Balance

With 12 days left before Ironman Wisconsin, I have been thinking a lot about this season. Doing two Ironmans in 3 months is hard. And I haven't even DONE the 2nd one yet! I have essentially been in Ironman mode since March (with the exception of July). Even in July, I raced mini-Mussel, volunteered at Musselman, and drove up to Lake Placid to watch that Ironman. I wouldn't exactly call that an "Ironman vacation." I only took one week off from training after Ironman Coeur D'Alene!

Honestly, would I do it again? Probably not. I'm not saying that I regret the decision - it's been a great learning experience, I am getting to see parts of the country that I have never been to, and I am interacting with lots of great people. I think it's something that I needed to do for myself. I had the time, I don't have a lot of commitments in my life at the moment, so it would be hard to justify not doing it. It was a chance to do something incredible and I am glad that I had the means to do it. Plus, it makes me feel like a badass.

That being said, it has been hard to be so dedicated to something for so long. For ~6 months I have been living in Ironman land where all I do is work, sleep, eat, and train. I can forget a late night at the bar. I can forget day trips on the weekend. I can forget horseback riding. I can forget going on vacation. I can forget dating.

If I am lucky, I get to ride my bike with some friends. Or I can go to a(n early) movie with someone. Or I can chat with someone via Skype, Facebook, or phone.

I am 27, single, and live in a tiny apartment with my cat. One of those things I have no control over (that I am an almost 30 year old cat lady) but the other two are directly affected by my lifestyle. I am single because all I do is train (at least, that's why I like to think that I am single), and I live in a teeny apartment because I spend all of my money on triathlons! I am fine with the 2nd but I am getting really tired of the first.

So, all you people who keep asking me why I am not doing Ironman next year. This is why. I love Ironman, triathlon, training, talking about it, doing it, etc. But.. I am having real trouble balancing it with the rest of my life. And sorry, but I am not content with living for triathlon. I am not a professional triathlete. This is not a livelihood. This is my hobby. It is a hobby that I am passionate about, but I am not ready to sacrifice everything to do it. And yes, I have made some of my best friends through the sport, and I love the sport, but there are other things that I love as well that I've had to put aside in order to focus on Ironman. And I don't think it's fair to me, and it's definitely not fair to anyone else that is affected by this (mostly, my family and my poor horse Cherry).

Besides, I don't want to be 40, single, and unable to talk about anything except triathlon!

I think one Ironman every other year is a much better way to approach this. It will give me a season in between to focus more on maintaining balance in my life with people, activities, and other hobbies that don't involve swimming, biking or running.

IMC 2013, be prepared!

great weekend! but sadly, no photos :(

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend! My training for IM Wisconsin is done, so this past week was a rest week and now I have a half-week of tune-up and then 10 days of taper. This allows me some time to actually play!

Saturday morning I slept in til 8 which was glorious. I then met Kim for a 90 min bike/30 min run brick workout. We rode a great loop from her house in Perinton - Victor - Mendon - Pittsford - back to Perinton. Then I met up with Kim, Travis, Matthias, and Solveig in Webster to kayak in the Irondeqoit Bay. Sadly, I have no photos because I didn't want to risk ruining my digital camera, but it was REALLY fun. I love that I have friends that want to go do things like this. Because kayaking is pretty hard - my arms were burning after 10 minutes and we stayed out for 2 hours! I estimate that we kayaked about 5 miles total. Afterwards, Matthias, Solveig and I went to Boulder Coffee in the city where we sat and chatted, and I drank a delicious frozen hot chocolate, which will definitely be the cause of many, many return trips to that place!

After two workouts and kayaking, I was exhausted and I was in bed at around 9 because I just could not keep my eyes open any longer! That's how you know it's been a great day!

Sunday I slept in til 8 again and then met up with Jon at Starbucks because he was in town for a wedding (Jon actually lives in White Plains, NY). We had fun chatting about Ironman, recovery, injuries, etc. He's heading to Niagara Falls today, lucky bastard.

Here in Rochester, NY, we did not see any of Irene, but we did have high winds on Sunday so I opted to do my 1 hour bike ride inside. (I don't want to get hit by any weird flying objects so close to Ironman Wisconsin!). I went to put my bike on the trainer and doh... I had a flat rear tire! I decided to just replace the tire because it was looking pretty gnarly, so I took the wheel off and while I was waiting til noon (when the bike shop opened), I cleaned my cassette! A few hours later, new tire installed, I did 1 hour on the bike and then ran for an hour in the wind. Turned out to be a pretty good run.

