Kansas City Runner

It’s been more than a year since I last posted on Kansas City Runner. I’m excited to share an update this Memorial Day weekend.

It’s turning out to be a great weekend of paddling for the Beems!

First was Thursday’s solo tour of an arm of Lake Jacomo. I explored every cove along the way, spotted numerous birds, turtles and fish and enjoyed the sunny, still skies.

The van at Lake Jacomo.

My red solo canoe was ready for its first tour of the season.

A view of Lake Jacomo from the bow.

Taking flight.

My Lake Jacomo put-in and take-out cove.

The Lake Jacomo journey’s Strava.

Sunday morning, Maggie and I plan to be on the Little Blue River by 8 a.m. We’re paddling 10 miles from the Jackson Drive Bridge to the Little Blue Trail Blue Mills Road Access Point.

The tandem canoe is already on the van, and our gear is loaded and stowed by the front door. We’re both excited about the adventure.

The yellow tandem canoe is loaded and ready for our Little Blue River trek.

Maggie, Tom and I will return to Lake Jacomo Monday morning. We’ll take to the lake at sunrise in both canoes to paddle and fish.

The crappie are still spawning. We’re hoping to snag some lunkers.

I hope your Memorial Day weekend is as fun and full of adventure as ours. There’s no time like the present to get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful Spring weather.

Happy running … and paddling!

Kansas City Runner

Earlier this week, Maggie, Kate and I successfully ran the Maui Oceanfront Marathon. It’s an experience I won’t soon forget.

The race started in Wailea and followed North Loop Coastline Road Highway 30 all the way to Old Lahaina, ending a block from the famous Banyan tree in Lahaina Banyan Court. Maggie finished in under five hours and was waiting at the finish line with Joe and Tom when Kate and I crossed.

We ran along the ocean for most of the race.

We ran the marathon to celebrate our 50th birthday year. Along the way, we saw dozens of humpback whales, visited with some inspiring people and — early in the race — overcame a technical challenge.

We followed the ocean most of the race, and the whales breached and slapped their tails the entire time. For that reason alone, I would highly recommend the marathon to those considering a 26.2-mile destination race.

Kate and I ran for several miles with a couple striving to run a marathon in all 50 states for the second time. Their passion and commitment were inspiring, particularly as they shared the story of a man we’d passed several miles earlier who’s run more than 1,500 marathons in every state and many parts of the world.

Before the marathon…

In early November, as our training runs moved beyond 15 miles, Kate and I decided to adopt Jeff Galloway’s Run-Walk-Run Method to increase our range and reduce our pace. We ultimately settled on two minutes of running and one and a half minutes of walking at an overall pace of 12.5 minutes/mile and a target marathon completion time of 5:30.

Somehow, I inadvertantly turned off the run-walk-run alert on my Garmin Vivoactive 3 in the first mile of the marathon. After unsuccessfully spending the walking portions of the next five miles of the race trying to turn it back on, Kate and I decided to manually track our run and walk times the balance of the marathon, which proved to be a good distraction for me.

Ultimately, we ran an average pace of 14:08 minutes/mile and finished the race in 6:14, about 45 minutes slower than our goal. We feel great about the result given the heat, unexpected hills and faster-than-planned pace the first half of the race because of our technical challenge and adrenaline.

…and after the marathon!

Completing the marathon taught me a lot about how much we can accomplish when we commit ourselves to a challenging task, adopt a plan to accomplish it and work to make it a reality. Kate and I missed more than a few training runs during our marathon preparation, but we made adjustments and accomplished our goal.

The parallels between our experience and everyday life are obvious. I encourage you to consider committing to a personal goal that stretches you — whether physical, intellectual or in another area — and creating a plan to bring it to fruition.

Finishing the marathon was an amazing, unbelievable experience. What will stay with me, however, is the affirmation that I can set and accomplish goals that stretch me more than I thought possible.

So what’s next for me? Stay tuned…

Happy running!

Kansas City Runner

It’s a fact. I haven’t blogged in 18 months.

Now that my PhD is behind me, however, I’m looking forward to writing more in 2019. To prove it, here’s my first post.

Kate and I are running a marathon to celebrate our 50th birthday year. The Maui Oceanfront Marathon gun fires at 5 a.m. on Sunday, January 20.

The Beems on Sanibel Island in July 2018.

All three kids will be on hand. Maggie will run the marathon with us (and wait at the finish line for us), and Joe and Tom will provide “transportation support.”

Kate and I chose a training plan early on and have been preparing ourselves with increasingly long runs. We decided in November to use Galloway’s Run Walk Run Method, which has enabled us to extend our distance while preserving our pace.

Stay tuned in the coming days for updates. We’re not trying to set any records but hope to fininsh in 5.5 hours with an average pace of 12 minutes/mile.

Happy running!

Kansas City Runner