The Keene Family

This year, we convinced our friends Heath and Cacee Lee to do the Lake Meridian sprint triathlon with us! Originally, Cacee and I were going to do a relay tri with another friend, but that friend got pregnant and had to resign her spot. I gave Cacee the option to resign (and I would do the whole thing) or still do the run (and I would do the swim and bike). She said, "What if I did the whole triathlon with you?" Great answer! And then her husband said he would do it too. Suddenly it was a double date! I am sooo proud of my friend Cacee for finishing strong. She was deathly afraid of the swim, new to road biking, and totally nervous. But she did it! Jim took fifth in his (very competitive) age group, which was awesome. I took a few minutes off my time from last year too! We had a great time doing this race with friends... and the good news is that they enjoyed it too. We plan to do another one together!

Jim and I got up realllly early and did the Lake Wilderness Tri on June 1, our first of the summer. Jim finished 4th in his age group and 13th overall! I finished a little slower than last year, but still solidly in the middle of my age group, all women, and all participants. I need to bike faster... still working on that! We celebrated by enjoying homemade yumminess at home for dinner, made by our children, later that day - and watching Ironman 2, which they hadn't seen yet.

I was so excited to finish the Lake Meridian triathlon 14 minutes ahead of my finish time from last year! I had a great race overall - even if my timing chip came off in my wetsuit. :( Fortunately Jim came with me and did an awesome job timing me during each leg, and he captured a few photos as well. One more for the summer!

I've been able to focus more on triathlon training this year since post-surgery recovery, and in January I started getting back into it. Six months of working out consistently totally paid off for my first triathlon of the summer! Jim came along to cheer me on so we got some photos too. Here I am getting ready to head into the water... And here I am, 1:45 later! My time from this course last year was 2:02 - so I finished a whole 17 minutes ahead. It was a pretty amazing feeling! I felt strong during the race, and Jim got me a sensor for my bike for my birthday that really helped me keep my pace and cadence correct. So when I got off the bike and realized I just had to jog a normal 5k run and would finish well before the two hour mark, I was super excited. It turns out, I really enjoy triathlons! 

Last year I completed my first ever triathlon at the Tri Turtle Tri, and set my goal to complete more this summer so I could finish this course in two hours or less. Since we had done other races this summer, and because I asked :), Jim agreed to stay with me for this race and encourage me to do my best. He did an amazing job helping me push myself without using up all of my energy too early in the race. I had so much more fun finishing with my favorite buddy too! Jim's parents had the kids spend the night at their house so they could sleep in, go to breakfast, and meet us at the finish line, which was super fun. Jim's mom took photos, so that was fun too! Here we are coming in from the bike ride... Jim kept me on pace and it was probably the best ride I've ever done. I like how he is smiling, coasting along, and I'm breathing so hard! Then we ran, and that was hard too. Plus, I was under strict directions from my knee doctor that I should not run if i...

Jim and I are signed up for three triathlons this summer. Our first one was this past weekend at Lake Wilderness. We both have some work to do to meet our goal times for later races, but it was a good first race. The weather was perfect and we had all the right gear. My knee (the other one, not the one I got fixed) hurt so badly on the run. Good thing I have an appointment with my orthopedist this week!