With nothing else to do for the day, I watched some NCIS Season 8 (which just came out on Friday), caught up on some laundry, chatted with some friends, and did some reading.

Spectacular weekend!

I have some good blog posts coming up, I promise! :)

13 days til IMOO!

An Ode to a Rest Week

You know that point in your training where you have been working out for 4 weeks straight, no rest days, your legs refuse to cooperate, your HR monitor has rubbed you raw, you can no longer sleep, one eye is twitching, and you are having homicidal tendencies towards your coach?

That was Wednesday.

Thursday morning I woke up to an email from Mary giving me the day off. I think she got the point of my ever-increasing desperate emails: "I don't know if I will be able to make it through this week." "I am dying." "I just had to worst run of my life." "Please murder me."

Friday was easy as well.

Saturday and Sunday were not. They were my final 2 big workouts before Ironman Wisconsin. I did them, and they went well, but it was not easy.

Honestly, I'm surprised I made it through. The final push is the W-O-R-S-T.

I am now on a rest week, with 1/2 week of build and then some not-too-extreme tapering to sharpen up before my last (and biggest!) race of the season.

I just want to give a shout out to the rest week!

Unlike most type-A crazy triathletes, I LOVE rest weeks. I like doing other things, getting a chance to screw around and be lazy, to curl up on my couch with a book, to go out to dinner, to actually do something during the day on a Saturday, to be able to run errands.

Plus, I am 100% sure I would have gone insane if I didn't have today off. Like, lock me up in a padded room wearing a straitjacket while I rock back and forth babbling to myself, INSANE.

I really, really, really, really don't want that to happen.

not enough time!

Busy week at work, busy (and not so great) week of training = no time to blog. I'm basically just trying to make it through to the weekend, where I will try to make it through my long ride and long run, and then hopefully (crosses fingers) have a rest week next week. MUCH NEEDED REST WEEK.

I am in pure zombie mode - wake up, train, eat, work, sleep, repeat.

So, to substitute for an actual post with actual thought behind it, here are some photos! Some triathlon, some are not. Sorry for being so lazy!

Cayuga Lake Sprint Tri - I'm smiling!

Cayuga Lake Sprint Tri

And since I went to my parents' house this weekend for the annual Harding Pool Party, this is an adorable photo of my brother and I on our Fisher-Price plastic tricycles. I'm guessing I am about 4 here and he is about 3. We man-handled those things!

And since it is almost Fall and I have been reminiscing about running cross country, here is the Elizabethtown College's women's XC team in 2002. I am in the middle row, third from the right. I only ran my Freshman year of college and then I transferred to a D2 school - Slippery Rock U. where I joined the Equestrian Team.

ECXC rocks!

One final one.. if you want to know why I talk soooo much.. I kissed the Blarney Stone!

Ireland, 2003

Announcement

Time for an announcement!

I mentioned a little while ago that I would be going through some coaching changes soon. A few months ago, Mary got offered the opportunity to join the QT2 coaching staff. This will be an amazing experience for her, but it is also sad because to do this, she will have to leave behind her own coaching company, Train-This. Those of us who are coached by Mary have had to make a decision - do we self-coach? Switch to a different Train-This coach? Switch to a non-Train-This coach? Or follow Mary to QT2?

As much as I LOVE Train-This and love the fact that so many of us are so close, I have chosen to join QT2 and do the Mission Plan option with Mary. One-on-one coaching is out of my price range, and I want to stay with Mary because she understands me, and I've worked with her for 2 years! Train-This will be taken over by one of the other coaches, and I'm not sure exactly who is going where in terms of Mary's athletes. I'm sure we will all remain close, the google group will remain active, and we will all still pester each other on facebook and Twitter. Plus.. there are rumors that there will be a Train-This reunion at Ironman Canada in 2013.. :)

I think it will be good. There is so much for her to learn, which is going to positively impact MY training. Plus, QT2 is huge, so chances are I will never have to go to an Ironman by myself again and have to beg a creepy blog friend, Kevin - who I've never met - to make sure I get across the finish line ok at Ironman Wisconsin. Seriously. I don't know anyone else who is going to be there! Although he has said that after I cross the line, it is no longer his responsibility to make sure I don't drink myself into a drunken stupor. :)

Anyways, Mary starts with QT2 on 9/1. My race is 9/11. Then I will probably go into self-coaching mode for a few months (because this Mission Plan thing is more expensive than my current coaching fees) until I start with Mary - hopefully January 1. What I do NOT plan on doing for the rest of this year is 2 months of nothing like I did last year. Part of that time I was rehabbing a strained hamstring, but I also did a lot of sitting on my butt, which made it that much harder to get back into training.

