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!

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!

Owen Introduces...The Donkey Burpee!

The "Burpee" is an exercise that every CrossFit athlete is intimately familiar with. It's basically a four-step drill that works the entire body and becomes particularly challenging after you go past 20 repetitions.

In order to see a textbook burpee, click here.

Now Owen, the innovator that he is, has unveiled a variation of the traditional burpee that can be done much faster and is much, MUCH more comical.  We have dubbed it the "Donkey Burpee" because it skips the part where your chest has to hit the ground.  The result is that you end up looking like a donkey that has completely lost it's mind.

Click here to see Owen doing his donkey burpee's at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT this past weekend. 

Please note Cameron is in the background and offers a striking comparison between the standard burpee and Owen's own burpee interpretation!

Keenan Relentless!

On Sunday the Keenan crew found itself at a gym called Crossfit Relentless in West Hartford, Connecticut participating in a "CrossFit Kids" event!

We met up with Poppy, Grandma, Heather, Ben, Maya, Jonah and about 50 kids and their parents and enjoyed a day of seeing what the "CrossFit" phenomenon was all about. 

The kids had a blast as they tore into their first-ever WOD's ("workout of the day" in CrossFit lingo) which entailed squats, sit-ups, "bear crawls", a challenging indoor obstacle course and...of course..."burpee's", which are essentially push-up's on steroids and the staple exercise in the world of CrossFit.  They also enjoyed cheering on their cousin, Maya, as she brought home some hardware!

Photo album's on the left!



Update on Mike's Grandfather

It looks like Pa is moving up in the world...he is now out of the hospital and is doing some rehab at a nearby nursing home (in fact, the nursing home where Lula stayed).  He shouldn't be there for more than a couple of weeks, assuming the rehab goes smoothly.  And his appetite still isn't so hot, but he's slowly getting there. 

With any luck, he'll be back in his apartment by mid-February.  But please keep those prayers coming!  Thanks!

Pa's Lookin' Good!

I visited my grandfather this morning and I'm happy to report that he seems to be doing very well!  We chatted a lot about sports and what's going on the family, so there didn't seem to be any coherence issues.  This is in stark contrast to Thursday when Aunt Karen reported that he had "completely lost his mind"...didn't know where he was, talking to people who weren't actually there, etc.  Since he hasn't had any of his famous whiskey sours in the room, we're assuming that was a temporary side effect of the meds he was taking.

Unfortunately, it turns out that there was some permanent heart damage.  So there will probably some long-term care issues to attend to, but we'll have to wait for the details.

Anyway, I didn't get to speak to a doctor, but I would imagine that he will be discharged back to his apartment in short order!  Thanks for the prayers!

Mike's Grandfather in Hospital

My grandfather (best known as "Pa") was unexpectedly hospitalized on Wednesday for an atrial fibrulation problem, most likely triggered by pneumonia.  It sounds like he was in pretty bad shape when he arrived at the ER, and he is still in the intensive care unit, but his status has been stabilized as of yesterday. 

My poor parents, who shoved off for a two-month-ling Florida trip on New Year's Day, were somewhere in the Carolina's when they got the news and didn't know whether to head north or south.  But since Pa's condition has improved they will continue on to Florida and will presumably catch a flight back to Connectciut if Pa takes a turn for the worse for some reason.  I'll be heading to Milford tomorrow on my own to pay Pa visit at the hospital.

Cameron has been enamored with Pa recently after hearing that Pa earned a purple heart award for his service in World War II.  He was injured when a bomb hit his fox hole...and he was apparently playing cards at the time!

In any case, prayers for Pa would be greatly appreciated!

Sick as Dogs!

One of the Christmas presents we received from the Stevens kids was a stomach virus!  It started with Shane when he started throwing up at 2am on Thursday morning.  Then, as we were cleaning up that mess, Amy started throwing up as well!  Cameron started throwing up in the late afternoon.  Owen and I have somehow managed to dodge the Stevens stomach bug bullet.

So, on Thursday we enjoyed one of the benefits of having a solo law practice that is very technology-oriented; I was able to stay home all day, play nurse/babysitter and still get a half-decent amount of office work done from the home computer (phone calls to clients were a bit problematic due to background noise).  Geez, it's nice to unexpectedly not show up at the office and not worry about what the boss will think and the impact it will have on career advancement...my boss is a very reasonable guy!