Husband-and-wife duo conquers 2025 Saipan Marathon

Their wedding vows must’ve mentioned running marathons together, because a husband-and-wife duo from Japan—Hiroki Nakajima and Tomomi Nakajima—not only ran the 2025 Skechers Saipan Marathon, but dominated the competition last Saturday.

The annual event that sported the full marathon, half-marathon, 10K, and 5K, featured runners of all ages and from around the world with the start and finish lines at the Micro Beach Road, next to the Marianas Beach Resort. Out of the 618 registered participants, 530 showed up, eager to test their endurance, mental and physical fortitude, or simply have fun with family and friends and get their steps in.

The full marathon course etched its way from Micro Beach Road, south to Chalan Kiya, then back north to Banzai Cliff, and finally back to Micro Beach Road.

The 35-year-old Hiroki crushed the full marathon (26.2 miles/42.195K) with the fastest overall time of 2:29:25—which beat the course record of 2:44:45 set last year by Yuki Kaneyama. In the women’s division, Tomomi clocked in first at 3:08:31.

Second place in the men’s division was Kaneyama at 2:40:24, while third was Shohei Miyamoto at 2:44:13. Runner-up in the women’s division was South Korea’s Yun Jin Kim with a time of 3:33:18, and third place was Saipan’s Heather Brook at 3:37:36.

Hiroki said of the course, “it was very hard but I didn’t feel so hot. But the course is very dark so I felt so scared. Many people cheered for me, so I did my best—thank you very much.” As for his win, he said, “I felt so happy. I expected to win this race—my wife also expected to win this race.” Before this marathon, he said they ran the Osaka Marathon two weeks ago, and the Hong Kong Marathon a month ago.

Tomomi also took first place in the 2020 Saipan Marathon and ran alongside Hiroki in this year’s Saipan Marathon for the first time. Tomomi shared the same sentiments about the course as her husband and said, “It was very hard and dark.”

They then said they’ll be back next year to defend their titles.

The half-marathon was dominated once again by chef Jody O’Sullivan, who returned with a singular goal in mind—to defend his title—and that he did with the fastest overall time of 1:25:54. In the women’s division, Saipan’s veteran runner, Noriko Jim, redeemed herself with a first-place finish at 1:45:11.

O’Sullivan said of this year’s race, “it was lovely… Thankfully there was no wind—perfect conditions. Same as last year, lovely conditions running all the way. Thankfully living here and knowing the course, you know where it’s dark.”

As for the event, he said, “It’s brilliant. Ed [Diaz] and the [Marianas Visitors Authority] did a super job organizing everything… it’s really well done, really professional.”

For Jim, she said, “I’m just lucky. The weather was great and perfect. Everyone was cheering and it was very exciting. Last year, I was second place and I’m just lucky this year that I got first place.”

Second place in the men’s division was Sang-Gun Lee at 1:34:33, and third place was Saipan International School’s Landen Taflinger at 1:37:22. In the women’s division, the second place went to Hoonjoo Kwak at 1:52:18, and third was Fushiki Reiko with 1:53:26.

In the 10K, Genta Saito was first at 36:16, followed by Victor Nash Santos at 37:09, while third was Eldon Egbert at 39:12. In the women’s division, first place went to Saipan’s Akiko Miller at 44:09; second was Lydia Ha-Eum Ro at 44:34, and third place was Yang Hee Kim at 45:11.

The 5K was won by Noriko’s son, Takeru, who came in at 18:43. Second was Michael Miller at 18:50, and third was Rex Pixley at 19:35. First place in the women’s division was Konomi Suzuki with a time of 24:41, second was Paylor Egbert with 25:06, and third was Cambrie Egbert at 25:15.

For the first time, instead of a dinner awards banquet, they had a festival where they awarded the winners after the race at the Micro Beach parking lot behind the Marianas Beach Resort.

The main sponsor of the event was Skechers, with other sponsors including Coca Cola, Powerade, Subway and Foremost, Bridge Capital LLC., United Airlines, Ideal Signs, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Dave Electronics, Athletes Foot, Borderline, and AllStar Sporting Goods.