So.. that's what's going to be happening in the next few months. Changes! Lots of changes! But they will be good ones.

Cayuga Lake Tri Race Report (and some other things)

I had a busy, triathlon-centric weekend. I was racing the Cayuga Lake Sprint Tri (held in Ithaca, NY) on Sunday, but because IM Wisconsin is looming in less than 5 weeks, I also had a big workout to do on Saturday, so I knew that Sunday was probably a) going to hurt and b) not be my best race ever.

Usually I ride long on Saturday and run long on Sunday. Due to the race being on Sunday, having to drive home from the race, AND having to go into work on Sunday night, Mary smushed my long ride and long run together into an extended brick on Saturday. I typically don't do workouts like this.. most of the time I run 30 minutes off of a long ride. Saturday I rode 4 hours and then ran for 90 minutes. I guess there's a first for everything!

I was up and on my bike by 8 am. I have come to embrace (and even enjoy) these long solo rides. I no longer mentally struggle with them, I don't need someone to keep me company, and I actually think I ride better when I am by myself. I can dictate my own pace, timing and length of pit stops, riding route, starting time, etc. I don't have to deal with anyone else besides myself - so if I am grumpy, I don't have to worry about pissing someone else off, and if someone else is grumpy, I don't have to worry about their bad mood rubbing off on me. Not that I don't enjoy riding with other people, because I do, but just because of my personality, I think riding alone is much better preparation for racing Ironman - for me personally. It's the best head space for me.

Anyways, I headed out the same route as before, from Mendon Ponds Park to 15A south with the idea of doing an out and back (I didn't have time to waste doing any extra because I was driving to Ithaca after my workout). The weather was ok.. it was very humid but overcast, and it rained on and off for the first half of the ride. About 90 minutes into the ride, I got a flat. Of course I was riding up a huge hill at the time. I stopped and started changing the flat. Now I am totally capable of changing a flat BUT I am not fast. I had just gotten the new tube in and the tire back on the rim when an older lady in a minivan stopped to make sure that I was ok. (Picture: lone girl who looks 15, standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, holding a wheel, in the rain). I assured her that I was fine, thanked her, and sent her on her way. Don't you just love people like that? If only I could have replaced "older lady in a minivan" with "hot 30 year old man in a Subaru Forester." Although I guess I should be happy that, considering where I was riding (Candadace), I did not get "creepy old man with missing teeth in rusted pickup truck with 'mossy oak' decals."

On the way home I had a hell of a tailwind AND a net downhill, so I got back to MPP 30 minutes ahead of schedule. In order to get to the full 4 hours, I rode the 10 mile Mendon Ponds duathlon loop - perfect! Nutrition also went really well for this ride. I was a little worried about trying to run with 4 bottles of Powerbar Endurance sloshing around in my stomach, but surprisingly, I had a GREAT run. We're talking.. the best run I've had since Ironman. 10 miles at 9 minute pace is not too shabby! I had to bail myself out of a low spot (some dizziness) with a mini Snickers bar but otherwise I felt great AND hit my 30 mins of tempo at the end.

I then made a quick trip to the bike shop to replace the flat kit that I had used and to get one of my aerobars rewrapped. Went home, cleaned the bike, got the Zipp wheels on, showered, packed, and was on the road for Ithaca, where I was meeting Mary and Luc at the EconoLodge (we were staying in a room together). It's about an hour and 40 minute drive. We found Van in the hotel - I guess they lost his room so he had to find a room at a different hotel. While we were discussing where to go to dinner (Mary suggested this Italian placed called "Ciao" that we had both passed on the way to the hotel), I jokingly said "hey, there's a Pizza Hut next door" and then Luc exclaimed "I want to go to Pizza Hut!!!" Guess where our pre-race dinner was?! It's always classy with Train-This.

