8-year-old Natalie Ruggles breaks 19-year record for Mile Run

TUNKHANNOCK — Eight-year-old Natalie Ruggles of West Pittston competed in the Jack Daniels Mile Run on Thursday, setting a new course record for the 8-and-under category in only her third official race she’s ever run.

Running side-by-side with her father David, a former track star and coach at Wyoming Area, Natalie finished the race with a time of 7:11, which was a personal best for her in the mile, breaking the 10-year-old course record, a record set before she was born.

She placed 17th among all 122 female runners and 91st out of 321 finishers.

Natalie competed in the Forty Fort five-Mile finishing first in the 12-and-under category this past May and on July 4, she ran a three-mile race at Wilkes-Barre finishing 3rd in the 10-and-under division.

According to her father David, at the completion of the Jack Daniels race, Natalie said she was surprised how fast the race was and she felt great at the end. Going into the race, Natalie knew she had a shot at the course record.

On a lighter note, when receiving her medal, the race officials handed her medal asking where she went to school (Wyoming Area) and asked her if she would move to Tunkhannock.

Natalie’s mother Rebecca completed in the June marathon at Jim Thorpe running a personal best of 3:41.

Both David and Rebecca are currently training for the upcoming Pittston to Wilkes-Barre 10-mile run in Sept. and the Steamtown Marathon in Oct. Steamtown will be Rebecca’s 10th marathon competition.

The Ruggles have a six-year-old son Crayson who is also interested in running as well as playing soccer.