End goal: 5K races every weekend

Run Saipan Team teams that took part in Northern Marianas Athletics’ 2021 Christmas Island Relay pose for a group photo on the road along the Last Command Post in Marpi. (MARK RABAGO)

Run Saipan burst out of the scene with their monthly 5-kilometer underground runs last year.
It may be one of the youngest sports organizations on Saipan, but that hasn’t stopped its leadership from envisioning lofty goals for itself.

One such goal for Run Saipan president Edward Dela Cruz Jr. and company is to host weekly 5K races for the island’s growing running community.

“I was always inspired and motivated by Guam how they have a 5K race every weekend. We are trying to move in that direction on Saipan with monthly races first as well as having organization-sponsored races now. This year we have multiple races where an organization or person collaborates or sponsors our races. We hope those numbers grow next year.”

Run Saipan is starting the year off with the Dash & Splash 5K at the Laolao Bay East Bay Side this coming Saturday, Jan. 22.

It will be followed by the Marianas Resort Strip 5K on Feb. 5 and the Marianas Ekiden in Feb. 19.

The month of March will also have a pair of events—the Beer Mile on March 13 and the Happy Hearts 5K on March 18.

April brings the Library 5K on April 23 followed by the long-busting Mt. Tapochao 5K on April 30.

Star Wars fans will be glad for the return of the May the 4th 5K on May 7 (May 4 is a Wednesday). It’s such an awesome event that it’s the only one on calendar for the month.

The Mangrove Run is set for June 4 followed by the 2 Mile Independence Day Race on the Fourth of July itself. The Laolao Bay Kulot Acha’ikak will then happen on July 9 and from July 22 to 25 is the Virtual 5K.

The three-event calendar of July will be succeeded by singles events for the next four months—the Grotto 10K on Aug. 20, the ICC 5K on Sept. 17, the Beach Road Sunset 5K on Oct. 14, and the Kagman 5K on Nov. 19.

Run Saipan will then cap the year with a bang with three races in December—the first-ever Run Saipan Half Marathon on Dec. 10 followed by the Run Saipan Banquet on the same day. The 2nd Annual Run from 22 1 Mile Race will then serve as its bookend event on Dec. 31.

Dela Cruz said the 2022 events calendar of Run Saipan was a culmination of months-long planning with the rest of the non-profit’s officers—vice president Jenna Kong, secretary/treasurer Ron Snyder, and board members Tania Tan and Robin Sapong.

“This was a long term plan I had since February 2021. I started the 5K series every month as an experiment to gauge how many participants we get while also trying various race routes and getting to know all the runners that come. Especially the ones that participated with us frequently.”

As much as possible, Dela Cruz said they took cues from participants on their runs and tried to accommodate them when they finalized their 2022 events calendar.

“Whatever happened in 2021 was to build the base foundation for our calendar into 2022 based off the runners’ response the entire year with the Run Saipan Underground 5K. So when the board met in November I laid down the data we had from the entire year.”

Dela Cruz added that there are many types of runners on Saipan and Run Saipan wanted to be sure to cater to them all.

“We wanted to make a variety of distances at the same time we kept the routes that were most popular. The names on each of the calendar has a purpose. We were sure to plan around big events that happen on Saipan around the year as well,” he said.

Run Saipan also would like to make a shout out to their event sponsors for 2022 and they are the following: Latte Built Gym, Northern Marianas Athletics, Marianas Visitors Authority, Atkins Kroll, Salty Skin Pacific, MARPAC, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, Saipan International School, Coalition of Private School Sports Association, and Northern Marianas College.