Our First Triathlon and Other Activities

Well, we decided to attempt a triathlon and see what it was like. We know a few people from church that are very active triathletes, and it sounded like a fun challenge to try. We selected a "Sprint Triathlon," which is the shortest category in terms of distances. This event was held in Gainsville, Ga and consisted of a 1/4 mile lake swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and a 5k (3.1 mile) run.

Being new to the sport, we definitely had some need of training. We've been running a lot lately, and we both got mountain bikes this year and have been doing some riding, but swimming was a different story. Tamra has a swim background, so with a little practice she definitely looked the part of a seasoned swim competitor. I had a little more work to do (it turns out the "doggie paddle" is not the preferred swim stroke for races).

Here's Tamra's bike in the transition area. Neither one of us had a road or tri bike to use, so we both just used our mountain bikes. We knew that using mountain bikes for the bike leg would make us pretty slow (as they are twice as heavy and not built for aerodynamics the same was that road/tri bikes are) - but we figured that was OK for our first event. We did at least swap out our regular off-road tires for some smoother ones, which did help.

Tamra did great - she finished 13th out of 117 women for the swim leg, and somewhere around 27th out of 117 for the entire triathlon. Pretty impressive considering it was her first triathlon and the fact that the mountain bike cost her significant time on the bike leg, (though her performance was hardly surprising to me).

I was both slow in the bike leg and the swim leg. However, I was pleased to finish the swim using the freestyle stroke the whole way (no breaks, no switching to the breast stroke to catch my breath, and at no point did rescue swimmers need to be dispatched to come get me). I did make up some ground on the 5k run, finishing 13th out of 152 men for that leg of the race, and finished 80-something for the men in the overall triathlon.

We both had a great time, and plan to do another triathlon next year. Maybe next year we'll find some road bikes to borrow or rent and see how much difference that makes.

In other activities, we've also been keeping up with rock climbing. Our climbing gym is just 15 min. away - which is very nice. I try to climb at least twice a week and we try to go as a family at least a couple times a month. About a month ago, I made a day trip to the "Horse Pens 40," which is a popular bouldering spot in Alabama (i.e. a field of large boulders that you climb using safety pads and spotters instead of ropes/harnesses).

Here I'm finishing up a slab problem (not quite vertical, mostly flat rock face), called Merlin. This is somewhat of a "high-ball" problem (anything ~15 ft. tall or greater). Of course we used multiple pads and spotters for climbs like this.

I don't remember the name of this next problem, but it was a fun climb with good holds. Here's me at the beginning:

The middle:

And almost at the top:

One thing about climbing outdoors, when it's really hot out, you don't get the same grip on the rocks. Consequently, here in the South, outdoor climbing is actually best Fall through Spring. As good as the boulders are here at the Horse Pens, I'm definitely looking forward to making another trip later in the year, when it's cooler and the friction on the rocks is better. Maybe I can get Tamra and the boys to come next time too (and we'll try to remember the camera).

What have we been up to?

For those of you that have been wondering - yes, our Internet connection still works, and no, we didn't forget how to post blog updates. We've just been busy and a bit lazy about taking pictures (which are of course the best part of the blog posts), and therefore have gone silent for a while. But as much fun as it is to read all of your blogs, we've felt a little guilty not doing any ourselves, so here's some info about what we've been up to lately.

First, we had a very fun trip out West back in June for a Keenan family reunion. We flew to Salt Lake City and spent a day down in Provo visiting BYU campus and saw Tamra's brother Kyle.

Here are the boys playing football on the quad:

And here's all of us outside of the football stadium. It didn't occur to us until this picture was taken that we all happened to be wearing red (not the best choice for a visit to BYU).

Next, we drove up to Idaho for the reunion. It was great to visit with family and had a wonderful time exploring nearby Yellowstone and Teton National Parks.

We made the required stop to see Old Faithful:

Tamra and the boys from Lookout Point, with Yellowstone's Lower Falls in the background:

Here's Patrick at one of the many bubbling sulfer pots:

And here's one of the most amazing sights from Yellowstone - not the lake, but Lenny actually somewhat smiling for a picture:

In addition to our summer vacation out West, we've also been staying active here in Georgia. We're still climbing regularly. We got a membership at a local climbing gym and have also done some outdoor climbing trips. Tamra and I also both got new mountain bikes this year and have enjoyed exploring some of the local trails. We've also been doing a lot of running, and participated in our first race events since college (in other words, our first races since the late 1900's).

Here's Tamra after the Georgia Games Run for Life 5k run from July (she won the women's 30-34 age group division!)

And here I am at the end of the Big Peach Sizzler 10k on Labor Day. I did not win my age group division (far from it), but did set a new 10k personal best at 42:55 (6:54/mile pace), and am looking forward to making continued progress.

While the weather is still warm (most days at least), we're now fully into the Fall activities. The boys are back in school (2nd and 4th grade). Patrick is doing Fall baseball and Lenny has started cub scouts again. We'll try to keep taking some pictures and hopefully you won't have to wait another 10 months before our next blog post.

Indoor Rock Climbing

Back in August we decided to visit an indoor rock climbing gym here in the area. It was a lot of fun and there are climbing walls/routes for all ability levels, so everyone was able to participate. Since then, we have returned several more times and found it to be a nice family activity as well as great exercise.

We've received some requests for pictures, so here they are. We're still working on getting a good picture of Tamra in action - so stay tuned.


