{"id":249081,"date":"2017-03-28T06:04:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T20:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=249081"},"modified":"2017-03-28T06:04:48","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T20:04:48","slug":"mami-returns-chooses-10k-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mami-returns-chooses-10k-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Mami returns, chooses 10K race"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mamiko, right, and Joshua Berger, are all smiles after completing the 10K race in last Saturday\u2019s 2017 Saipan Marathon. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Micronesian Games gold medalist Mamiko Berger opted to do the 10K race in last Saturday\u2019s 2017 Saipan Marathon and made it to the podium after ranking first in her age group and second overall in the women\u2019s division.<\/p>\n

Berger, who gave the CNMI the gold medals in the 5K and 10K events during the 2010 Micronesian Games in Palau, timed in at 42:28 in last weekend\u2019s 10K run that marked her first race on Saipan since moving to Bangkok, Thailand with husband Joshua late last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the toughest runs ever and I didn\u2019t do well. I wanted to go under 40 minutes or try to be right behind Keith,\u201d said Mamiko, referring to men\u2019s division 10K champion and top overall finisher Keith Longuski, who clocked in at 38:42.<\/p>\n

The 47-year-old runner, who was the oldest among the Top 6 overall finishers in the women\u2019s division, did the a half marathon event in Bangkok a few months before she and Joshua returned to the island to participate in the 2017 Saipan Marathon.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh and I joined the Bangkok International Half Marathon and I was the 14th female out of 1,100 and it was super fun to run with all those invited African super runners. My 10K, as I said earlier was very tough for me and I need to work on so many things. Luckily, I got much appreciative advice from Keith, Noriko Jim and the 10K female winner from Japan, who is a semi pro runner as well as a running coach, after the race,\u201d Mamiko said.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s Tomoe Yokoyama and Jim, who ruled the 10K for so many years, clocked in at 42:03 and 46:07, respectively, to rank first and third. Yokoyama earned her third straight 10K win in the Saipan Marathon. Rounding out the Top 6 were Japan\u2019s Midori Nakada (50:15) and Saipan\u2019s Ayumi Kaga (50:15) and Ayano Braxton (51:27).<\/p>\n

Mamiko, who were greeted by her Saipan friends and co-runners at the finish line, said she will run more 10K races when she gets back to Bangkok to get use to the short\/middle distance events.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, I have been a long distance runner for ages and did not know how to prepare for the short distance and my legs and heart were not ready for it. I will stick on 10K races for a while and I will join as many 10K or 5K races as possible in Bangkok, since there are always races every weekend. We will come back on Saipan and run again,\u201d said Mamiko, who also recorded wins in both the full and ultra marathon events here.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Longuski was the lone runner to complete the 10K race under 40 minutes, as Korean and runner-up Yeseoh Oh checked in at the 43:19 mark. Japan\u2019s Akira Yoshimura (43:38) and Kosuke Sato (44:15), Korea\u2019s Min Soo Kim (44:58) , and Saipan\u2019s Eun Syu Hahn (45:29) also made it to the Top 6 overall in the men\u2019s divisions.<\/p>\n

In the age group competition, Saipan\u2019s Rintaro Miyawaki topped the U14 division after posting 45:35, while other first place finishers were 15 to 19\u2019s Haruya Eda (49:21), 20 to 29\u2019s Huiyun Kim (1:07:26), 30 to 39\u2019s Shinobu Ohida (48:02), 40 to 49\u2019s Harumitsu Ono (46:33), 50 to 59\u2019s Ariel Lansangan (50:24), and over 60\u2019s Steven Pixley (49:24).<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s divisions, the age group champions were U14\u2019s Mayiah Duenas (1:12:27), 15 to 19\u2019s Yangzhou Su (1:05:21), 20 to 29\u2019s Andrea Hofschneider (57:07), 30 to 39\u2019s Claire Devey (54:27), 40 to 49\u2019s Claire Grove (54:27), 50 to 59\u2019s Amalia Harris (54:56), and over 60\u2019s Masako Uyama (1:02:48).<\/p>\n

The 10K course had runners going to Beach Road (across Char Store near the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office) and back to the starting\/finish line at Micro Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Micronesian Games gold medalist Mamiko Berger opted to do the 10K race in last Saturday\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":249100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[170,783,133,3134],"class_list":["post-249081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-japan","tag-micronesian-games","tag-run","tag-saipan-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}