Munnis, King-Hinds top 4th CHCC Happy Hearts 5K

Out of over 100 participants in the 4th Annual Run Saipan/CHCC Happy Hearts 5K Fun Run and Walk on a festive Friday afternoon, United Airlines pilot James Munnis and U.S. Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds were the fastest in their respective divisions.

Run Saipan president Edward Dela Cruz Jr. said that they do not have recorded times for this race because their timing system went down and did not have a back-up timer.

However, the placement for the men’s women’s and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. staff are below:

• First place in the men’s division was Munnis, second place was Matthew Furan, and third place was Edmundo Bato.

• First place in the women’s division was King-Hinds, second place was An Bang, and third place Rosemarie Chisato.

Out of over 25 CHCC staff, the Top 3 men were Jomer Enriquez, Kurt Songsong, and Felix Cabrera. The Top 3 CHCC women were Jennifer Retsinas, Maggy Moussalem, and Aileen Benavente.

The race was in collaboration with CHCC’s Sunshine Squad where they donate every year to Run Saipan. This year, they donated $500. Sunshine Squad chair and Run Saipan vice president Dr. Jenna Kong was not present at the race, but Dr. Peter Brett, the Sunshine Squad’s brainchild said that the annual event “is to get people together to have a good time and get to know each other better.”

Dr. Alan Zevallos, also a member of the Sunshine Squad, added that Kong organizes the event and gets hospital staff to “walk, exercise, be part of a group, and contribute to this organization which promotes health on the island.”

For staple runner Munnis, who’s won many races on the island, said that the sunset race was “It’s very nice. Nice evening, semi-cool, compared to earlier in the morning where we run into like 9am-10am. It’s nice to do these runs in the evening just before sunset.”

As for the event, he said, “I really love these things. I know people that run businesses that are always trying to sponsor 5Ks, run-walks, 1-mile walk, 3-mile walks, stuff like that for charities. They will sponsor maybe about $200-$300 and they get to put about five of their employees in—you can walk, you don’t have to run.”

For King-Hinds, she said she joined the race because, “first of all, there’s nothing that makes me happier than being home and running here in the CNMI. But more importantly than that, I want to live the change that I want to see and it’s important that this community is healthy.” She shared that she used to be 245lbs and lost 100 lbs and said, “I know how incredibly hard it is to get on a positive, healthy weight-loss journey, and sometimes it takes community effort right, to be able to get motivated and to feel not alone. It is hard to be disciplined and to just go at it every day, and so it's important to come out and support today’s event. We need to be healthy and I think we all need to lead by example—and as one of your elected representatives I thought it’s very important to show up and show the community that being active and leading a healthy lifestyle is very important not just for weight-loss, but just for your overall health.”