On October 29th, I decided to enter a climbing competition at the gym. This was a bouldering competition. Bouldering is basically climbing short routes without using a rope/harness. The routes (or "problems") are marked with colored tape, indicating which holds you are allowed to use. Each problem has a point value, and your score for the event is the aggregate point value of the six highest scoring problems that you complete.

The first 3 pictures below show me progressing through the highest scoring problem that I was able to complete.


This problem started on the inside right wall of this little cave section, then up the wall, down under the red pyramid-looking thing, across the ceiling, and then up the face on the outside of the cave to the top.

FYI - the clown wig was not a personal fashion statement. Given that it was Halloween weekend, you could get some bonus points for coming in costume.

This is one of the other problems I was working on. I didn't finish at the competition, but was able to do so on a trip to the gym this past weekend - as did Tamra. (The costume bonus is also the explanation for the gorilla costume this guy was wearing).

The competition drew a total of 35-40 climbers, across 5 divisions. There were 10 climbers in the recreational (beginner) division, and I came in 7th - not bad considering this was only my 5th time climbing. However, there was at least one 8 yr old girl that finished ahead of me, so I wouldn't call myself a climbing prodigy either (though I will note that there was no testing for performance-enhancing drugs at this event).

There is another bouldering competition at the end of January, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much progress I can make between now and then. Rumor has it Tamra is looking to enter the January competition as well!

Atlanta Zoo July 2010

In July we went to the zoo with my sister Kolayna and sister-in-law Megan and her kids. It was a very hot day, but we wanted to get in before school started.

Patrick got eaten by a komodo dragon.








We tried feeding the birds, but they did not seem to be that hungry. We had to preform some acrobatics to get close to them.


Lenny checking out the map trying to figure out where we should go next.


My niece being very gentle with the baby gorilla.

ZIP LINE VIDEOS

THE ZIP LINE!

We have spent a lot of time in our backyard this summer trying to fix things up. We took down an old swing set, cut down a handful of trees, cleared out tons of leaves, built a fire pit, hung a tire swing and put up zip line. Here are a few photos and videos featuring the zip line. You can also see some of the clearing that we did and the tire swing in one of the videos.

FYI-the swing set is part of our neighbors backyard and the grass line roughly marks our property line




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SOCCER

Patrick had a great soccer season this year. It was a Spring league, so it ended awhile ago. I am just really slow at posting. As expected at his age there was the team problem of bunching, crowding, hogging the ball and those that just could not focus, kicking dirt, picking dandelions. But as a whole he had a pretty good team that improved as the season went on. Patrick really enjoys soccer and has some good instincts. Our goal was to get him to improve on aggression and follow through. He played offense basically the whole season, so we were working on scoring. So, a little incentive was given for a goal scored. He loves computer games. He had been playing a trial version of a game and begging me to pay for the full game. I had been telling him no for weeks. So, when Leonard agreed to offering some extra encouragement I knew the perfect thing to motivate him. Below is the 'game winning' goal.

Play by play to help you pick out Patrick:
Patrick is number 8. He runs up the field, the balls goes out, the goalie throws it in, Patrick runs in front on the goal, blocks the ball with his chest, then dribbles and scores. It is hard to see him score, but you can see him block the goalie throw, see the ball go in the net and see the high five with the coach.

Baby Shower Gift

Lenny's teacher is about 4 months pregnant. Today was his end of the year class party. (The kids are done on Friday!) Along with the party the classroom mom suggested that we also throw a mini baby shower for the teacher. My sister had given our sister in-law this cute wipes case at Christmas. So, I searched on line for a tutorial and found a similar case with little bag to hold the case and some diapers. I called my sister to see how hard the project was because it was late Tuesday after noon and the party was tomorrow. She said it was not that hard and I decided to be extra ambitious and make the case and a bag.

A quick trip (or an attempt at a quick trip to the store-I had to go to Walmart because I was told that is the only place that carries white wipe holders, so I figured I would just look for some cute fabric there. One stop shopping. Well, apparently Walmart has decided to close their fabric department. So I tried right next door at Micheals. I know they don't sell fabric by the yard, but I did not need that much fabric and thought I might get lucky with some quilt square size samples. Wrong! But I did find some cute metal ribbon embellishments. So next I headed over to Hobby Lobby and got my fabric) and I was back home in time to tuck the kids in bed. Then using my creative domestic skills, which I have not used in a while, I whipped up a fabric covered wipe case and diaper holder. I was quite proud of myself! Here is proof that it turned out pretty cute. Or at least I think so.

This metal embellishments says 'happy day'.

Inside there is enough room to store the wipe case and a couple of diapers.

The embellishment on the wipes case says 'adore'.

His teacher is having a boy, but that does not mean she can't have a cute wipe case and I chose red because her favorite color is GA red, for UGA Bulldogs. Although the fabric really does not reflect UGA at all.

CAMPING DAY 2

Saturday morning we toasted bagels over the fire for breakfast then were off for an adventure. We went on a wild safari! It was a pretty amazing zoo like park, except you rode in a bus with no windows through a big open range with cups of food to feed the animals. The animals included camels, pigs, sheep, llamas, buffalo, cows, bulls, zebras, giraffes, and probably a few others I can not remember. It was great fun having the animals eat right out of our hands. I tried to capture this on camera, but the bus was moving and the animals ate the food so fast it was hard to get a good picture.







After the safari there was a historical trip to tour FDR's vacation home located in the state park we were camping at. But it cost extra to do that and frankly sounded boring. So we headed back to camp early, packed up and headed home. This time we followed the scout directions. We had no problems getting home. We were even home in time to watch BYU play in the second round of the NCAA tournament.