The St. Croix International Marathon calls itself “the smallest marathon in the world;” however, it does include new features, every year. Last year included the participation of Cuban runners, the first to compete in an official championship running event under the United States flag in memory. Over the years, members of the group “Marathon Maniacs” seem to find St. Croix and be challenged; the most recent being Dougin Walker of Princton, N.J. and winner of the race on Sunday morning. He is a Marathon Maniac. He runs a marathon every weekend, “tough course…beautiful but tough,”, he said.
The usual small group of nine toed the start line at Fort Christiansvern of the Christiansted National Historic Site at the National Park Service. St. Croix’s Billy Bohlke, four-time winner of the event, took the early lead and held it until the later stages of the race. An emergency forced a change in the route (for the safety of the runners, the police closed a section of the course due to fallen electrical utility poles at just beyond 10 miles) as Walker closed the gap between the two and crossed the finish line in 3:49.01, well off the race record 2:40.28, achieved by Pamenos Ballantine of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2007.
Bohlke, well beyond the prime of his college days, was a miler at LSU and is now a major and U.S. Air Force C-130 pilot, was second in 3:59.12 (his best time for the race was 2:44 and first in 2009; V.I. 50 Mile champion Mike Klein was third in 4:09..43; Kim Smit from Denmark was fourth in 4:26.25; Rob Wofle from Key West, Fla., who completed each of the St. Croix 50 milers. was fifth in 4:36.09; Per Hjorth, also from Denmark, finished fifth in 4:48.50; Tom Kennedy of Clearwater Beach, Fla., DNS; Larry Nobles Saginaw, Minn., DNS. Jill Kralovanic of Tampa, Fla., pulled away in the final stage of the race to win in 4:35.28; Mary Harvey of Brooklyn, N.Y., was second in 5:04.48; Lucy Li of Brooklyn, N.Y., DNF.