The biggest fish I ever did see

Dearest KC,
I thought when I invited you to go fishing with my family it was pretty clear I meant SALMON fishing. I guess not.
Love,
kk

And the summer triathlon seasons begins

The Key Biscayne Sprint Triathlon Series began a week and a half ago. I was unsure if I was going to race or not as I've been on the road (and so sick) and have had a rough month at work. (I know most of you won't believe me when I say this but I had literally only run 3 times since my half ironman!) But I went ahead and decided to do it and just take it easy and have fun with it. (After all, I am supposed to be doing triathlons for fun, right?) I set small little goals and just hoped for the best. Goals: under 7 min swim, under 32 min bike and under 27 min run

Because it's such a short little triathlon (1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run), I decided to ride my bike over to the race as a warm up. It was definitely a good call. I quickly got set up in transition and waited for the race to begin.

The gun finally went off at 7:55 am and I was off. Took it very easy on the swim. Although I did have this girl that was driving me crazy right next to me in the water so of course I had to drop her and picked it up just slightly towards the end. :) Final swim time: 6:44 (that's about 1 minute slower than my last race... See, I CAN take it easy!) Goal #1 achieved.

I ran to the transition area to get ready for the bike only to find that someone had completely moved my set up and my stuff was everywhere. I was sooo annoyed and my transition was definitely longer than normal. Felt good on the bike minus the part where I realized there had been a pretty bad accident involving a big red SUV and the leader of the race. They had just put the guy in the ambulance but his bike was crumpled and a random shoe and helmet were on the ground along with some blood. Not good. (He ended up being okay for the most part.) Final bike time: 31:28. Goal #2 achieved.

And on to my final and "favorite" leg, the run. (Surely you all know by now I am being facetious.) I just cruised along. It got really, really hot towards the end but I ultimately crossed the finish line. Final run time: 26:45. Goal #3 achieved.

Overall, it was a great race. My final time was 1:09:26. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I came in 10th place in my age group (out of 27). 33rd for females (out of 188) and 226th overall (out of 777). It was a great way to start of the summer season.

Here are some pics. Notice my new sweet uni!

The Conch Republic

Newly crowned "doctor" jessie and her husband ryan came to visit over Memorial Day weekend. Woo Hoo!

Well, what they didn't know was that it happened to be Hip Hop Weekend in Miami. (Um, yeeeea!)SO, we decided to head down further South to good old Key West for the weekend. And boy did we have a good time.

There are too many great stories to tell so i'll just say we did a little bit of everything including the sunset festival, dinner, drinks at many of the famous bars there, a blue heaven brunch and some good old fashion sunbathing. I've made a montage of some of the fun here:

And I'd like to highlight one of my favorite happenings. Jessie and ryan really wanted to go to the beach. I tried to explain key west beaches were slightly different (like, there isn't much of one) but they wanted to see for themselves and ryan really wanted to just get in the water. So we went. Unfortunately, there was so much grass and too many moving things on the bottom of the water, we were too afraid to walk through to get to the sandbar so we stayed closed to shore.
(notice green junk on bottom in this pic)

Ryan was a little disheartened, and still wanted to get into the water so he just laid down and floated real quick and then we were out.

We hung out on the beach and finally walked back to the car. And that's when we noticed this not so noticeable sign. hmmmm...?!?!
It was posted low. And posted small. (And at least now we'll know what to tell the doctor if he comes down with anything. ha. and yikes!)

Thanks for coming to visit Jess and Ry Ry. We had an awesome time and can't wait to hang again. And congrats jess on FINALLY finishing school. I'm so proud of you.

