TRIKW- December 3rd

After several months of training and anticipation, Kevin completed the Key West sprint triathlon. It was windy the morning of the event, but overall Kevin and his friends had a great time and they all survived. It was awesome to be there and be part of all the excitement for the event. There were a few olympians participating, and a lot of hard core athletes. I was amazed to see a 9 year old and an 11 year old participating. That shows some courage! The open swim is what scares me, but they did awesome! I took this picture of Kevin a few minutes after he actually crossed the finish line and texted it to family members, especially since my mom was worried for Kevin's safety. I was actually standing along the sidelines about 200 yards (?) before the finish line so I could get a better picture due to the crowd at the end. As he ran by I was screaming his name and cheering. Apparently he didn't notice or hear me because he later told me that as he crossed the finish line, he was looking around for me, and he didn't see me anywhere. HOW SAD!! I had to explain that I was hoping for the best picture, and since we had no idea when he would be passing by, we were just keeping a close watch. As soon as we saw him rounding the corner, I took my picture taking position, and Daleth ran her pregnant self over to the finish line to snap a picture (which I don't have yet).

Here are the events of the weekend. First order or business, load up the bikes from our house down to Andre and Daleth's house. Once there, we put the bikes on their car rack to head down to Key West. Only after stopping for breakfast, of course! We all took Friday off work to give ourselves an extra day for the weekend adventure.
The boys wanted to attend the safety meeting, which might have been mandatory, but regardless was super helpful as they had no idea what they were doing. It was helpful for me too so I understood how the morning would play out.
The look of excitement and anticipation!
They had this amazing sand sculpture that was part of some contest on an HGTV show...along with the one at the top of this post.


The morning of the race. The boys dropped all their gear at the transition area, went to body marking, and came back up to the room to pick us up.







Kevin running past after the swim. He didn't even look at me for the photo op. Don't worry, I talked to him about this missed photo opportunity, haha. We were all screaming and yelling, and I got nothing. I guess he was focused :) The swim was tougher than they had anticipated due to all the wind.
Waiting in line to get his print-out of results. Overall, his goal was to complete the thing in under 2 hours, and beat Robby, haha. Robby joined last minute and was pretty confident that he would beat Kevin and Andre, so that was their main goal. Mission accomplished! Kevin finished at 1:53, and Robby finished about 10 minutes later. As soon as it was over, they were already talking about doing it again next year, and possibly a few events between now and then!!
Oh, I forgot to mention that we were staying at the Casa Marina, which was hosting the event. Let me tell you, this place was beautiful. It was located right on the water and had the most amazing hammocks between the pool and the beach. Andre used his points to get us a shared room, and we basically had a slumber party Friday and Saturday night.

After the boys showered up, we spent the afternoon at the pool enjoying the 80 degree weather. Definitely doesn't feel like December here, but I was grateful for the warmth and the time to just relax. That evening, we went to Hot Tin Roof in downtown Key West. We dined on their covered patio area where we watched the sunset and the yachts passing by. Dinner was delicious, then we strolled down Duval Street to catch their annual Christmas parade. We stopped for frozen key lime pie dipped in belgian chocolate and it did not disappoint. The parade, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment, but we enjoyed the company. Key West isn't necessarily the classiest place around, and there were some bar hoppers that were standing near us. Let's just say we were happy when they left!

Overall, It was a beautiful weekend and I was very proud of Kevin for his accomplishment. Until next time...