Participants of the 3rd Annual Run Saipan & Salty Skin Pacific 5k Run pose for a photo Friday at the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park on Friday.
Participants take off from the starting line of the 3rd Annual Run Saipan & Salty Skin Pacific 5K Run at the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park on Friday.
Jodie Sullivan celebrates as his wife and daughter hold the finish line during the 3rd Annual Run Saipan & Salty Skin Pacific 5K Run at the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park on Friday.
NEWCOMER Jodie Sullivan seized the spotlight in the 3rd Annual Run Saipan & Salty Skin Pacific 5K by finishing first at the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park late Friday afternoon.
Run Saipan board member Dr. Ron Snyder chose the course, which required runners to go through the rigorous up-and-down levels of the park, and complete a lap on each level until they reached the top. They then repeated the course going down.
Sullivan finished first with a time of 18:49.07 followed by Agape Christian School’s Samuel Zhu with a time of 19:01.15, and Sildrey Veloria with a time of 19:14.36.
Women’s division
In the women’s division, it was Andrei Kaithlyn Chavez who first crossed the finish line with a time of 21:55.76. In second place was Addalee Taflinger with a time of 24:42.20, while Ann Bang came in third with a time of 25:10.44.
Sullivan, 39, arrived on Saipan last week but has already made waves in the local running community through the help of Dr. Ron Snyder.
“I do run a lot — it’s my way to keep fit,” Sullivan said. “I ‘cheated’ a little bit because I ran a marathon before coming here. The course was so tough. I thought it would be easy after the second half but going downhill was too short. This was not supposed to be a run either —it was just an excuse to go down to Spicy Thai later.”
Sullivan is already looking forward to the half marathon event that will be held later this year.
It was also Andrei Kaithlyn Chavez’s first time to run at the peace park. “It was a hard course so your speed changed,” she said.
Run Saipan President Edward Dela Cruz Jr. said he didn’t think “it would be intense, but everyone’s legs looked like they were going to give in at the end. I think they thought this was going to be another flat park run.”
