{"id":403132,"date":"2023-12-28T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=403132"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Barefoot-runner-keeps-Christmas-Relay-tradition-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Barefoot-runner-keeps-Christmas-Relay-tradition-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Barefoot runner keeps Christmas Relay tradition alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Solo barefoot runner \u201cMike\u201d Chang Whan Jang kept his Northern Marianas Athletics Annual Island Relay Race streak alive in the 42nd edition last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Even with a new course and with the participants getting younger and younger each year, the spirited 72-year-old ran the course barefoot from the Hyatt Regency Saipan to Marpi and back.<\/p>\n

Donning a Santa hat, Jang had an hour head start before the teams and ran through the course alone for over two hours.<\/p>\n

He said when he first joined the race in the 1980s, he was the fastest amongst the teams in the 13.1-mile course.<\/p>\n

To those who don\u2019t know him, he\u2019d make you wonder if he really is in his 70s as he is fit, active, and stays in the best shape he possibly could through a wide variety of sports.<\/p>\n

The physical education teacher at Hopwood Middle School said he has missed just two of the 42 races and prefers the old course from San Antonio to the Last Command Post.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s had a lot of \u201cgood memories\u201d with the old course that he\u2019s ran since he was 30 years old, as he gets to snap photos of the Christmas lights and decorations that don the buildings and the Christmas villages that line Beach Road.<\/p>\n

Jang said he chooses to run barefoot and has done so for many years now because of the benefits and the better balance on the body than running wearing shoes.<\/p>\n

He said of the annual event, \u201cIt\u2019s a local tradition in the running community. They expect it\u2014and see, there\u2019s a lot of young kids. So, it is a tradition that\u2019s why I couldn\u2019t stop joining every year.\u201d For next year\u2019s race, he plans to race again\u2014barefoot of course.<\/p>\n

Last year, he was joined by fellow solo barefoot runner, \u201cCharles\u201d Chong Nam Lee, but he wasn\u2019t in this year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Barefoot runner Chang Whan Jang runs into the finish line of the Northern Marianas Athletics\u2019 42nd Christmas Island Relay 13.1-mile course from Hyatt Regency Saipan to Marpi and back last Saturday.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
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Solo barefoot runner \u201cMike\u201d Chang Whan Jang kept his Northern Marianas Athletics Annual Island Relay…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403132","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}