(singing) M-I-C…K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

A week ago Sunday I competed in my second Half Ironman -- the Florida 70.3 in Orlando at DisneyWorld. I’d been on the road and working a lot leading up to the race so my training was less than stellar and I had really dropped most of my expectations and goals for the race. But I pushed on through and did the race anyway and decided to just treat it like any other training day. A really LONG training day. And besides, KC was racing too. His first Half Ironman.
The swim started and I just took it easy. Finished in a respectable 37 minutes (1.2 miles). Then I was off to the bike. It was a fairly hilly course and there was a bit wind but somehow I managed to ride the 56 miles in 2:59. That’s over 15 minutes faster than my last half. Crazy!!
Unfortunately from there, I knew the toughest part was ahead of me…the run. As I’ve said in my past posts, “Oh, the dreaded run.” And in the heat. (It was SO hot. OMG.)

KC, of course, was in the Pro category so he started about 46 minutes before me. I figured at some point he might blaze past me on the run so it was no surprise when he ran up next to me on the 1st mile of the run. (He was on his last 4-mile loop but that’s beside the point.)And instead of finishing strong, he took a big hit on his time and ran (slow) with me my first 4 miles. It was so great. But I won’t lie, it sucked beyond words when he got to go left to the finisher’s chute and I had to go right for my second 4-mile loop. I felt pretty good on that second loop but it was definitely getting hotter.

As I passed by my fans (read: mom, dad and KC) and embarked on my third and final loop, I could tell I was kinda losing my steam.
At this point it might be worth mentioning that people were passing out around me. I stopped to help this one guy whose eyes were rolling behind his head (but somehow he refused my water??) And I passed a few people lying down with medics and some with IVs in their arms even. Um, yea.

Cut back to mile 10. That’s when I got this horrible lump in my throat and my mouth started watering. And it was pretty much downhill from there. I had to walk twice every mile and keep a cup of ice with me just not to throw up. It was not so great – both for my body and my time. But I did finally cross that finish line. Final time. 6:09. Better than I thought I’d do with my crappy (lack of) training but above my original 6-hour goal when I signed up for the race. Oh well, we’ll get ‘em next time!!

Next on the list...well, work is kinda crazy right now so I don’t really have anything on the list. Just taking it easy. But I am sure I’ll find something to do soon. Stay tuned.

And I have to end this with one last thing – Congrats KC on your first Half. Here’s to a great kickoff of the next 9 months. I know you can achieve your goals and I’ll be by you every step of the way.

i pretty much suck

i can't believe another month has passed blogless. i am sorry i suck so much right now. i really am going to try to get better here. my promise to you faithful readers starting now.

the good news is a lot of stuff is coming up so i should have plenty of material to talk about. here's what's on deck:

disney half ironman in a week (May 17) -- and i have been working so much and traveling that i have not really been training. greeeeat!

a jessie and ryan memorial day weekend visit. YAY!

family trip to seattle, wa for my annual fishing trip with my dad and more importantly my grandpa's NINETIETH birthday bonanza. (wow, that's old.) plus, the whole (extended) family will be meeting kc for the first time (dun, dun, dun!) will i keep the family largest salmon catch record? and will kc pass the meeting the family test? only time will tell. but me thinks winning over h-chy, anders and moo will seem like a piece of cake for kc compared to meeting the rest of the kirkeide clan. (good luck with that stinker.)

miami baby kirkeide #4 arrival in late july (that is, if wendy can hold him in...the kid is GINORMOUS already.) and they are still accepting names if you have some suggestions. scandinavian in origin only please.

and if that's not enough, charlottesville baby kirkeide #3 this fall! boy or girl? we'll know in abut 8 weeks. (oh, and kerri, you're insane.)

well, that seems like enough to keep me busy for the time being. stay tuned, because this time, for real, i am back!

F-U-N

Today, contrary to popular to belief, I found out that Florida had mountains. That's right. And I rode my bike up them to boot. 50 miles total. Not all hills, but 50 good miles nonetheless.

And if that's not enough, I then ran 7 1/2 miles.
And if THAT'S not enough, I swam a mile.
All for "fun"...hmmm?

(I'm told tomorrow I get to have more fun...can't wait.)

I'M BACK

it's been a while. i know.

sorry.