The Keenan Family 411

"Shock & Awe" at Jamie's Run 5K

After a fun time at the 5K race last weekend, the boys were all fired up for a go at the Jamie's Run 5K at neighboring Wethersfield which is a big fund-raiser for the Connecticut Children's Medical Center and held in honor of a little girl who lost a long battle with cancer last year.

"Phase One" of the Shock & Awe campaign was Owen & Shane unleashing their running prowess in the Kids' Fun Run, a .67-mile trek through Historic Wethersfield.  Surprisingly, out of a field of nearly 100 kids, Owen "The Galloping Filipino" Keenan crossed the line in 15th place and Shane "Too Cool for School" Keenan was only 4 seconds behind in 16th place!   

Cameron then took over for "Phase Two" of the operation as he put on a running clinic for his fellow 12-and-unders in the 5K.  He ended up running his second-best time ever (22:05, which is an average of 7:07 per mile!) and taking 37th place out of a field of 357!  That was good enough for 1st place in his 12-and-under age group. 

Cameron also demonstrated his "golden heart" by making a pre-race declaration that he was running the race for Avery, who is a very sick little 3-year-old we know in town.  He then insisted on stopping at Avery's house on the way home so he could present her with his 1st-place trophy.

So the whole Keenan crew had quite a blast...all three boys enjoyed their races, the event was a fantastic family-friendly race for a good cause, and the weather was beautiful to boot. 

Photo album's on the right...

Road Warriors

Now that soccer season has wrapped up (more or less) Cameron has time to join me in wreaking some havoc on the local road racing scene. 

We both ran in the Race to Fill the Pantry 5K here in town last weekend.   Despite banging his ankle early in the race, Cammy toughed it out and finished the 3.1-mile course in 23:32.  That's an average of 7:35 per mile and good for 54th place out of 200 runners.  This was Cam's first race as a member of the Gideon-Welles Running Club, and he did his team proud! 

I had to contend with a whole pack of presumptuous "young punks" (that would be anyone under the age of 30) but two of them got away and I settled for 3rd place.  But I clocked a 16:38, which was my fastest 5K time since '09, so in the immortal words of Monty Python..."I'm not dead yet!"

Our two little guys got in on the action as well and decided to run in the kids' fun run, which was roughly 100 meters long.   Owen managed to finish 3rd (out of 7!), although he probably would have placed higher if the little booger wasn't so laser-focused on just beating Shane, who took 4th!

Cam's Final Tune-Up: The Camp Jewell 5K!

The Point Sebago 2-Miler is now so close, it's scary.  But Cameron got in his final tune-up race at the Camp Jewell 5K, which is at a YMCA camp way-the-heck out in beautiful Colebrook, Connecticut.  

This 5K had a different twist...it was a trail 5K.  Lots of roots, ruts, dirt and very sharp uphills and downhills.  So it was a very scenic, but very difficult course.  Nonetheless, Cameron managed to finish in 14th place out of 45 runners with a time of 26:12.  Unfortunately, he ran into a supernatural pair of 11 year-old twins and ended up with 3rd place in his age-group. 

I got nipped at the line by a 16 year-old (that falls squarely in the "young punk" category) and took 2nd place with a painful 18:57.  It's a bit unnerving when you duke it out with someone who's much less than half your age for the entire race!

But the reason we drove over an hour to get to the race was because they allowed everyone to participate in the regular Camp Jewell activities after the race, such as kayaking/canoeing, archery, riding on a horse-drawn wagon, wall-climbing, arts & crafts, and a fun obstacle course.  So it was an all-around unique 5K race experience.

Photo album's on the right...

Meet the Kitties!

Here's a shot of the dreaded Hello Kitty Athletic Club at the Bill Landers 5K Race.  Don't let the unbridled freakiness fool you; this picture was taken shortly after the Kitties laid waste to the Landers 5K field, placing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th.  These guys are the real deal!

But sheez...see what too much running will do to you?!

A "Storm" Hits the Landers 5K

With the Point Sebago 2-Miler now virtually around the corner, Coach Amy couldn't be happier.  Not only are the training logs starting to look a bit more impressive, but Cameron and I had yet another encouraging "tune-up" race this past weekend.

The Bill Landers 5K Road Race (an event held in memory of a local "soccer dad" and runner who died from cancer a few years ago) was held here in town on Sunday.   Since the race has a team division, Cameron and I put together the Glastonbury Storm which consisted of some of Cam's fellow soccer players, as well some of their parents and siblings.

The Storm delivered a solid dose of "shock and awe" to the field as we took 2nd place in the adult division!  The only team that stood between us and the title was the dreaded Hello Kitty Athletic Club. 

Despite the team name, the Kitties are a bunch of top-notch runners as they placed a whopping 6 runners in the top 15, including 3 in the top 4!  To see just how freaky these guys are, click here for their website.

Luckily, I managed to hold off all of the Kitties and finished in first place (16:52), but just barely as the Head Kitty crossed the line just 6 seconds after I did.   Cameron clocked a 24:10, making him the second Storm finisher and 51st out of a field of over 200!

