The Bermuda Triangle Challenge has been the conduit for thousands of runners to fall in love with the island, but the iconic races cannot have inspired too many people to purchase an historic resort.

But that’s the journey Karla Bruning and her husband, Phil Hospod, have been on after first visiting the island as holidaying amateur athletes in 2015 before becoming the sixth owner of Cambridge Beaches in 2022.

As with most who compete in the challenge of mile, 10K and half-marathon or marathon, their initial race experience ended with pain in their lower limbs, but it was the joy in their hearts which they took back to New York, and which became the catalyst for their Bermuda love affair.

“I was working at the time as a sports and travel journalist, and I was brought out to do the race, experience it and write about it,” Ms Bruning said.

“So my husband and I, we didn’t have a daughter yet, came for the race and we were just blown away.

“We had a great weekend and it was typical January weather — a little bit of rain, a little bit of sun and we needed jackets during the day — but the run was beautiful.

“We went to the beach in our coats, saw a rainbow and we were like, ‘What is this place? It’s so beautiful’. Everywhere we went on island, everyone was so friendly and we thought it was the most magical place, so we decided that we needed to make it a part of our lives.”

A few years later and with more visits to Bermuda under their travel belts, the married couple started their company, Dovetail & Co, which “owns, develops and operates places of genuine and imaginative hospitality”.

As well as Cambridge Beaches, they own hotels in California, New York, Waikiki and Rhode Island, with every venue chosen because of the duo’s love for the places in which they are situated.

“After 2015, Bermuda was on our radar and when we started our company in 2018 we sat down and picked places that we’d love to go to and spend time doing a project, and Bermuda was top of our list,” Ms Bruning said.

“We spend a lot of time — either just Phil, or all of us including our daughter — in the places we have projects, so it’s really important for us to be in a place that we already love.

“However, we didn’t anticipate starting the project during the pandemic and all the international travel restrictions that came with it, so we packed up and moved to Bermuda for five months, did our quarantine there, took our daughter out of school and put her in preschool in Bermuda.”

It is one thing to love a paradise island when you are on holiday, but the emotions can change when you have a financial investment in the place. Yet, Ms Bruning insists that her affinity for Bermuda has only grown since the purchase of Cambridge Beaches.

“We actually love it more,” Ms Bruning said. “The more we spend time there, the more it feels like a second home and the more we feel we’re a part of the community.

“Our love for Bermuda has only deepened, but now we definitely follow Bermuda news more and we’re regular readers of The Royal Gazette because we’re more involved with the property.

“We definitely stay up to date on what’s going on in Bermuda compared with a vacationer, so that’s changed, but we’re really happy to be here and a part of the island.”

Outside of her family, the only interest to rival Bermuda on Ms Bruning’s list of passions is her love of running.

An experienced marathoner, she credits the sport for changing her life and helping her to achieve career goals, which include being the announcer at the New York City Marathon.

“For lack of a better phrase, running has changed my life,” Ms Bruning said. “I wasn’t a runner growing up. I came to to it when I was 26, and becoming a runner ended up changing my career and my life.

“I could have never imagined the places that running would take me, and that’s not only literally to events around the world but also personally and professionally.

”Race announcing is my great passion and it is the honour of my career to get to announce at the finish line of the TCS New York City Marathon. Every year I do it I think I’m the luckiest person in the world; I can’t actually believe that it’s my job.

“To get to be a race announcer is just the coolest, most fun and best thing I do all year. I joke that the New York City Marathon is my favourite day of the year and that I love it more than my birthday … and I reeeeeally love my birthday!”

This weekend, Ms Bruning and her husband will be competing in the PwC Bermuda Half-Marathon on Sunday, and they may well treat it as another date morning.

“I’ve not even remotely trained for it, but I’m just at the point where I can go out and jog a nice, easy 13 miles and have fun because it’s just such a beautiful course,” Ms Bruning said.

“There is always great spectator support, so even if I have to walk the whole thing I’m sure I’m going to have a great time.

“Phil and I will be running it together and we’re both pretty competitive people, but he’s so much faster than me.

“When he wants to go easy, he can always jog with me at my speed and If he sets out to run with me, he sticks with me and we end up talking the whole time.

“We’re parents, so we don’t really have that much time of just the two of us together, so whenever we get a run together we absolutely love it. By the time you get to the race, run it and get home, we’ve had a five-hour running date.”