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New winners in Banzai run
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Posted on Sep 11 2011
The 6th Annual POWERade Banzai Memorial Off-Road Half Marathon and Fun Run held last Saturday had first time winners in Keum Bae Ji and Mieko Carey.
Ji was the top overall finisher in the 13.1-mile flat and trail half marathon race from and to Banzai Cliff, timing in at one hour, 37 minutes, and 41 seconds. Ji has been competing in the annual event for the past years and had his best finish last year when he placed third behind three-time champion Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel and Cesar Danao. Kabiriel joined the weekend run, but did not finish for unknown reason. Danao also missed the early morning race.
After failing to join last year’s event, Carey this time made it and was the first women to cross the finish line, clocking in at 1:50:46. She was third overall behind men’s second finisher Butch Sublemente, who timed in at 1:39:17.
“It was muddy out there, but I had a good run and I am happy I was able to run this course this year,” said Carey, who used the Banzai run to prepare for next month’s XTERRA World Championship in Maui, Hawaii.
Sublemente will join Carey in XTERRA World and also participated in the weekend race to get ready for the prestigious tournaments.
“XTERRA World has a trail run so this Banzai course is a good warm up for me,” Sublemente said.
Completing the Top 3 in the half marathon course was Japan’s Goto Taro, who was also a first timer. The Japanese runner submitted 2:14:28 and was in a neck-and-neck race to the finish line against second female finisher Natasha Kuckuck.
Kuckuck beat Taro by only two seconds for another bridesmaid finish. She debuted in the Banzai run last year and logged 2:05:56, more than two minutes behind the 2:03.41of champion Rebecca Reed. Other finishers in the half marathon race were Roy Ortizo (2:20:07), Mahesh Balakrishnan (2:22:28), Michael Towle (2:23:03), Bill White (2:32:14), Seki Saori (2:34:46), and Roxie Lamar (2:34:47).
In the 8-kilometer fun run, Chad Lowe completed the race first with a time of 29:39, followed by Alexander Racoma (33:54) and father and daughter Daniel (1:04:33) and Soleil Lamar (1:04:34).
This year’s Banzai run was supported by Subway, Coca-Cola, IT&E, Athlete’s Foot, DFS, and Marianas Visitors Authority.
