New challenge for adrenaline junkies

While the Saipan Swim Club is training tankers for a big meet in Guam at the end of the month and local track and field fanatics are busy with the 2nd Micronesian Athletics Championship, endurance enthusiasts have a new challenge to look forward to with the first-ever Just For Fun-Pre New Years Eve Triathlon.

Rather than just offering a traditional Olympic distance triathlon, the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation has put together an event on Friday, Dec. 30, that requires experience as well as a lack thereof.

Organizers have parted with the norm as no one person can do it alone. According to race director Sue Knecht, each coed team can have no more than five participants and must be composed of at least two females.

In an effort to introduce more people to the passion that is multisport, each team must have at least two members who have never participated in an Olympic-distance triathlon—either solo or part of a team.

The fun gets underway at 3pm when the swimmers take to the water of Tanapag Harbor for a 1.5km swim. Upon reaching the beach, the racers will tag their teammates in the transition area and send them north along Chalan Pale Arnold to Bird Island, where they will turn around and finish at the Banzai parking lot.

The excitement continues from there as the third member of the team will take the torch via mountain bike down the trail that leads to Cowtown, turn right on to the dirt road, and proceed toward the dump. The riders will take a left up the jeep trail which comes out on the road leading to the Grotto, and cycle towards Bird Island.

From there the rubber leaves the road as the riders proceed down the dirt road past Kalabera Cave, and proceed up the hill until it comes out at the radar station.

It’s mostly all down hill from there as they will hit the paved zip down to the dirt road leading behind the Marianas County Club golf course (near the blue water tank).

Then it’s a climb up the road that connects to the final paved hill to the top of suicide.

At that point it’s over for the biker, as the first runner takes the team torch down the Banyandero Trail from the cliff to the parking lot of the Last Japanese Command Post. The run continues across the street as the trail bandit proceeds down the road to the Banzai parking area and along the trail to Cowtown to tag the fifth teammate.

The final runner will take the dirt road straight out past the dump to the main road, and will follow it up all the way to Suicide Cliff for the finish where cold drinks and their teammates await.

As a matter of safety, mountain bikers and runners will likely need reflective gear and a light of some kind as the race will most likely end after the sun dips below the horizon. The only way to take part in the Just For Fun-Pre New Years Eve Triathlon is to pre-register as no same day entries will be accepted. The deadline to register is 12pm Friday, Dec. 29, and the cost to enter is only $3 per participant.

For more information about the Just For Fun-Pre New Years Eve Triathlon, contact Knecht via email at sueknechet1@yahoo.com.