Peter Gilmore Sets Will Rogers 5K Record

No one in the history of the Palisades Will Rogers 5 & 10K Run has ever been more impressive than local favorite Peter Gilmore. He won his hometown Fourth of July 5K an unprecedented eight times in 12 years and in 2003, at the age of 26, he set the course record that still stands today. Gilmore, a 1995 Palisades High School graduate who grew up on Via de la Paz, sprinted the 3.1-mile course through the streets of Huntington Palisades, crossing the finish line at the Palisades Recreation Center in 14 minutes, 10 seconds. It was his sixth victory and he would run his second-fastest time (14:12) the following year. His last win was in 2006 when he clocked 14:15. Nine years later the 5K course was lengthened by 427 feet, making it the certified 5K distance. Gilmore also won the 5K in 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2002 and he owns eight of the 10 fastest times on the course he knows so well.

After receiving the Palisadian-Post Cup Award as the outstanding senior athlete at Pali High, Gilmore went on to compete in both cross country and track at UC Berkeley and became one of the USA’s elite marathon runners. In 2006 he was the top American finisher at the New York Marathon in a time of 2:13:13 and finished seventh at the Boston Marathon in 2:12:45. The following year he was the top American in Boston (2:16:41) and in 2008, Gilmore narrowly missed qualifying for the U.S. Olympic men’s marathon team, the same year he set the course record of 1:03:53 at the Surf City USA Half Marathon. He was 12th  in New York in 2:15:22 in 2009.

He returned to the Palisades in 2013 to try the 10k for the first time and took second in his age group and sixth overall in 35:56. In 2017, at the age of 40, Gilmore  was invited back for the 40th anniversary and he was first in his age group in the 5K.