{"id":384244,"date":"2023-01-30T06:06:31","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T20:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=384244"},"modified":"2023-01-30T06:06:31","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T20:06:31","slug":"tania-breaks-own-5000m-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/tania-breaks-own-5000m-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Tania breaks own 5,000m record"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Fordham University\u2019s Tania Tan holds up her phone with the CNMI flag on the screen after breaking her own record in the 5,000m run of the River Hawk Invitational at the TRACK at new balance in Boston, Massachusetts. (ALEXANDRA THOMAS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another competition, another record for the CNMI\u2019s prodigious racer Tania Tan.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 21-year-old Fordham University senior finished second in the the 5,000m run of the River Hawk Invitational hold over the weekend at the TRACK at New Balance in Boston, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

Aside from the podium finish, the Saipan International School alumnae also broke her record in the event after crossing the finish line in 18:03.22.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran at the brand new indoor New Balance track in Boston! It was a super fun race. I felt confident going into the race and had a lot of fun slowly moving my way up throughout the race. Just the atmosphere and my teammates cheering was encouraging,\u201d she told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

Tan said aside from the cold weather, running repeatedly on the track was the challenging part of last weekend\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoston is colder than New York so it was super cold and windy. Thankfully we raced indoors so it wasn\u2019t cold but the air was so dry. I think the hardest part was the amount of laps. It was 25 laps so that was mentally hard because you\u2019re basically just running around in circles for that long, trying to keep up with people physically, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Asked if she\u2019s now acclimatized to the weather in the East Coast after her brief Christmas vacation on Saipan, Tan essentially said the change in weather is literally night and day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weather is much different, it\u2019s so hot and humid on Saipan which makes it harder to run. But the cold also makes it hard to run because you\u2019re just freezing the whole time and it feels like your body can\u2019t warm up. Your legs feel frozen and stiff\u2026I would still prefer running in the heat because at least my body is able to warm up and I can wear shorts and a shirt to run instead of being buried in five layers with gloves and a head warmer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

CNMI national athletics coach Dr. Ron Snyder, who is SIS headmaster and Tan\u2019s track and field coach in high school, said there\u2019s no question that his old ward is now the premier CNMI runner in her distances of choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cTania crushed her old record by nearly a minute, making her the dominant runner in the NMI for distances of 3,000m-10,000m. The funny thing is, if we look at her mile split or her 3,000m split while running this 5K, she would have set new NMI records for both of those distances as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the 5,000m indoor record, Tan also holds the CNMI records in the 3,000m indoor event and three outdoor events as well (3,000m, 5,000m, and 10,000m).<\/p>\n

\u201cSince she joined the cross country team at Saipan International School, Tania has progressed from a great runner to a great racer,\u201d added Snyder.<\/p>\n

When asked what\u2019s the difference between a great runner and a great racer, Snyder explained: \u201cA great [distance] runner has strong endurance, good speed endurance and the ability to hold a pace. A great racer takes that and adds a strategic mind to it. They look at the pack and decide when to cede first place, when to surge forward, when to tuck themselves behind someone in the wind. They judge their ability to kick at the finish as opposed to taking an early lead. A great racer is in a constant battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for future events, Snyder said Tan will be part of the CNMI track and field team that will be traveling to Australia for the World Cross Country Championships next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe will find herself in good form for this very difficult course. The challenge for her and all athletes from the northern hemisphere is that they will be running in the Australian summer and the temperature difference will be as great as 50 degrees for some of the runners. This will take some careful planning and strategy for everyone and the ability to say, \u2018I need to go to the water station even though it will cost me a bit of time,\u2019\u2019\u2019he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another competition, another record for the CNMI\u2019s prodigious racer Tania Tan. The\u00a0 21-year-old Fordham University…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":384248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384244","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\/384244","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=384244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}