We went to bed and were up the next morning at 5 am. I was at the race site - Taughannock Falls State Park -by 6 (my race didn't start til 9). The weather was iffy, it kept sprinkling and then clearing up, and then sprinkling again. I didn't bother with sunscreen because it was so overcast. There weren't too many people that I knew because this race is a little far from Rochester; there were a few Train-This teammates (Van and 2 Donnas). My cousin Holly's husband was directing traffic at the race (he is some kind of park ranger in Ithaca). I didn't actually see him (I saw him the last time I did this race - 2008). However, I did get to see a guy in transition wearing a 1997 NTL Cross Country shirt.

Some background: NTL stands for "Northern Tier League" which is the collection of high schools from where I grew up that competed against each other in various sports. In the fall of 1997, I was in 8th grade so I ran junior high XC, but we still competed at the NTL Coach's Invitational (where all of the schools run together in an invitational-style meet, which was actually held at my high school) and that was the t-shirt that was sold that year! So first of all, I grew up in rural, redneck-land Pennsylvania AND that shirt is FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. What a WEIRD thing to see at a freakin' triathlon! I had to talk to this guy! I went over to him and told him that I had that shirt and that I ran at that particular XC meet. He asked me where I went to school. "Northeast Bradford." He went to Towanda! (Next high school over). Turns out, we have some mutual friends. Small world!

Anyways, I'm not really going to go into detail about the race because a sprint is a sprint. But there are some things of note. I entered the "open amateur wave" like I did at the Cazenovia Tri last year (you need to hit a specific time in order to enter), however there were two (yes, two) of us in the wave, me and an older guy. I am happy to say that I smoked that dude in the swim. It was nice to have a clear shot in the swim (we were the first wave in the sprint race) however I had wanted to practice drafting and pushing myself on the swim to keep on the feet of faster swimmers. That didn't happen.

the "open amateur" swim wave.. all 2 of us!

I lead the race for the entire swim and about half of the bike. I was essentially racing alone for the entire race because everyone else started so far behind me. For a while, there was a police escort on a motorcycle riding right behind me and, for the life of me, I could NOT figure out why he was there. Either he thought I was going to do an illegal pass (because I was passing some of the intermediate distance racers from later waves) or he was just trying to keep track of the sprint race.. who knows! My quads were BURNING for parts of the bike course (thanks to the 5.5 hour brick the day before) but in general I felt pretty good. Even when I was running, my legs felt great. The run at this triathlon is off-road.. about 1 mile on grass and the other 2 miles on a groomed trail up to a gorgeous waterfall and back. I am not so fond of running on grass so that slowed me down. I definitely did not run as fast as I would like (I ran it in 25:something rather than the 23:something that I usually run in sprint tris) but I am attributing most of that to the non-pavement aspect of the 5K, as my legs felt 1000x better than they did at the mini-Mussel (and the view was WAY better).

podium!

I ended up taking 2nd place overall. Another girl beat me by 2 minutes. I swam 1 minute faster than her, she biked 1 minute faster than me, but she ran 2 minutes faster than me. It makes me wonder what would have happened if 1) we had started in the same swim wave or 2) I was racing fresh. Regardless, I am happy with how I did, I am even happier at how well my Saturday workout went, and I was happy to be racing in Ithaca with Mary announcing and my parents there watching!



I wish I had more time to spend exploring Ithaca. There is a vegetarian restaurant there (Moosewood) that I have wanted to go to for years, but sadly it is not open on Sundays. There are also tons and tons of gorges (Ithaca is gorges, after all). Unfortunately, I had to get back to Rochester so I could nap and then go into work at 11 pm. Not ideal, but the bills need to be paid! I will be happy when I am off of nights in 2 days! :)

unpretty

I wrote this post months ago and then never published it because I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I thought it might be too preachy. I found it tonight and decided to put it out there, regardless.

Let me tell you a secret. I love GLEE. It has to be one of the best TV shows on the air that promotes good self image, loving yourself, facing challenges, anti-bullying, and diversity. It also makes me giggle hysterically. And yes, there are elements of ridiculousness about it. (The fact that a tiny high school in Ohio has a ton of vocally talented students and a championship cheerleading squad, Sue Sylvester - period, over-the-top theme episodes, etc.).

