The Clique wins 1st ever Corporate Relay in Beer Mile

A group of friends that runs and drinks together, sticks together.

That’s what The Clique did and they topped the first ever Corporate Relay Division of the 3rd Annual Michelob Ultra Beer Mile 2024 challenge last Friday at the slippery grass loop course of the Saipan Vegas Country Club.

The Clique was made up of Aaron Pamintuan, Jason Palacios, Brandon Santos, and Simon Necesito. The former also ran in the men’s individual race prior to the Corporate Relay and won third place.

Pamintuan and company downed a total of four beers—a beer each and ran one lap each and clocked in the fastest out of seven other teams with a time of 7:06.

Palacios, along with Pamintuan and Santos, have an Instagram and TikTok account together called The Clique 670, which they named their relay team after. Palacios said of the race, “After watching the first one which they ran individually, I was kind of nervous—I saw people vomiting so I said I had to pace myself. But it was only one lap each for us so I just blasted it and that’s what we did.”

As for the event, he said it’s highly unusual and said, “Just join it for the fun, but don’t drink and run.”

On their first-place win, he said, “I’m actually surprised. I thought we were going to come in third but hey, I’ll take first place.” He then said they will go on and drink some more to celebrate their win after the race.

Dr. Ron Snyder, organizer of the event with Run Saipan, thanked MarPac and Michelob Ultra for sponsoring them again this year. He added, “I would also like to thank Saipan Vegas for offering us a generous grand prize for our raffles. Finally, I would like to comment that we were overjoyed to partner with the Saipan Humane Society and help their worthy cause with the proceeds from our Corporate Relay Division.”

As for this year’s turnout, he said, “The turnout was much better this year. We had limited participation to 40 people in the two main flights and almost made that. In the Corporate Relay Division, we opened it up to 20 teams but only had eight—luckily! This was our first time running a relay division and it would have been much too difficult with 20 teams (80 people). But I was very excited for the new event. It was great seeing teams running together and cheering on their teammates. One team had to do a penalty lap together but that was great to see too. It was an exciting addition to the Beer Mile.”

SHS’ Lupe Attao said of the event, “It’s pretty cool. It’s nice and different—which we don’t see very often and seeing people come year after year—and being the beneficiary of the corporate relay—it’s really an awesome event.”

She then thanked Run Saipan, Snyder, and Marpac. “We’re just really grateful to be out here and be able to come out into the community more often. It’s really a great time and we really appreciate it,” she said.