Thousands honor Navy SEAL Michael Murphy at Lake Ronkonkoma run

Nearly 4,000 people filled the shoreline at Lake Ronkonkoma on Saturday for the 17th Annual Run Around the Lake, turning the course into a moving tribute to Lt. Michael P. Murphy of Patchogue. The event drew runners, families and veterans to a Suffolk County tradition that has outgrown its origins and become a public ritual of remembrance.

Organizers described the race as Long Island’s largest veteran race, and this year’s program offered a half marathon, a fun run and a 4-mile race. Race-day parking and bib pickup were set up at the Ronkonkoma train station South Parking Lot near Easton Street and Railroad Avenue, a sign of how deeply the event is woven into the Lake Ronkonkoma area each June. The run also raises money for the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation and veteran-support organizations, tying the physical challenge of the course to scholarships and services that continue long after the finish line.

Murphy’s local connection still anchors the event. He grew up in Patchogue, worked as a Town of Brookhaven lifeguard at Lake Ronkonkoma and was killed on June 28, 2005, during Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan. He was 29. The Naval Special Warfare Command says Murphy was the first Medal of Honor recipient from the war in Afghanistan and the first Navy recipient since the Vietnam War, a distinction that has kept his name central to military remembrance on Long Island.

The run’s current scale is far removed from its start in 1980, when the original Run Around the Lake had just 35 runners on a certified 4-mile course. In 2011, Dan Murphy approached the Ronkonkoma Rotary with the idea of turning the race into a living tribute to his son and the other heroes of Operation Red Wings, and that vision has helped shape the event into one of Suffolk County’s most visible summer gatherings. The family’s scholarship foundation, founded in 2007, has been guided by Michael Murphy’s belief that “education will set you free.”

The tradition now reaches beyond Lake Ronkonkoma itself. The LT Michael P. Murphy Navy SEAL Museum in West Sayville, the scholarship foundation and the annual race keep the memory of Murphy and the other Operation Red Wings service members in front of Suffolk County year after year, with Daniel Murphy and the broader Murphy family still publicly tied to that effort.