Almost like Groundhog Day, the winners of the 17th annual 8 Tuff Miles Race this year were, again, from an Ohio running club.
First across the line, in record time of 45 minutes and 46 seconds, was David Riddle, a hyper-competitive athlete. (Read about his career.) The 31-year-old aviation engineer from Cincinnati beat the previous record by 14 seconds.
If Riddle was mortal, you might expect him to take the day off on Sunday, after his effort and victory. Nope. In an online post, he conceded he was sore after the Tuff test, so ... "I ran over to the Caneel Bay trail and pretty much had to hike it because it was so steep and technical. Slow run, but I got some good time in today."
Only 17 seconds behind him in the Saturday race, was last year's winner Derrick Butler. Christopher Reis, also of Cincinnati, who came in third with a time of 49:38. He set the previous course record in 2011.
The home town favorite, Jeremy Zuber, ran the course in 54:57 and finished 10th. After the race, he told the St. John Source it was hard to fiond time to train this year; he was busy at work.
Other notes:
- David Riddle's blog
- St. Thomas' Ruth Ann David, 39, was the first woman across the Coral Bay finish line..
- The oldest runner in the race was Tony Torrilhon, from Germany. The 81-year-old had a time of 2:01:36, a faster than many men in their 60's.
- The youngest girls to finish were seven-year-olds Malena del Olmo of St. John and Kyra Hilsabeck.
- The youngest runner was a boy, six-year-old Pierce Hollen of St. John.
- The complete race results are here.