This is a tribute entry to a friend from my mission days ('89-'91- man, that was a long time ago). He and his family were our guardian angels during our one year adventure to Hawaii, and we've managed to keep in touch since then.
Kevin's become quite the runner recently. I've lost the little speed I had from my high-school cross-country days and "Ranger Challenge" competitions with the Army ROTC program, and following multiple ACL reconstructions as well as many years and pounds of riotous eating.
He has managed to do the opposite and just keeps getting better.
He did well in this year's Aloha Run in Honolulu, an 8.15 mile run, finishing in 12th overall (out of about 25,000), won his age division, and beat his personal best by 10 seconds. He also had quite the story of how he locked his keys in the car and was late to get to the starting line because his race number was in the car, etc- great theatre!
Not called the Run to the Sun for nothing- ah, the beautiful clouds of Hawaii!
More recently he won the Run to the Sun on Maui. It started at sea level (the Maui Mall in Kahului) and finished 36.4 miles later at the top of Haleakala crater, 10,023 feet above sea level.
It was his first "ultra marathon," so he was a bit nervous as to how he'd do. He'd also never been to Maui before, and hadn't seen 10,000 feet since he lived in Colorado many years ago. He won the race, finishing in 5 hours 28 minutes and 38 seconds, which was the best finishing time in 13 years. He beat the second-place finisher by 40 minutes.
Way to go, Bishop K-diddy!
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