Not to be outdone by their big brother, Owen and Shane ran a tune-up race of their own when they jumped into the kids' fun run; a 600 meter race around the Hubbard Green.  Since it was a fun run there were no official results, but Owen surprised us all by placing in the top-ten in a field of about 60 runners.  I have no idea what place Shane (a little hold-out who still hasn't committed to the 501st running team) ended up with, but I noticed that everyone who finished ahead of him was bigger, and that's gotta count for something!

Photo album's on the right.

Please note there are 58 training days left 'til the Point Sebago 2-Miler.

 

 

 

Nothing but a blur...

Cameron joined forces with a few of his soccer teammates (Ben and the twins, Nick & Chris) to field a 4 x 100m relay team for the Hershey's Track & Field Meet in Glastonbury yesterday.  The event showcased some of the fastest runners in town between the ages of 9 and 14.

By the time the dust had settled on the track, Team Storm had clocked a 1:07, good for 2nd in their age group.

Amy and I will take full credit for the near-flawless hand-offs.  Being former track sprinters ourselves, we enjoyed teaching the boys the intricacies of the "modified shuttle pass"!

Not quite satisfied with the silver medal in the relays, Cameron then jumped into the 800m (half-mile) run and scorched the two-lap race in 2:49, nabbing the gold medal for his age group.

Oh...woe to the runners who are not on the family's team at the Point Sebago 2-Miler!

 

 

 

The O'Keenan's do the O'Hartford!

Cameron kicked off his road racing season yesterday afternoon by jumping into the O'Hartford 5K in downtown Hartford.

This event was part road race, part enormous Irish street party!  It was quite a scene with about 98% of the 2,230 runners dressed in green.  There was also a costume contest, so we were treated to creatively-dressed leprechauns, shamrocks and green beer bottles!

There was also a unique race that you would only see at an Irish event:  waiters and waitresses competed in the "Restaurant Relay" where (as best we could tell) they handed off trays filled with pints of beer instead of the traditional batons!

Cam did reasonably well in his first race of the season; he clocked a 26:44 (8:37 pace), which put him in 661st place out of 2,230! 

Of course, he owes much of that result to his support crew, which was me with Owen and Shane in the double baby-jogger, continuously yelling at him to run faster.

We've got a small photo album, top right!

 

 

The A-Team's on the Run!

I am very proud to announce that Amy is now into the ninth month of her running resurgence.   Not bad considering that she has made it clear, and in no uncertain terms, that she positively hates running.  I've always said that Amy's a complicated character!

I am also pleased to announce that Cameron was her running partner for both mornings this past weekend.  Cam reportedly enjoyed motivating mom to keep it moving, mostly while running backwards and ahead of her!  He also appreciated being hooked up to my MP3 player so that he could enjoy artists like Survivor, Taio Cruz, U2 and Michael Franti while running.

Needless to say, as far as Daddy's concerned...it's all good!

The Keenan's are Fast as Reindeers at the Santa's Run!

Participating in the local Santa's Run 3.5-Mile Road Race at the high school has become yet another Keenan holiday tradition.  In fact, we haven't missed a single Santa's Run since we first moved into our little apartment on Hebron Avenue way back in 1997!

The race is always held the first Sunday of December and it's the second largest athletic event in town, after the enormous Hartwell Soccer Tournament in the spring.  The race has become famous for the creative Christmas costumes that many runners wear, and the daunting nearly-half-mile-long hill at the end of the race course.

Poppy & Grandma showed up to take in the race, as they always do, and they had plenty to cheer about as Cameron improved by nearly a minute compared to his time from last year, finishing in 186th place out of nearly 1,500 runners! 

Meanwhile, Daddy tried his best to take home his 3rd Santa's Run title, but got smoked by three young punks (anyone under the age of 30 qualifies as a "young punk" these days) and settled for 4th overall, but 1st in his age group.  That would be the "old punk" age group!

On the downside, Amy was all set to jump into the race herself, which would have been her first race in umpteen years.  But on Saturday night she learned that the entry fee had been jacked up to $15 and the deal was off.  Always budget-conscious, she decided to do her own private 3.5-mile run on Sunday morning for a $0 entry fee!

Another downside was that Daddy discovered that he is officially "old" now.  Why?  Because halfway through the race, as he was trying his darndest to chase down the three young punks strung out ahead of him, a lady on the sidewalk yelled out, "Yeah!!!  Go get those young guys!!!". 

Daddy was all fired up by this exclamation until he realized that if he was chasing the "young guys", that means that he was an...gulp..."old guy"!!!

On Your Marks!...

 

Here's me trying to get the kids fired up for the kids' 1,000 meter race at Glastonbury's Apple Harvest Festival a couple of weekends ago.

Cameron and Owen threw their hats in the ring for this one. 

Owen went out hard and (predictably) faded sharply, but then finished with an absolutely stinging sprint! 

Meanwhile, Cameron ran an excellent race but finished in second place...to a girl!  I would not ask him about that the next time you see him; he's a little sore about it (physically and emotionally).