Summer of Seals ~ 2011

Three years ago, was the first annual summer of seals competition. It was for a small group of guys, and involved doing a 500M swim, two minutes to do as many push-ups as you could, two minutes to do as many sit-ups as you could, max pull-ups, and a 1.5 mile run.

Kevin's been doing this for the past three years, I've been dying to join him, and this year I was finally able to! It made our evening workouts so much more fun that we could do it together, or even with our teams when we were doing run throughs.

We worked hard all summer long, trying to improve our times and performances. I had a REALLY long way to go, and Kevin was just fine tuning. We're both slightly competitive people, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to push myself.

Weight loss is also a component of the competition, and because of that, alot of us got to the venue that mornning with empty stomachs. Not a great idea when you're pushing yourself as hard as we all were, but that's just kinda how it is.  So, after the weigh-in we all ate a little bit, then it was time to get started.

There were around 150 people who signed up, I don't think everyone was there that day, but it was still a pretty big number. Kevin was near the front of the pack to get in the pool.

Although our swim times weren't too far from each other, we decided that he would go first, and I'd start the swim as he started the run. That way, we could both help the other person through the max out portion. So Kevin started and I hung back till the end.

By the way, a bunch of these pictures were taken by timeless photography, a sister-in-law of one of the guys who helped put on the event. Some of the pictures are mine as well, buta bunch came from facebook where she posted the pictures, so thanks to her for doing that, the pictures were awesome!

I was helping Kevin time his splits so that he could hopefully get the time he was aiming for to get the max points. He missed it by about 20 seconds, but it was still a great showing!

This was my team,  Jenn, Monica, me, Aly, and Allie.

Here I am doing my chin-ups. I got 8.5,  couldn't quite make it up on that last one, but I tried.

The run, where Allie killed me.:) I posted this picture to make it look like we ran together....we didn't. She started a minute after me, and still beat me, she was passing me here, not running with me! She was great motivation for me in the run though, and I had so much fun being on her team this year!

Here was our whole team after it was all done. Such awesome ladies! We had so much fun doing all the run throughs together and with our hubbies.

After the run with two of the ladies husbands behind us. Why is Kevin not there you ask? I wondered the exact same thing! In fact, he was noticably missing during most of my competition, not there to hold my feet, or help push me on the pull-ups, or cheer me on in the run.

Unfortunately, he tried some energy thing/drink and because it was on an empty stomach it didn't sit to well and he spent quite awhile after he was done, throwing up. I felt bad for him, and have never seen him do that, but sometimes that's just what happens!

After it was all over, and we were waiting for the results. Kevin and Sean were hanging out in the pool. I had to run home to grab the girls and their swimsuits so they could jump in the pool too.

The Awards Ceremony:

There were team scores, as well as individual. We had been working really hard all summer, and our team rocked it, and won first place!! Way to go ladies!

Bonus, our husbands teams won first place too!

After that, they handed out awards to whoever got the most pull-ups, sit-ups, and push-ups for the men and women.

Kevin is a stud. Seriously. He got 120 push-ups, and won that. He got 111 sit-ups and won that as well. Then, he got 27 pull-ups, and won that by alot.:)

I was kinda proud of him!:)

 He had to go collect all his medals.

Then, they awarded the mens winner, and what do ya know, Kevin won it all! He'd been trying his best for three years, and this year he finally did it. I'd like to think I was his lucky charm, but I kinda doubt it, he's just super motivated and commited.

Then it was the womens turn. While I didn't do quite as well as Kevin and win all the strength events, I did

tie with three other girls, one of whom was Allie, (one of the girls isn't there), in the pull-ups.

Then it was time for the womens individual winner. I was lucky enough to have won the whole thing!

Kevin really pushed me, and we both went into it trying to both do our best, and hopefully be able to win the competition.

These two ladies took second,  by only one point. But remember, weight loss was counted in the points too. Seriously, look at these cute skinny girls, and it's no wonder that I would be able to have more weight loss than them!

Me sporting my medals!

This is Kim, who took second, but without weight loss being counted, she won by one point, and I tied for second with bonnie (the girl in the red from the picture earlier).

Me and Allie, she did awesome, and next time we're going to teach her how to really improve on her swim! I really only beat her because of the swim, she beat me in two other events, but the points just worked out to where I won, really though, she's a rockstar, and pushed me through the whole thing.

Me and my main squeeze. The man who pushes me and keeps me motivated everyday. I think we've found a new love of competition. In fact, he's been looking into other races/competitions/triathalons we could do together. I am so grateful to have him in my life, and for the dedicated man he is.  I'm sure we'll grow old together finding things we can do together to keep us active and having fun. Actually, we just signed up to do the amazing race with some friends here in houston in three weeks. We're super excited about that too, last time we did it  was a blast!!

(please ignore the odd positioning of our hands:)

Jason and Jen, one of the other couples on our teams. These two are so much fun, and we've had a blast being able to hang out with them and have mini parties at their house after our run throughs. We've missed seeing them all the time since the competition ended.

Here we all are minus a couple of oru team members. It was so much fun, and definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone.

We're already ready to go for next year...bring it!:)