{"id":364567,"date":"2022-03-21T06:02:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T20:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=364567"},"modified":"2022-03-21T06:02:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T20:02:36","slug":"sato-braxton-win-happy-hearts-5k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/sato-braxton-win-happy-hearts-5k\/","title":{"rendered":"Sato, Braxton win Happy Hearts 5K"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_364569\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-364569\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Run-Saipan-pixw.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-364569\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nearly 100 took part in Run Saipan and CHCC Sunshine Squad\u2019s Inaugural Happy Hearts 5K Fun Run last Friday, March 18. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kosuke Sato and Ayano Braxton pounded the pavement en route to winning the Inaugural Happy Hearts 5K Fun Run last Friday, March 18.<\/p>\n<p>Sato topped the men\u2019s division after conquering the race from the Garapan Fishing Base to just past the Japanese Tank Memorial along Quartermaster Road and back in a solid time of 20:05. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was cloudy, good weather for running. This time I enjoyed running with young fast runners Sildrey Viloria and Michael Mancao. They are practicing middle distance for the Pacific Games,\u201d said the 50-year-old general manager of Kingfisher Golf Links. <\/p>\n<p>Sato said good thing Viloria and Mancao faded a bit as the run became longer and he was able to take advantage and take the lead. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter two kilometers, they slowed down the pace. They are getting faster because the CNMI athletics team has Dr. Ron Snyder as head coach. He has IAAF coaching certification. I trained before under his curriculum which made me faster,\u201d said the native of Tokyo, Japan. <\/p>\n<p>Sato also thanked the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.\u2019s Sunshine Squad and Run Saipan for hosting running event. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis time close to 100 runners showed up. I felt everything\u2019s returning to normal after pandemic. People are significantly more health-conscious since the outbreak of COVID-19 began. I hope this event will be the chance for some to start jogging since regular jogging offers many health benefits.  I am looking forward to see the growth of the local running community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mancao and Viloria finished second and third in the men\u2019s 5K after crossing the finish line in 21:48 and 22:28.28, respectively. Theodore Rodgers (22:28.84) and Greg Trusso (22:42) round out the Top 5 in the men\u2019s division.<\/p>\n<p>Among the women, Ayano Braxton was the fleetest afoot with a time of 23:58. Rosemarie Chisato finished second in 25:50, while Run Saipan vice president Jenna Kong was third in 27:07.7. Kathy Ruszala (27:15) and Ann Bang (27:50) completed the Top 5 among the women.<\/p>\n<p>Braxton had mixed emotions after finishing first in the women\u2019s race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing to take first place at this time. I used to run 5 kilometers in 22 minutes until a few years ago, but as I got older, it became more difficult. Noriko [Jim] and Akiko [Miller], who are 10 years older than me, can run faster than I do. I would like to enjoy the run a little more so that I can keep up with them. And thank you to all the people who always support me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Braxton dedicated her win in the Happy Hearts 5K run to her husband, James, and their daughters, Aoi and Kaya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kosuke Sato and Ayano Braxton pounded the pavement en route to winning the Inaugural Happy&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":364568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364567","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}