DEV Bachani and Rosemarie Chisato finished first in their respective divisions in Run Saipan Underground “Stairway to Heaven” 5K run from the Last Command Post to Suicide Cliff on Saturday morning.
The run started at 6 a.m. with Bachani and the rest of the competition climbing the elevated path of up to 780ft. Although the race was tough, each participant made it through the gauntlet successfully with Bachani finishing first overall and in the men’s division at 25:43.00.
In second place was Taro Goto who clocked 26:38.00 followed by Cody Shimizu with a time of 28:48.00.
Next was Chong Nam Lee with a time of 28:55.00 followed by Dylan Mister at 28:56.00 and Marshall Hoskins at 29:26.00.
In first place in the women’s division was Rosemarie Chisato who came in 11th overall with a finish time of 33:52.00.
Eunho An was second with a time of 37:44.00 while Tiana Cabrera was third at 38:32.00.
For her part, Kathy Ruszala made the top 20 list as the fourth finisher in the women’s division with a time of 44:08.00.
According to Run Saipan Underground’s Edward Dela Cruz, “When I started looking at choosing all the race courses for the year, I didn’t want it to be all primarily flat courses. All the 5K monthly series by Run Saipan have been mapped out since March. Our goal was to do as much diverse routes as possible. This included incline.”
The original incline courses are the Northern Marianas Athletics Annual Turkey Trot and the 5K Tapochau run.
“Between those two we wanted a smaller incline course so we nailed the Suicide Cliff route for August every year now,” Dela Cruz said. “We know some runners like our outback courses but I personally prefer a one-way course. That’s why we made this course one-way. We don’t want runners injuring themselves running back downhill after hitting the top.”
The participants of Run Saipan Underground’s “Stairway to Heaven” 5K run pose for a photo at the finish line Saturday at Suicide Cliff.
