Brook, Dizon top sprint triathlon

Heather Brook, right, happily crosses the finish line, while Nap Dizon starts his run during the sprint triathlon last Saturday at Paupau Beach in celebration of Tan Holdings’ 50th Anniversary. (JONATHAN IBAJAN/ LEIGH GASES)

The conditions were near perfect besides a drizzle of rain toward the end of the course on an early Saturday morning when the second event of the 50th Anniversary of Tan Holdings, the sprint triathlon was held, with bronze-medal winning triathlete Heather Brook and Nap Dizon conquering the course.

Brook, a Commonwealth Health Center pediatric nurse practitioner in the Children’s Clinic, finished the triathlon’s women’s individual category in 1:21:52. 

She told Saipan Tribune after catching her breath from the laborious early morning triathlon that during the swim portion, “the waters were a bit low so you had to kind of make sure you weren’t doing a full stroke at times, otherwise you could hit a little coral but the waters were nice and clear and calm today. I swam with Robin Spaeth and Shawna Brennfleck, So we had a nice little swim team going…”

During the bike and run portion, she said they “had a nice bit of cloud cover, so that was good. The roads were dry right ‘til the very end. We got a little sprinkle but it was fun. There were some good water stations out there cheering for us and then the run got a bit hot but we made it through. And yeah, it’s just fun being out here with friends and seeing the community come out to support…”

As for winning first place, Brook said she felt “pretty good… It felt good today… I was nervous because I haven’t been training as much as I did leading up to the Mini Games, but it felt good to just come out and do it and just race for fun.”

Brook was followed by fellow Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 veteran Robyn Spaeth at 1:25:11 with Denise Myers, who won silver in the steeplechase of the same Mini Games, completing the Top 3 in 1:25:54. 

In the men’s category, Dizon came in first with a time of 1:29:42, followed by triathlon bronze medalist Leo Wania at 1:31:18, and Chong Nam Lee at 1:45:51.

Dizon told Saipan Tribune after the race that the “weather [was] perfect… I didn’t catch the rain earlier because I was still far back on the run. But it’s a good workout for the weekend. This was unprecedented—it just popped up in the link that there’s a triathlon so I decided to do my workout.”

He was “happy” about his first place win but he said at the same time that his body was “hurting” because he only had one week to train from the time he heard about the triathlon. 

Dizon then thanked Tan Holdings and said “thank you Tan Holdings and happy 50th Anniversary. Hopefully we survive in this condition—the pandemic is still still happening, but hopefully we can surpass [it] and go back to normal.” 

The course started with a 750m swim from Paupau Beach, which transitioned to a 20K bike race from Paupau to the Marpi landfill then back, and finally, a 5K run from Paupau to FEBTC, just past the former Kan Pacific Swimming Pool and back.

Dizon also came out first place in the first Tan Holdings bike race event last week as the overall male MTB winner.

The Triathlon Association of the CNMI helped conduct the 50th Anniversary of Tan Holdings sprint triathlon.