I think that's why I love it so much - it can be ridiculously hilarious one moment with one-liners but then 5 minutes later it is laying down something serious. In season 1, Kurt becomes the kicker for the football team to try to please his dad and can only score field goals after he dances to "Single Ladies" in the middle of the field [ridiculous], but then he comes out to his father, who then tells him that he loves him no matter what [serious theme].

There was a 90 minute episode of GLEE on the other night. (You can bet your ass that I rushed through my workouts and dinner in order to catch it. I may have also ignored phone calls). The entire episode embraced loving those things about yourself that you may not like, such as body image, mental disorders, sexual orientation, level of intelligence.

The highlight of the episode (for me at least) was a duet with Quinn and Rachel (if you don't follow GLEE - these two are basically enemies who fight over the same guy) because one of them wants to get a nose job so she looks more like the other one. It's essentially a remake of "Unpretty" by TLC. I don't care if you hate GLEE, show choir, whatever, this song is WORTH a listen.

The episode rounded off with "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga. And honestly, I think it's awesome how many "pop anthems" there are this year about loving yourself, not changing, and being happy with your life. I'm sure these are familiar with most people who listen to the radio (I am definitely guilty of being a top-40s music listener in the car and especially when I run). I am also guilty of purchasing WAY too many GLEE cast songs on iTunes.

It makes me so happy to see TV shows like GLEE and artists who are sending positive messages to everyone about being happy with who you are. That is so much the opposite of what most media is doing.

I think it's even worse trying to be 1) female and 2) an athlete. Out of all the women that I know that compete in triathlon.. many have struggled with either an eating disorder or issues with food at one point in their lives. And I include myself in that statistic. Some are still struggling. It's really a shame. We need to eat to stay healthy and train/race to our highest potential.

And every time I hear a friend being upset about some part of their life that they wish was different, or weight they want to lose, or appearance they want to change, I just want to give them a hug. Because everyone feels that way. We all want to be prettier, thinner, faster, funnier, earn more money, own nicer things, have better fashion sense, accomplish more. And in a sense, it keeps us grounded rather than floating off with our giant egos acting as balloons. But it also keeps us from reaching our potential when we focus on our negatives rather than our positives.

It's ok to make changes in our lives in areas that we are unsatisfied with.. if the change is positive. But there is a limit to what is healthy. Leaving a job that is unfullfilling to search for a better one - healthy. Going to therapy to deal with depression, anxiety, or some other mental disorder that we feel ashamed of - definitely healthy. Getting a nose job or developing an eating disorder to deal with self-image insecurities - not healthy.

Not being happy with who we are - not healthy.

nutrition and nuptials

I had an amazing weekend (actually, just an amazing Saturday, but who's keeping track?).

I had a 5 hour ride/30 min brick workout to do on Saturday. Because of plans later in the day, I was up at 7 and on the bike by 8:15. This was my first long ride since Ironman Coeur D'Alene which was.. 5 weeks ago? Something like that. I was eager to get back out there and build back some of the fitness that I've lost over these past few weeks.

I was determined to overcome my limiting factor on long rides which is nutrition issues. I consistently under-fuel on long rides (and apparently, in long races as well) due to sheer laziness/dislike of PBE after drinking 23987238 bottles of it in the past 18 months/the inability to acknowledge that I am, in fact, not a robot and actually need sustenance to survive.

All of these things are just excuses, and after a major fail at IMCDA and then being publicly shamed, scorned, and humiliated by Mary (ok, not really) on the Train-This google group and her blog, I made nailing my nutrition my #1 priority on this ride.

What am I *supposed* to do on long rides? Drink 1 bottle (24 oz) of PBE per hour.
What do I *actually* do on long rides? Drink maybe 1 bottle of PBE every 2 hours.
So that is half of the calories and half of the fluids that I need on these rides!

I set out from Mendon Ponds Park and rode a really fun loop that Mary had mapped out for me last summer. For you local people, I rode from MPP to 251 W, then went south on 15A, which eventually turns into 15. When I got to Wayland, I took a left and rode N on 21. I followed 21 into Naples (there are 2 left hand turns before you get there), rode up the big hill, and then veered left on 64 heading north. 64 brought me all the way back to 251 in the village of Mendon, and from there it was a short ride back to the park! I highly recommend this loop - it is 88 miles, lots of climbing (ESPECIALLY on 15A), and it's very pretty! (In reality, it took me almost 5.5 hours to do this loop so I was out there a little longer than I was supposed to be, but that's ok!).

