what's wrong with this picture?

no it's (shockingly) not the place i got. but, um, they aged me ten years today! RUDE.

i did, in fact, come in first place in my age group today at the Miami Nice Triathlon. i was so excited. so excited in fact that i didn't actually look at the trophy until i got home at which point i realized they had given me the wrong one. (and no offense to that age of course.) ;)

it was a pretty tough race. COLD and WINDY. did i mention cold and windy? most of you are probably questioning cold here in miami. but it was! 62 degrees, thank you very much. oddly enough the water was 80.1 degrees and even with the waves and current which made for a tough swim, i did not want to get out. but i did. only to hit a wall of wind on the bike. it was so windy i almost ate it going down the bridge one time. it was scary. so i held on for dear life the next few bridges. the run was actually great. (do you even believe me as you all know i would never say that?) because it wasn't blazin' hot like it normally is!

anyway, i finished 2:44:16. i did a 27:42 swim (.9 miles), 1:18:21 bike (24.8 miles) and a 54:45 (6.2 mile run). and if that wasn't enough, someone who will remain nameless, made me run 4.5 miles afterwards to help prepare for my half ironman that somehow snuck up on me and is only THREE weeks away. WHAT?!? (oh boy, i have some serious running to do to get ready for this next race!)

i'm on a plane!

posting this.
and chatting with KC.
while flying.
wow.

Some riding fun.

This is what I like to call, "Me taking it."

some miami goodness -- fresh air and matson!

i actually got home from work at a decent hour tonight and decided to go for a run. i went over to key biscayne and was reminded just how amazing miami can be. it was BEAUTIFUL out! i am so blessed and lucky to be in a place like this!

in other amazing and lucky/blessed kristi news, the 6th kirkeide grandkid was introduced to the world on friday. a happy and healthy 8 pound, 11.5 ounce boy named Matson Stewart Kirkeide. he's just so adorable. a perfect mix of the other 3 kids combined.




















and finally, in slightly funny news, kc and i got to take care of the other 3 kids this weekend while kevin and wendy were at the hospital with their new son. an eye opening experience for us to say the least. ha. we had a lot of fun including activities like the science museum, whip and dip and costco.

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.