Nearly 900 complete 8 Tuff Miles

A 33-year-old man from Bloomington, Indiana captured first place in the 14th annual 8 Tuff Miles Race Saturday with a finishing record time of 46 minutes and 26 seconds.  Thomas Chorny's pace bested the record set last year by St. John's Jeremy Zuber. He, however, apparently did not compete this year; he was not listed among the 898 finishers, also a record number for the almost 8.38 mile race from Cruz Bay to Coral bay.

The top woman finisher was 36-year-old Ruth Ann David of St. Thomas.  She completed the course in 58 minutes and 3 seconds.  She was 10th overall.

Racers ranged in age from 11 to over 70.  Kids, 12 and under, accounted for 6% of the racers, while the 30-40 age group was the largest with 24%.  Almost 17% of the racers were 60 years or above.

You can see the complete race results on the Web at http://8tuffmiles.com/results.htm

This famous race comes with an inspiring back-story. It was first conceived as Peter Alter's personal challenge to aid him in quitting smoking. In order to demonstrate to himself the toll that cigarettes had taken on his body, he set out in 1996 on a run beginning from downtown Cruz Bay toward Coral Bay, the entire distance of St. John.

Sponsors of the event include Low Key Water Sports, Soggy Dollar Bar, New Balance, the St. John Sun Times newspaper.