Yunosuke wins 2009 Coffee Trail Run

Japanese running coach Handa Yunosuke used his vast experience to win Saturday’s 2nd Annual Marianas Coffee Trail Run from Micro Beach at the American Memorial Park to Mt. Tapochao via Capital Hill Road and back.

The course was approximately 18.5-kilometers long, crisscrossing two coffee plantations before it headed up to Mt. Tapochao and down into Chuck Jordon’s coffee plantation, along past XTERRA Saipan Championship trails.

Yunosuke clocked in at one hour, 21 minutes, 12 seconds to beat last year’s champion Miyachi Fujio, who came in several seconds later at 1:22:46.

“This is a good place. It was a nice run. I enjoyed it very much,” Yunosuke said of his first-time visit on Saipan.

Sometime last year, Yunosuke met Fujio in a French restaurant called Café De Cite in Tokyo where the latter works as a cook and waiter.

Fujio, who won last year’s inaugural event by clocking in at 1:23:31, encouraged Yunosuke to join him when he comes back to defend his title.

So on Saturday, Jan. 31, Miyachi and Yunosuke along with 18 other Japanese friends took part in the second edition of the annual event organized by the Marianas Visitors Authority.

The group included long course new women champion Kurara Tanaka, who crossed the finish line in 1:42:56.

XTERRA Saipan veteran Mieko Carey settled for second place with 1:49:24.

“I had a good run,” was all she said.

She reported that some of the competitors were lost along the way and she had to instruct them for directions.

“I am not familiar with the course so I just stayed with him (Fujio) almost throughout the race,” explained Yunosuke, who is taking up his master’s degree in physical education at a university in north eastern Tokyo.

The two partners broke away from the rest of the pack some three kilometers into the race. They were running side-by-side most of the uphill and downhill trails.

Thirty-year-old Fujio said Yunosuke started to pull away from him right after they passed Coffee Care.

“I wish to come back next year and I hope that more local people will join the race. They should enjoy this kinds of races,” said the 31-year-old Yunosuke, winner of several marathon events at home.

Fujio and most of the participants this year said the course this time was better compared to the previous year.

A total of 57 runners participated, including 39 in the long course and 18 in the short course.

Hayden Scott was the first runner to cross the finish line in the six-mile short course with a time of 1:06:23.

“It’s a beautiful course. We passed by several bamboo shoots. But it was a beautiful place to run and I thank Chuck for cutting some of the bushes along the trail,” said the 28-year-old Hayden.

Hayden engaged 56-year-old Chang Whan Jang in a down-to-the-wire dash to the finish line.

Jang, a junior high school teacher at Hopwood Junior High School, came in second barely three seconds later with his 1:06:26.

“We had a lot of fun. We enjoyed chatting along the trail,” said Jang, who finished in the Top 15 for the long course last year.

In the women’s side of the short course, Ericka Frink was not aware that she was the first to arrive with her 1:26:34.

The special education teacher at the Public School System said it was a beautiful trail and she had a great run and could have competed in the long course.

Kathleen Herman, who works at the Division of Environmental Health, echoed the same observation on the beautiful course. She finished second with her 1:29:48.

Two women participants from Guam lost their way and were the last participants to arrive: Tara Taitano (2:41:27) and Lou Klitzkie (2:42:44).

Some of the participants brought with them their pet dogs.

One of them was Mamiko Berger, who finished 30th overall in the long course.

“I am still okay but my dog is already tired,” she said with a thousand meters away from the finish line.

A Japanese runner in the long course came in with a time of 1:37:20 but was disqualified due to taking the wrong route. Another Japanese runner who did not submit his time was Chida Mitsutoshi.