{"id":275299,"date":"2018-05-03T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T20:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=275299"},"modified":"2018-05-03T06:00:35","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T20:00:35","slug":"konqer-rota-still-on-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/konqer-rota-still-on-target\/","title":{"rendered":"KONQER Rota still on target"},"content":{"rendered":"
From left, Marianas Visitors Authority community projects manager Martin Duenas, MVA managing director Chris Concepcion, KONQER chief experience officer Kas Endo, and KONQER president Kelli Wedd pose for a photo during the KONQER Saipan briefing held at Salty\u2019s Bar in Garapan last Friday. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the success of last Saturday\u2019s KONQER Saipan and despite the announcement that Cape Air Express will stop its flights from Saipan to Rota and Guam to Rota next month, KONQER will push through with organizing an eco-adventure race on the island this summer.<\/p>\n

The reason is personal, according to KONQER chief experience officer Kaz Endo, who reminisced about his memories of Rota.<\/p>\n

\u201cRota and I have special roots. The first is being a young man playing golf at the Rota Resort Golf Course and looking around me, I fell in love with Rota right away. The second time was meeting a \u2018Make-A-Wish\u2019 girl named Miracle because I was documenting her story as a film maker. Miracle with her family and I went to Tokyo Disneyland and while on the conveyer belt to Disneyland from the parking lot where there were about 30,000 parked cars, she looked up and said \u2018I\u2019ve never seen that many cars\u2019 which I answered with \u2018welcome to Tokyo\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough Miracle passed away, she lived six years longer than what she was expected because of her condition. Miracle and my first experience of going to an unspoiled and pristine place ties me to Rota and for us to be able to have an opportunity to bring KONQER eco-adventure race there will be unforgettable,\u201d added.<\/p>\n

Early this month, the CNMI received news from United Airlines that flights from Saipan-Rota and Guam-Rota via Cape Air Express will no longer be available after May 31, giving KONQER Rota logistics and planning a bit of a hurdle to face.<\/p>\n

Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Chris Concepcion, however, said that they are still interested in having KONQER in Rota despite of United Airlines\u2019 announcemement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see and work on driving traffic to Rota for KONQER as soon as we figure out the possible date, other logistical information and we will make an announcement then\u2026 Star Marianas still have service flights from Saipan to Rota\u2026 In the meantime, the plan is to still have KONQER Rota,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

KONQER president Kelli Wedd said Rota is a perfect place, calling it an ultimate playground.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the excitement that we have for KONQER is for the man-made obstacles that really allow people to challenge themselves, but one of the best races that we\u2019ve done are using the outdoors which is just the ultimate playground and Rota fits that category. I think highlighting a lot of the culture and a lot of the landscape of Rota is important,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to go over there and tarnish what is so pristine and beautiful\u2026 Our whole mantra is obstacle through play because what is an obstacle course but a big playground for adults really. We just want people to get out, be active, and enjoy themselves at the same time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Endo added KONQER documents the whole process of using your body to the fullest and enjoying the environment that you are in.<\/p>\n

\u201cKONQER is about documenting the process because nowadays if you don\u2019t film it, it never happened. By filming it, it\u2019s out on the internet, more people get to experience it, and hopefully more people come through it\u2026 Rota is a beautiful place and it needs to be seen more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t control the transportation, we don\u2019t control the politics, but what we can control is the presentation of the experience. It\u2019s opening up Rota where you can\u2019t just play golf, explore nature, and go on a trail run that\u2019s really fantastic!\u201d Endo added<\/p>\n

Endo said that after Saipan and Rota, Tinian is also on the list of places for KONQER to conquer, as Tinian came up when the team got invited to do something there and see the possibility of organizing an obstacle race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I really love to do is to make it a CNMI competition, allotting three days such as one day on Saipan, one day on Tinian, and then Rota because at the end of the day, KONQER is not about trophies and winning. It\u2019s really about just doing it, getting through and feeling accomplished because if you can accomplish a lot of things you normally wouldn\u2019t do, then everything else becomes easy. We want people to take risks and say if you can do this basic thing\u2026 then there\u2019s nothing that you cannot conquer,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the success of last Saturday\u2019s KONQER Saipan and despite the announcement that Cape Air…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":275300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2714,17424,43,67],"class_list":["post-275299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-chris-concepcion","tag-konqer","tag-marianas-visitors-authority","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275299","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}