I first met the Keen family back in 2007 when they were looking to buy a property in Lanzarote for them to use in the summer and residentially let during the rest of the year. Dad is Gary, Mum is Marianne and the boys are Kieran and Rowan. The family settled on a 3 bed house in the heart of Costa Teguise, only moments from the beautiful Playa Las Cucharas which was perfect for windsurfing and chilling out. We’ve become friends and meet each summer during their holiday to catch up on life over the past year and see how much the kids have grown. This year Marianne and Rowan came a few weeks ahead of Gary and Kieran, they enjoyed long days over at Famara whilst Rowan got to grips with his new surfboard and revisiting their favourite tapas / Canarian restaurants. I took a day out with Louie our dog to walk down the Risco de Famara near to the Mirador del Río with them, we followed the path which zig zags down the 650m cliff to the stunning beach Playa del Risco below.
After exploring the old salt pans and a swim it was time for the hard climb back up again, Rowan ran up the path ahead of us whilst myself and Marianne and Louie stopped frequently to enjoy the view and catch our breath! When Gary and Kieran flew in the family decided that they would like to participate in one of the sea swim competitions that were taking place during August, they set their heart on the Playa Grande one which was a distance of 1600m from Playa Grande to Playa Chica in Puerto del Carmen but unfortunately as Rowan is only 14 he wasn’t old enough to swim that race. Not wanting him to be left out the family made the decision to take part in the next one which was the Travesía San Ginés, a distance of 1200m from el Charco de San Ginés to the Gran Hotel in Arrecife.
Both Kieran and Rowan are very good swimmers, they have spent years training early in the morning before school and regularly participate in swim events back in Holland. This was the first sea swim for them but they took the Lanzarote swimming clubs by surprise! Rowan beat everyone out of 178 swimmers to the finish line with a fantastic time of 16:34 to be both overall and age group winner, Kieran came in 9th overall with 17:45 and was 2nd in his age group. The lads were called up onto the podium for their age group awards to receive their medal and trophy. It was a very proud moment for mum and dad who had also participated in the swim, everyone had really enjoyed the day.
I don’t think that this will be the last Lanzarote swimming event for the family, there’s already talk of defending Rowan’s title next year and Ricardo from the swimming club C.N. Nadamas at Las Marinas in Costa Teguise was trying very hard to get the boys to go and train with them for the rest of their holiday. It’s the end of August and the Keen family are heading back to Holland but they’ll be back again next summer, Lanzarote is a very special place for them and a holiday elsewhere just isn’t quite the same. |
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