A group of us participated in the 36.8 mile Round the Bay relay on Saturday. This is a run that circles Choctawhatchee Bay. A friend of mine had a team that needed a runner, and since I have been running, they graciously allowed me to be on their team. Even though the weather was not ideal (ok, it was sh*t), but we still had fun. We all met at the Elks Lodge on Okaloosa Island at 6:00 am on Saturday morning.
Another Christmas has come and gone, and like many previous Christmases, we were very blessed this year. The weather was beautiful on Christmas Eve, so Ashley and I headed out to Okaloosa Island and checked out the beach. There were some yahoos swimming; obviously from out of town. We opted to stay dry, but we had a nice moment.
In the lead up to Christmas, Ashley and I have been to a few social activities. The first was a Beer and Cookie night at a local brewery. We went with Derrick, Katie, Matt, and Sarah, all wonderful people we met from the Choctaw swim team. The brewery was giving four beers and coupled with a local cookie maker to also provide four awesome cookies.
We also got invited to a pig roast by some of my pickleball friends at Ivy and Ale. The food was awesome, as was spending time with Randy, Dee, and a host of others.
As many of you know, I play chess and the highest rating one can achieve in chess is that of a grand master. Of course, this post has nothing to do with chess, as I am not a good player. However, I am a good runner, and Ashley and I along with some friends ran the Egg Nog Jog 5k this past weekend. We all did great with everyone collecting some type of hardware. Ashley managed to snag third in her age group. And yes, she is wearing a hat--it was cold out there!
Despite Bode's best efforts to avoid studying, he somehow managed to get inducted into the National Honor Society. This big event was held on December 3rd. Most of the other kids got dressed up. Bode came straight from swim practice, so he is in sweats. But despite the less-that-optimal attire, we are very proud of Bode.
Bode just finished his last final exam for the year and will be out of school until January 8th. He has a lot of swim practices to fill the time. Perhaps he might even read a book, but maybe that is expecting too much :-)
In keeping with our tradition, Ashley and I went a little overboard with our holiday lights. We didn't get everything illuminated until December 1st, but rest assured, if you drive by our house from now until New Year's, you are in for a treat :-)
Bode's birthday occurred on Thanksgiving. Uncle Dave, Teddy, and Charlie all came to down. We all did the Recycle Race, a 5k here in Fort Walton Beach. I was bummed because Uncle Dave beat me in the race and took first place in the over 50 category. We'll see if we invite him back :-) We also had a number of friends that ran the race, and we all took a nice picture during the post-race festivities.
We celebrated Ashley's 54th birthday. Here is a great picture of her with her cake.
Bode swam in the Gravy Bowl, a swim meet over in Pensacola a couple weeks after the end of the high school season. This is a great meet to swim fast in a lot of events. In high school meets, swimmers are limited to two individual events, so they can only get best times in a small amount of events. Right after the high school season, the swimmers are in great shape, and there really is no limit to the number of events a swimmer can swim. Bode swam seven events, and in six of the seven, he swam not only best times but also qualifying times for the Southeastern Swimming Championships in February. He swam the 500 free on Friday night and swam it in 4:52.40, a PR by over five seconds. He then swam the 200 fly, 200 free, and 100 back on Saturday. His times were 2:00.66 in 200 fly, 1:48.16 in the 200 free, and 55.16 in the 100 back, all fast enough to qualify for Southeasterns. On Sunday, he swam the 50 free, 100 free, and the 100 fly. The 50 free is the only even he did not swim a best time, but he wasn't far off from it, swimming in 22.79. His 100-free time also wasn't a PR, but he had already qualified for Southeasterns in this event. The highlight had to have been his 100-fly. He has been trying to get under 53 seconds for almost a year, and he finally did it at this meet. Below is the video.
His time was 52.85, and I could tell he was pretty happy with that. I don't have any good pictures from the meet; Ashley might on her phone, but I've given up trying to get files from there :-)So I guess I am still way behind in posting. I will try to do better and be like I used to do when I would post every week or so. Bode's high school swim team had their end-of-season swim banquet. The medley relay team was given a plaque to commemorate breaking the county record.
