Michael Kumiyama was into running like every other airman. Then something sparked.
“In the military, we have to keep physical fitness. I always had an excellent physical-fitness report, but I’ve never been one to go and go — ‘You know, I’m going to run a marathon’ — until I got here,” he said, referring to his move to Arkansas.
Kumiyama, career-assistance adviser at the Little Rock Air Force Base, first experienced long-distance running when he ran a half marathon during the 2015 Little Rock Marathon, which took him well over 2 1/2 hours to complete. His most recent half marathon, the 2017 Hangover Half Marathon in Malvern, which took place Jan. 1, took him an hour and 45 minutes.
“You’re looking at, [in] two years, I cut 45 minutes off my half-marathon time. That’s huge,” he said.
Kumiyama grew up in a military family and lived in locations such as Germany — where he was born — Oklahoma, California, Kentucky and others. He said someone told him about the Little Rock Marathon when he moved to the base in December 2014.
“That was the first one I ever did. I just started training on my own, and it was horrible,” he said. “One of the worst things I’ve ever done in my life, but I did it, and I got the medal. That was the first time I’d ever been involved in an event like that. That started my running life.”
Kumiyama said he was in so much pain after the marathon and began to seek out other runners and running opportunities. He and Arkansas Run for the Fallen found each other, he said.
Arkansas Run for the Fallen is a 146-mile run in honor of Arkansas service members who have died while serving since 9/11. The run begins in Ozark and ends at the state Capitol in Little Rock.
During his first Run for the Fallen experience, Kumiyama ran 6 miles each day while carrying the bio card of a fallen service member, the Arkansas Run for the Fallen flag, the POW/MIA flag, the Gold Star Family flag and the American flag.
“It really hit me while I was reading this bio card,” Kumiyama said. “His name was Sgt. Reese, his family was there, and you could see the appreciation that they had in their eyes. All I did was run with a picture of their family member and read the bio card, placed the flag in the ground and then rendered a salute, and that meant the world to them. Off we went. As I’m running that next mile, I don’t know what hit me, but I was like, ‘Why are my eyes leaking?’ It hit me: ‘This American’s family is thanking me and giving me a hug, and I never even met this guy.’”
Through that experience, Kumiyama became positively overwhelmed about veterans and ways that he could help them and honor them. Kumiyama then became involved with Team Red, White and Blue, a national nonprofit that aims to enrich veterans’ lives through physical and social activity — and in turn, the veterans enrich the volunteers’ lives, he said.
Without physical and social activity, he said, one’s life can become stagnant.
“When folks get out of the military, they go from an institution to no institution, and it’s a hard transition, especially for those folks in this day and age that have gone through a lot of campaigns. [Post-traumatic stress disorder] has taken the lives of many,” said Kumiyama, who said he had been a Team Red, White and Blue member for a few years but not involved until moving to Arkansas. “We try to get them out and be part of a team. That’s really what it is.”
Because of his involvement, Kumiyama was asked to join the Team Red, White and Blue Central Arkansas Chapter’s leadership team and is now the chapter’s co-captain.
Noelle Coughlan, co-owner of Fleet Feet Sports in Little Rock, said she met Kumiyama through one of her store’s training programs.
“He was awesome, so much so that we made him a pace group leader the next year,” said Coughlan, who was Kumiyama’s running coach for three months. “He is just amazing, always smiling, always cheering everyone on.”
Coughlan said that in 2016, Kumiyama was a recipient of the Mizuno Power of Running to Inspire Award for his encouragement of others to run. Though he’s excited about running, Coughlan said, Kumiyama could benefit from taking a break.
“I think he does too much, but that’s as his coach,” she said. “I tell him, ‘Rest days, rest days.’ I think he can get faster if he takes a couple of rest days, downtime. He always wants to help out other people, so with the Air Force, he’s got his own group going right now that he’s training. I don’t think it’s in his personality to stop.”
This year, Kumiyama plans to run more than just a few legs of the run during Arkansas Run for the Fallen. He also wants to start a training program for those who are interested in running in the event.
In 2016, his goal was to run every race with a 6-by-8-foot American flag, which can tire the body but also bring motivation, he said.
“I’m telling you, when you’re carrying the American flag and people are telling you, ‘Thank you,’ you can’t complain about how tired you are,” he said. “You can’t complain about how your legs feel. You put a smile on. You say, ‘Thank you for allowing me to carry this flag. Thank you for thanking me, and I’ll see you at the end.’”
Coughlan said running is a beneficial activity because one doesn’t have to be fast to do it.
“You can kind of go at your own pace,” she said. “You don’t have to do it alone if you don’t want to. You can be social because you can talk while you’re doing it. It’s all levels, and really, you don’t have to have a team; it’s more personal goal-setting. You don’t have to make a basket; you don’t have to make a goal. You just move forward.”
As career-assistance adviser at the base, Kumiyama helps airmen with their career paths. He also provides new airmen with financial counseling, sexual-assault-prevention training, safety training and more so they can more easily transition into their jobs.
“I am the liaison to all enlisted members if they want to do something different in their career,” he said. “So let’s say I have a young airman who is in finance, and he wants to do something different — he wants to learn to be an explosive-ordnance disposal technician. He wants to work with his hands. He wants a job that’s a little more hands-on, so I look at that airman’s eligibility, and I do what I can to get him to get a different classification, get a different job in the Air Force.”
Kumiyama is also the local chapter president of the Air Force Sergeants Association.
“What we do is almost the same thing as Team Red, White and Blue. The Air Force Sergeants Association works for the benefits of veterans, whether they’re active duty or they’re not. [The organization] also works the benefits of spouses, family members,” he said.
Currently, Kumiyama is considering participating in the Boston Marathon and attending grad school.
“As runners, we have many different mantras,” he said “One of them that I do like to say is, ‘If you want to go fast, if you want to go far, go together.’”