LIer Tom Primrose wins Suffolk Marathon in second try at 26.2-mile race

In fitting fashion, Tom Primrose was electric in the 2025 Suffolk County Marathon on Sunday.

Primrose, 29, a PSEG Long Island employee who lives in Hauppauge, won in 2 hours, 50 minutes, 30.97 seconds, clearing the competition by more than 3 1⁄2 minutes.

Though a current Long Islander, Primrose hails from Wappingers Falls — a village in the town of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County — and is a 2014 graduate of Roy C. Ketcham High School. He ran four years of varsity cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field, but he did not have the desire to run in college.

Instead, Primrose chose the workforce. He went to Stony Brook University to study electrical engineering, ultimately earning his bachelor’s degree in May 2018 and his master’s degree in May 2019. From there, he was hired by PSEG Long Island, where he has worked for six years. He is now a principal staff engineer.

During those five years at Stony Brook, Primrose did not run at all but got into powerlifting and bulking up. He did not like the way it changed his body, saying he got “a little chunky,” which motivated him to get back into running.

During his slimming-down period, he recaptured his love for running and set a bucket-list goal: qualify for the Boston Marathon one day.

The 2024 Suffolk Marathon was his first marathon, and he placed sixth in 2:51:05. Just a year later, in only his second marathon, he became a champion.

“I’m on top of the world right now,” Primrose said. “I think distance runners, in some way, are broken. You might get away from it, but it never leaves you. I had that itch to come back. I wanted to run in Boston in April, but I missed the cutoff by 30 seconds. I went 30 seconds faster here this year, so we’ll see if I get in next year. It’s my bucket-list thing and I can’t quit running until I do it.”

The 26.2-mile course starts in Babylon Village, works its way across Montauk Highway onto the Robert Moses Causeway, then goes over the Great South Bay and Captree Island and onto Ocean Parkway. The runners then went past Gilgo State Park and the Cedar Beach Marina before turning around, going back up the causeway, banking a right and finishing in Gardiner County Park in Bay Shore.

Primrose trailed for most of the race and was simply trying to finish in less than three hours. At the 15th mile, another runner tried to pass him, which revived the competitive spirit from his high school days.

“One of the guys put a move on me at Mile 15, and I was like, OK, I guess we’re getting competitive now,” Primrose said. “It was all six-minute miles from there on out. I’m hypercompetitive, so it brought me right back.”

He took the lead after the 18th mile and never relinquished it. While coming down to the finish line, he got to blow a kiss to his wife, Victoria, whom he married in April, and her mother.

“There’s no better feeling,” he said of that moment.

Just over 20 minutes later, 42-year-old Michelle Jones of the Upper East Side in Manhattan cruised to a finish in 3:10:15.61, becoming the female champion.

Jones, originally from New Rochelle, is the senior executive director of operations in advancement services in the development and university relations division at Fordham University.

Sunday served as a redeemer for Jones. This also was her second marathon. The first was the 2022 New York City Marathon, in which she fainted during the second half of the race and was hospitalized for six days.

For someone who played tennis as a kid and never ran competitively, that was very discouraging. However, her love for running kept her going.

“It teaches you a lot of great life skills, like patience, discipline and determination, that you can apply to all aspects of life,” Jones said. “Those principles apply throughout life, and that’s what I love about running.”

She recently joined a 16-week marathon training program. Apparently, it is working, because she still has nine days left in it and already has won — let alone finished — a marathon.

“I’m somebody who has a lot of determination, and I think there’s so much to learn from failure,” Jones said. “I knew I’d be back out there. I didn’t think I was going to win this race, though.”

To some, the Suffolk Marathon is more than just a race. All of its proceeds are donated to various organizations that help veterans on Long Island, such as Paws of War, Warrior Ranch and AMVETS. For Rocky Point resident Chad Lennon, that is the most important aspect of this event.

“It’s vital because we are the largest population of veterans in the state here in Suffolk,” Lennon said. “So it’s vital that we have robust resources and a robust community to help everyone when they come home. There’s no big military base for us to rely on — it’s all of us working together in the community.”

Lennon, 45, currently is a reservist and veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He was assigned to Camp Pendleton in California in 2008, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 and later earned a Purple Heart. Between his years in active duty and as a reservist, Lennon has served 17 years.

On Sunday, he ran in the 10,000-meter race and wore a 22-pound vest while also carrying the American flag.

“Everyone here today is helping,” Lennon said. “The sponsorships, the tabling — all of these proceeds are going to help the great programs we have out there that help our veterans. It’s not just the veterans, it’s their families and those close to them, too. There’s so much that’s needed, and we have to provide those needs to make sure that those who defend our country are taken care of when they get home.”