. He works with the staff at the Rome Y, in addition to holding a part-time job with the Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL) in Utica.

He has been a volunteer coach for the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, American Leukemia Society and Special Olympics. He is a registered U.S. and New York state track and field official, and a certified personal trainer for the YMCA.

His friend, Ted Lenio, who nominated Cadrette for the Rome hall of fame, said that Kermit “may well be the winningest athlete in New York state due to his comprehensive domination of the Empire State summer and winter games.”

Not only is Cadrette highly-regarded within New York state athletic circles, he is also a national champion in cross-country running, road races and in snowshoeing. He has grabbed four gold and one silver medal in cross-country running; three gold, one silver in road racing (which are shorter runs on the track), one silver in snowshoeing in the nationals.

He has run 71 marathons, all within the last 21 years, meaning he didn’t start until he was 50. This includes 16 Boston Marathons (producing a mark of three wins, five seconds and four thirds in his age group). A member of the Syracuse Chargers track club, Cadrette holds the club record in the marathon (four hours, 10 minutes, set in Boston when he finished second in his age group. That is also the third fastest Boston Marathon in his age group.)

On June 29, he set the Syracuse Chargers two-mile record (14:37), and also holds the club record in the 5K (23:03).

On June 20, he finished second in his age group in the footrace UP Mount Washington in New Hampshire (one hour, 53 minutes). The 7.4 mile race covers the 6,288 foot mountain, the highest peak in the East.
Cadrette counts 900 races overall in his career and has accomplished 432 victories (nearly a .500 winning percentage), 110 seconds and just 50 third-place finishes. He has accumulated a pirate’s treasure chest of 140 medals alone from the Empire State Games.

The Empire Games might not be the Olympics, but they are Cadrette’s world stage.

If 2009 seemed an outstanding year, it’s merely a well-reinforced habit. He also had spectacular results at age 70 in Binghamton in 2008. His accomplishment of 23 medals in 24 events would seemingly exhaust a much younger athlete like Carl Lewis, a record-setting sprinter, or a Bruce Jenner, who was a gold medalist in Olympic decathlon in 1976—a mere 10 events!

Cadrette competed in the ESG in 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 meter short track races; long jump, high jump, javelin, hammer throw, shot put, discus, the 1,500-meter and 5-kilometer walks, as well as the 5K and 10K races. In between the track and field events, he entered six swimming events: the 50 and 100-meter breaststroke, the 100 and 200 freestyle, and the 200 medley.

In addition, he competes in orienteering (a race involving map and compass reading), and a 20K bike race.

Topping it off is a triathlon sprint of swimming, running and cycling (he won the gold in 2008).

At the 2009 ESG Winter Games in Lake Placid, the fleet-footed Cadrette won an astonishing five gold medals in snowshoeing in distances ranging from 100 to 5,000 meters.

Interestingly, in his youth, Cadrette had little interest or success in athletics. According to another friend, former Rome mayor and SU football announcer, Carl Eilenberg, Cadrette “lacked resolve” in his younger days and displayed little of the determination that has brought him fame in his senior years.

Nor was education among his priorities back in the 1950s. “I quit high school in 10th grade so I could join the Navy,” Cadrette said. He served on a destroyer from 1955-59 and later earned his general education diploma (GED). He noted that there was no physical fitness regimen aboard ship.

“All I did was drink beer and chase women,” he remarked. His travels around the world were a treat for the boy from small town Rome, but when he completed his tour of duty, he hesitated to return to his roots.
“Rome was too small,” he recalled telling himself. He hitchhiked his way to California and spent about two years there working odd jobs. He attempted to break into movies and took some acting lessons, but nothing panned out.

Both times, he grew homesick and returned home at Christmas. He was feeling especially dispirited during his second Christmas at home. This time, however, a friend’s brother introduced him to a special girl, Carol Coy, who motivated him to settle down. They’ve been married 48 years and have two children, a daughter, Kim Humiston of Rome, and a son, Kirk, of California, and two granddaughters. And the entire family runs.
Cadrette found a steady job with U.S. Airways at the former Oneida County Airport in Oriskany. He spent 40 years with the company, mostly in customer service, until his retirement in 2001.

Life proceeded normally for Cadrette through the years. At age 48, he reached a turning point and his health began to matter. Once he succeeded in quitting smoking, he said he began to gain too much weight. Even today, he loves to eat, but the 6-foot-3, 175-pound athlete has no difficulty staying trim.

He turned to running and joined the Roman Runners. Slowly, he began to excel. “I did only running for the first 16-17 years,” Cadrette explained. “Now I’m an all-around athlete.”

He has also won trophies for his successes in golf, basketball, softball and sailing.

“The past two decades of Kermit’s running glory more resemble that of several lifetimes, or more,” added his friend Ted Lenio, who had seen many Olympic-caliber athletes up close during his career as a sports broadcaster.

“Strikingly, as Kermit ages, so do the number of yearly medals and races ascend,” said Lenio. “Over the past nine years his gold medal total has climbed: 21, 22, 38, 44, 49, 63, 70, 72 and 76 last year, even as his yearly event count has risen – 80, 85, and 110!”