{"id":374621,"date":"2022-08-22T06:04:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-21T20:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=374621"},"modified":"2022-08-22T06:04:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T20:04:42","slug":"lily-sildrey-are-queen-king-of-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/lily-sildrey-are-queen-king-of-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily, Sildrey are Queen, King of the North"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Dr. Lily Muldoon topped Run Saipan\u2019s Grotto 10K women\u2019s division last Saturday in Marpi. Also in photo are from left, Run Saipan president Edward Dela Cruz Jr., second place Dixie Mendenhall, Muldoon, third place Tiana Cabrera, and Run Saipan secretary\/treasurer Dr. Ron Snyder. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Lily Muldoon and Sildrey Veloria were unofficially crowned Queen and King of the North, respectively, after topping Run Saipan\u2019s Grotto 10K last Saturday in Marpi.<\/p>\n

Muldoon, the 37-year-old Department of Public Health director and Commonwealth Health Center Emergency Department physician, finished No. 1 overall with a time of 44:57.<\/p>\n

She was followed by Dixie Mendenhall with a time of 47:56, while Saipan International School student Tiana Cabrera completed the Top 3 in the women\u2019s division with a time of 51:38.<\/p>\n

Muldoon said the Grotto 10K was one of the \u201cfunnest race\u201d she\u2019s ever ran on Saipan.\u00a0
\n

<\/a>
Sildrey Veloria topped Run Saipan\u2019s Grotto 10K men\u2019s division last Saturday in Marpi. Also in photo are from left, Run Saipan president Edward Dela Cruz Jr., second place Mike Mancao, Veloria, third place David Zhao, and Run Saipan secretary\/treasurer Dr. Ron Snyder. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really nice to be in Marpi and off Beach Road and running in the most beautiful parts of Saipan, which is the northern part of the island. Another reason it was really special was running with Mike [Mancao] and Sildrey [Veloria]. We had an amazing connection and I think I ran faster than I would have otherwise because of the three of us running together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Muldoon said the Grotto 10K proved that Run Saipan\u2019s races are more than a competition but are events where participants get to know each other better and even improve on their performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSildrey and I were running together and Mike broke away in the beginning and got quite the lead on us. And OK [me and Sildrey] we\u2019re just talking and I got to really know him because we never really chatted before\u2026 So we learned more about each other\u2019s lives. We turned the corner and he\u2019s still pretty far in front of us and I asked \u2018Sildrey, you think we can catch Mike?\u2019 He said \u2018yes we can if we work together.\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Muldoon and Veloria picked up their pace and eventually caught and passed Mancao, but instead of letting him bite their dust, they waited for him to let him join them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said \u2018bye guys see you at the finish.\u2019 But we said \u2018no Mike, we\u2019re together and let\u2019s do this together.\u2019 So we ran so fast in the last bit and it\u2019s great to have some people to run with,\u201d said Muldoon.<\/p>\n

Veloria and Mancao, for their part, finished 1-2 in the men\u2019s division and second and third overall behind Muldoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Northern Marianas College student finished with a time of 45:05, followed by Mancao at 45:17. Agape Christian School\u2019s David Zhao was third among the men after clocking in at 48:19.<\/p>\n

Veloria said the Grotto 10K wasn\u2019t really as tough as he initially\u00a0 thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly I thought it was gonna be really hard but with all the training I did before the race it really paid off. Like going up the hill I struggled a lot before. But now OK I can push it a little more.<\/p>\n

It also helped that he had the two-time NMI Women\u2019s 10K Run defending champion beside him 99% of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really alone. Lily kind of paced me or we had the same pace. We liked to feed off each other and motivated each other. We high-fived a lot of people coming back. That gave more energy and I don\u2019t know how but it felt really good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although, Veloria said the good doctor eventually outsprinted him in the last part of the race, he\u2019ll be ready for her the next time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026And then going down here I felt we were going too fast but it was enough. The turn coming down she just separated herself and I told myself \u2018maybe next time I\u2019ll probably get her.\u2019 It was really fun. It\u2019s challenging for a lot of people. It\u2019s my first one [10K in Marpi] so I don\u2019t know how to compare it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A day before running Run Saipan\u2019s Grotto 10K, Veloria was seen aboard a skateboard cruising along Beach Road. He said it\u2019s his own unique way of calming his nerves before a big race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I overtrain I will fatigue my legs. Relaxing a day before a race and skateboarding is like a cool down for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Lily Muldoon and Sildrey Veloria were unofficially crowned Queen and King of the North,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":374609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374621","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\/374621","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=374621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}