Ruiz, Bang top 3rd JKPL 5K

Run Saipan members Jordan Ruiz and Ann Bang topped the 2024 Friends of the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library 5K Community Fun Run/Walk that spanned from the Garapan Public Market parking lot to Quarter Master Road and back last Saturday afternoon.

Fortunately, the rain that fell heavily on-and-off throughout the day held off for the race to start on time. It trickled a bit but not hard enough to get everyone soaking wet.

Instead of the rain, sweat drenched all over Ruiz as he sprinted and finished the race first overall with a time of 18:38. Second was Shigeki Tenorio with a time of 21:01, and third was barefoot runner Chongnam Lee with a time of 22:07.

Bang was the fastest woman on the course with a time of 22:52, followed by Andrea Tagum at 38:06, and Audrey Tagum at 39:02.

Frank Palacios topped the boys U12 division at 39:47; second was Ezekiel Naputi Lizama at 55:35; and third was Tristan Ranili at 1:01:01.

In the girls U12 division, sisters Sua Jang and Dana Jang both clocked in at 41:00, and Alexandra Birnbirch came in at 45:12.

In the concurrent Literary Character Costume Contest, Alexandra Birnbirch, dressed up as a Koopa Troopa from Super Mario/Gecko Boy, racked up the most votes with 27 registered participants.

For 23-year-old Ruiz, he said it’s exhausting as usual “going all out on a 5K, but it was a little easier because a lot of the normal runners that are crazy fast were not here today so I went all out and it ended up in my favor.”

The Saipan Community School teacher said he’s raced in all the Run Saipan races since the Trinity Run last January and plans to race in more. “I’m basically addicted to this and I love it,” he said.

As for the event that celebrates School Library Month and National Library Week, the musician said, “I work at a school so I know knowledge is the biggest thing in this world because without knowledge we make a lot of mistakes. We can basically avoid those mistakes by having all this knowledge before doing what we do.”

For Bang, she said that the course was very familiar to her as she’s run that route often. She did say that the start time of 5pm in the afternoon is kind of inconvenient especially on a Saturday because of all the other things that people have going on at the same time. Other than that, she said the event was great. Her daughters are frequent library-goers and said, “they love the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library. They read books there and also do their homework there. I also love that place.”

Joeten Kiyu Public Library director Erlinda Naputi thanked Run Saipan and the participants before the race. “To all the runners that are here to support the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, we are truly grateful and humbled by your support. All funds raised today will go toward our 2024 Summer Reading Program,” she said. “We can’t thank you guys enough for all the hard work that you did Run Saipan, the staff of the JKPL, Dr. Ron Snyder, but most especially to all you runners and the little kids that are here today.”