Fire and the Keeper

5/20/2007


It's amazing how quickly time passes, and this summer is definately no exception. It seems as though the first few months of this year have simply blown by. Suddenly the River Festival has passed and the hot temperatures of another summer on the plains will be here.It's always amazing to see the civic pride and social interaction that occurs during the Wichita River Festival when thousands of folks from Wichita and the surrounding areas come downtown to enjoy theatmoshere.

This year was especially unique because of the dedication of the Keeper of the Plains rennovtion. The opening ceremony held on Friday night signified the completion of the multi-milion dollar project to refurbish the symbolic artwork and to develop two pedestrian bridges that span both the Little Arkansas River and the Big Arkansas River.

Elizabeth and I gathered with the mob of other citizens to enjoy the fireworks and the actual flames that issued forth from the base of the statue. It was a great show, with some really corny music; lots of fireworks; fog; flames; and a recorded speech by the Mayor. I think everyone got a kick out of the show and left pretty happy. It was a beautiful night and something that a lot of folks will be talking about for years to come. I've got some pictures that I will post pretty soon. It's neat because this project is similar to the 16th Street pedestrian railroad bridge back in Denver that created an icon for the neighborhood. I imagine that the refurbished Keeper and pedestrian bridges will become similar community icons.

Aside from the activities surrounding the keeper ceremony, Elizabeth and I have been pretty low key this weekend. I got in a great 12 mile run on the HealthTradgeties route. It was a great run but I totally owe Lonnie, Greg, and Andrew for kicking my butt the last couple of miles. Next time they had better watch out ha. The fun didn't stop after the run. Later Elizabeth and I went to the yoga class out at the East Y. Lonnie showed up for swimming at the same time and got to meet the elusive Elizabeth. I promise, I haven't been trying to hide her ha. The yoga class is always great and I'm constantly amazed at the 83 year old instructor! She doesn't look a day over 60 and I'm sure could beat me up if she wanted to, yes she's in that kind of shape.

The other large accomplishment of the day was the landscaping in the front yard. I think we finally got the four foot high pile of dirt in the tree lawn cleared away enough so that we can install some sod. I'm looking forward to watching that grass grow. It's been the case of moving a mountain wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow load.

Cheers, from a very cool and comfortable Air Capital

Metals at the River Run

5/15/2007

The largest road running race in Kansas is the Wichita River Festival. It takes place on the first Saturday of a week long city festival. It’s an amazing experience to race the River Run and to be up near the front. At the half way point of the 10k race (6.2 miles) you make a turn around a few orange cones and head into one of the most positive experiences. The entire route back folks shout out words of encouragement with a few shouts from people who know your name. Usually by this point you’re really hurting from the drain of the race and the words of positive encouragement really help. The running community here in Wichita usually makes a big show at the River Run and so you can expect to see folks you know nearly the entire way back. It is simply an awesome experience.

There are a few things that can make the River Run a challenge. Besides the fact that everyone is gunning to place, it happens relatively early in the season, and you also stand great odds that the weather will suddenly spike with high temperatures. In the past three years, I can only remember one of them having moderate temperatures. This year was no exception. The temperatures for the race were hotter than we’ve had practically the entire month before. The humidity was also high from all the recent storms. This made for a hot, humid, and sunny race conditions. Not impossible, but something everyone definitely commented on and that is reflected in the resulting times for a lot of folks.

The opening of the race is a huge kick, with a military cannon firing in downtown as the official start gun. You get to see the blaze of light and smoke for about a second before you feel the sound reverberate off your body. The first half mile takes you into Wichita’s bar district and historic warehouse are known as Old Town. A couple of quick lefts and soon your on your way back through downtown and towards the Arkansas River.

If you can keep your first mile dialed in fast but not a gut buster, then you generally have a great shot at making the top cut. If you go out too fast, you stand a chance of blowing up. Too slow, and you’ll never be in distance to challenge the other racers. Typically the first and second miles things really start to settle out with very few changes from there on. After the first mile, I knew I was in for trouble. My gut was complaining the whole time and through the second mile I was breathing harder than I should have been. I could tell this was not going to be a pleasant run.

I’ll spare you all the gory details, but in the end it was a hot, sticky and painful race. It was Definitely one to improve upon ha. I think a little more practice leading up to the race next year is a definite goal. However, with all that being said. I do think that next years will be a lot better simply because of how hectic this year has been for training. I look forward to getting in some great miles this summer and lots of bike rides and swims to really mix things up.

I wasn’t exactly packing heat for the race, but I was carrying around a little extra weight for the race. The Wednesday before the race, I got fitted with new braces. Talk about a slow painful experience! I feel like I’m running around with a cattle guard for my face when I run. If you want to look about ten years younger, this is definitely the trick! The only hard part now is giving up a lot of things that I’m used to eating because my teeth are too sore. Granola bars and the cereals with fruit and nuts are definitely out of the question, as I found out the morning after I got the new bling bling.

Emporia Migration and Salt Town Tune Up

So I really need to get rolling with this thing to let everyone know that my friends Chris Sweet and Steve Ruger are the ones that influenced me to really start doing this. Watching the ease with which they post information for everyone to keep up to date combined with the fact that it’s pretty difficult to keep in touch with everyone out here on the plains, I decided that it might be a good idea to start a blog – more of a history of comments and adventures.

Here's a link to Chris' blog...
http://www.goalisthejourney.blogspot.com/


It’s been a couple of weeks now (it’s amazing how time blows by) but it feels as if the Emporia Tri was just last week. It was a sprint tri with a 400 meter swim, 10 k bike, and 5 k run. It was the first tri of the year for me and a total blast. The swim is always the most challenging part for me. Last year I spent more time flailing in the water (no I wasn’t wearing water wings ha) and had spent a lot of energy by the time I got to the bike or the run.

With a year of swimming under my belt, things went a little easier this year. I submitted a conservative time for the swim and beat it by about a 90 seconds. Not too bad of a showing for a guy who had to do the backstroke last year ha. The course was a down, back and under the ropes course, you should have seen some of the almost crashes!

With the swim done, I raced out to the bikes and promptly got tangled up putting my shirt over my wet head. I must have looked like a cat with a box over it’s head (I’ve seen that before and it’s pretty funny). It took about two minutes to get that mess untangled and down to my belly button before I charged out on the bicycle.

Racing out on the country roads by Emporia I was able to get up to 37 mph. I felt like I was really making some awesome time up on some of the other folks. Suddenly, I realized that maybe the gusting wind was the reason for the awesome speeds. Boy did I find out the truth when I hit the turn around cone. I got around the cone and promptly simmered down to a blazing 10 mph! The rest of the ride in was a struggle to get up to 15 mph! I really need to get some aero bars, hello EBay.

After the bike in, I had an awesome transition to the shoes and got out for the run. It went really well, I felt like I had some energy in my legs and had a great time with the hills. The best part is catching the other tri folks who really had a tough time with Emporia’s hills he he.

Almost the entire crew from the Kansas River Valley Triathlon Club were there, and they all had an awesome time. I’m really going to have to work on everything if I’m ever going to place better in my age group with Jason and Jesse in the group. Alan the president is awesome, I think we’re in for a great year with the club.

Here is a link to the club website with tons of photos and the results…
http://ksrvtc.com/