The last time I did this loop (also a solo ride) I didn't have a great ride. When I made it to Wayland I remember texting Kim that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to finish. I did, but it wasn't the best ride of my life. This ride - total opposite. I was smiling the entire time. It was beautiful out, my fitness was still there, and I was totally staying on top of my nutrition.

 I was slamming PowerBar Endurance like I was a frat boy pounding cans of Keystone Light. (They are probably both equally as disgusting, as well). I found that I can, in fact, drink 1 bottle of PBE per hour like Mary recommends, but to do it I have to drink very aggressively (i.e. more than every 15 minutes). I spent the entire ride force feeding myself but I did it, and I felt amazing! No mid-ride dizziness, no feeling like my legs couldn't pedal up any more hills, no headaches, no stopping for Coke or eating mini Snickers bars to bail me out of a nutrition deficit!

Literally, the BEST long ride in the history of me doing long rides!

And then the icing on the cake was seeing Mary on the tail-end of my ride! She knew approximately where I was and she rode out to find me to see how I was doing. I told her that I was nailing my nutrition and that I felt awesome. I made her proud and I definitely made myself proud as well!

I know, it seems ridiculous that a triathlete who has been racing since 2007, has 2 Ironman finishes and who has been coached for over a year and a half could be neglecting the most important part of long course triathlon. I just couldn't accept that the fix could be that easy. But.. it is.

Then I did a 30 min T-run off the bike and that went super well also! So.. I am sold on this nutrition thing!

After my ride I had to rush home, shower, and get ready to go to my teammate and good friend Greg's wedding to his fiance Amanda! (Note to self: do not wear a strapless dress when you are a perpetually sunburned and/or tan lined triathlete). Matthias drove to my apartment and we carpooled to the wedding in Victor, which was held at an adorable bed and breakfast. (I feel like I need to stop and make a comment here. Matthias was not my date, he is my friend and he is Greg's friend as well, and I didn't bring a date. Alexa = not dating Matthias!!!). Ken also came so there were 3 Train-This-ers (plus Greg of course) to "represent".

first dance!

This was a total Alexa-style wedding. There was a horse-drawn carriage, we sat on hay bales during the ceremony (which was performed by Greg's dad and was done outside). Greg and Amanda were giggling to each other throughout the ceremony - it was adorable. Also, I may have teared up. (Thank god for wearing sunglasses). I AM a girl after all!!!!! The reception was in a barn at the B&B and it was decorated with icicle lights and some Japanese lanterns. Din-O-Saur BBQ catered the reception, but since Matthias, me, and 2 other guests were vegetarians, the 4 of us got special food from Aladdin's! Kudos to Greg and his family for making that happen!

"well, that's awkward" -Matthias' comment!

The whole thing was very casual and I just loved it! I HATE the wedding industry. I hate that people spend $20,000+ on things like designer wedding cakes, invitations, DJs, crazy table decorations, and hideous matching bridesmaids dresses. I hate hearing the stupid chicken dance or being shoved out on the dance floor to catch the bouquet. (Please note, I do not hate weddings in general and I am thrilled when I am invited to them - I just hate all of the crap that's expensive and the stuff that is embarrassing, i.e. the whole putting the garter on the leg of the poor woman that catches the bouquet). This wedding was perfect for Greg and Amanda, and I think I get along with them so well because I love stuff like that too!

Matthias, Ken, Greg, Amanda, me

The reception lasted til 9:30 or so, and at that point we left, drove back to my apartment, and Matthias went home. I went inside, took the dress off and was relaxing sans pants (as usual) when Greg sent me a text asking me if I was going to go bowling with them. After some internal debate (well I already have my pants off vs. I need to go out and be social) I actually got dressed and went! It was fun! I was out super late which destroyed my ability to do anything on Sunday. I did run.. barely.

I probably should have broken this into 2 posts but both of these things just made for the best day ever on Saturday so I decided to keep that theme going!

CONGRATULATIONS GREG AND AMANDA!!!!!!!