For principal, a race like no other

A team of 12 Long Island runners, including a Wantagh elementary school principal, escaped the cold for a weekend and participated in a relay race that spanned 196 miles, beginning in Miami and ending in Key West.

The Ragnar Relay Series, which hosts races all over the country, was held in Florida on Feb. 6 and 7. The team, which goes by the name The Silver Linings Crew, run as a group every weekend, and decided to take their athleticism down south for a unique race that spanned a day and a half.

“Overall it was just an amazing experience,” said Anthony Ciuffo, principal of Forest Lake Elementary School. “I would sign up to do it again in a heartbeat.”

The runners, plus three drivers, were split into two vans. Each completed three separate legs of the course, 36 in all, of varying distances between two and 12 miles. After dropping a runner off from the van to a race checkpoint, the rest of the team would drive ahead to the next exchange point to meet the finishing runner and send off the next one.

They began at 6 a.m. on Feb. 6, and finished at 4:05 p.m. on Feb. 7, a time of just over 34 hours, battling all types of meteorological elements, including excessive humidity, rain and darkness in unfamiliar terrain.

Ciuffo was the first runner, and his first stretch spanned six miles starting in a field. He then went over a bridge and through a residential area before giving way to the next runner at a park near the University of Miami. Because his race started when it was still dark, he had to wear a reflective vest, headlight and taillight.

After all 12 runners did their first leg, Ciuffo went again, this time running nine miles, mostly through farmland. His third and final stretch was the 25th overall leg for the team, and was 2.4 miles along Route 1. In total he ran 17.4 miles over two days. His wife, Michele, served as one of the drivers.

Ciuffo, 38, a baseball player in high school and college, said he picked up running a few years ago after his son was born, as he wanted to be a good example of health and fitness. He was a phys. ed. teacher at Wantagh Elementary School for a decade, before moving to administration. This is his second year as principal of Forest Lake.