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‘Staggered’ Beach Road 5K today
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Posted on Oct 21 2022
Participants of last year’s Run Saipan Beach Road 5K take off from the start line near the Oleai Bar & Grill parking lot. (CONTRIBITED PHOTO)
Run Saipan will host its annual Beach Road 5K today from the Oleai Bar & Grill.
Edward Dela Cruz Jr., Run Saipan president, said the event will have a staggered start and runners will be released in three waves and assigned into separate divisions.
“Waves will be based on your 5K average time. There will be a 5-minute gap in between each wave. Runners will be challenged to catch up to the waves ahead of them, however, they will be only competing between each other in their division,” he said.
Those belonging in Division 1 are runners with a 5K time of 27 minutes and higher. Division 2 will be runners with a 5K time between 22 minutes and 26:59, while runners in Division 3 are runners with a 5K time between 17 minutes and 21:59.
Sanctioned by the Northern Marianas Athletics, the event’s start line is at the Oleai Bar and Grill and show time is 5:30pm with a start time of 5:45pm.
Dela Cruz said Beach Road 5K’s staggered start is a way of leveling the playing field for all runners regardless of how fast or slow they are.
“Formerly known as the handicap format, the staggered start is so runners can run against each person at their own speed. So it’s like a race within a race. The participants will be going only against those within their divisions,” he said.
The staggered start also makes the Beach Road 5K fun as the faster runners on the latter waves can lap the slower runners in the earlier waves.
“The bonus is for the early start divisions to outrun the later ones and for the later starts to catch up and chase the early start participants. We chose Beach Road because it’s a full flat course so runners can go all out without interference.”
Dela Cruz added that a Halloween surprise awaits people participating in Friday’s race.
“It’s a surprise so people have to sign up and show up to find out which will be revealed at the race start. We didn’t choose a costume format because we are already partnering with Rotaract Club of Saipan for next Saturday’s 5K in doing a costume run with them,” he
said.
After the Beach Road 5K, Run Saipan will host a happy hour at Oleia Bar & Grill for people wanting to get to know the running community on Saipan.
To register for the Beach Road 5K, copy and paste the link: https://l.facebook.com/l. php?u=https%3A%2F%2 Fraceroster.com%2Fevents%2F2022%2F65677%2Frun-saipan-beach-road- 5k%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2vP 2-n2CcqtSSt7pEkNJzrRLA9t0lgHc2AbaLXSLNLVs0xpzY-99O2l2g&h=AT0WxyP1yLf_crJu_0FT2Or_3fAXRGrlaz-YFnq03Byo6aKHPsME N3L3B36Sc6bBgANIX HMicG7Ua_b3OCMnABvD7ba2RC-8ZOJnF1Xevf2nCOJkn-fTt5jFN_dBf__mD86n NA-6gw&__tn__=-UK-R&c [0]=AT2LJfJ5yqGWCkVZB 6S0OS68f4moM_EqH2y6bw PwzKdbGkDxdXO0wi7p 7Za PW6WwEdsyQowrK vnJLiwqTa3whcEmEXwRyhL VuWoWsOSsIwJBttM4aoB9VxMqFC7oMtoerN_Q0Ttas95JnVySjWiGel6VmPpgVTaHsUGZAHpfPbALfKx0_TY0w06YOGEYT-rwBvsIDfSpjL3oOtikyOchIyc.
