Sooo given that we got married at sunset (theoretically—we just never got to see the sun) on New Year’s Eve, the official wedding party was done a couple of hours before midnight. This could only mean one thing: an afterparty was compulsory. Classic Balding pose above, by the way . . .

Besides more wine, champagne, etc., we had gluten-free pizza and leftover desserts from the wedding. Juzzie G may have eaten the inside out of at least four of those . . . not sure where he put it, exactly.

People got back into casual attire (except for me—I was gonna wear that white dress for all it was worth!) and we toasted the New Year . . .

And Super T + her “Mini T” once again got the “trooper award”: they even made it ‘til midnight!

Not entirely sure what is going on with my super-pacer Dooder here, but I love it, and Aunt Sammy is looking hot!

Things started to get slightly out of hand at some point after midnight . . .

But never fear: I still had a little smashfest on tap for the morning hours! Yep, Mere and I loved our wedding swim on Friday so much that we decided to go for round two on Sunday. Actually, I am so fortunate to have a BFF who loves an epic smashfest as much as I do, and since we are in the same place so infrequently, I figure that I have got to max out my smashfest opportunities when we are together!

So this is what Mere, Maiki, and I did on Sunday morning after our wedding . . . Remember we were in a funky wavefest resort 25-yard pool so intervals aren’t as fast as usual.

Wedding Warmdown 100x100s Swim

10×100 warm up (75 free-25 back) @ :05 rest
20×100 swim with band only: 15@ 1:30+ 5@ 1:25
20×100 swim @1:20, descend 1-5
32×100 with paddles, buoy, & band as 4x (4@ 1:20+3 @ 1:15+1 fast @1:30)
12×100 with buoy&band @ 1:20
6×100 easy cooldown (25free-25back-50kick) @ :05 rest.

Then we had an amazing refuel at my parents’ house—a little pre-travel brunch for our out-of-towners, and a chance for us to have still a little more catch-up time with them.

We couldn’t get enough—and neither could Missy Moo!

We even got to preview some wedding pics (that’s Eric, our real  photographer—dying to see his pics!). And Muffin got a nap, apparently. Mufffffffin, are you sleeping?!?

Speaking of sleeping, I have no idea how my parents made it through this epic weekend. They were up at all hours of the night making sure that each one of these functions went off without a hitch—and this is following months and months of work and, at least for mom, sleepless nights. Yet here’s Dad on Sunday afternoon, still looking like a million bucks, god bless him! My parents are amazing and I am beyond appreciative of them and all of my friends and family for making this unforgettable weekend happen.

In case you missed any of the other thousand (or so) reports and albums I posted of our special weekend, you can catch up here:

Married!

Wedding Weekend Recap, Part 1: Ladies Night

Wedding Weekend Recap, Part 2: Smashfest #1

Wedding Weekend Recap, Part 3: Friday Fiesta Photo Album!

Wedding Recap, Part 4: Pre-Game Show!

Wedding Photo Album, Part 1

Wedding Photo Album, Part 2

Wedding Photo Album, Part 3

Even more fun, read the Dooder’s report on the wedding weekend. I love this.

As promised!

A brief moment of sunshine at the resort for some family pics before the ceremony . . . Above is Mom, me and Mini Bisc!

With my Cat and BHS, or his older brother, Dirk.

We had hot chocolate and apple cider for the guests in case we had a day like this one . . . That’s the amphitheater where they sat. Again, imagine the ocean in the background here—it is there somewhere!

Our rings!

Mom went above and beyond with flowers . . .

Seating cards!

Our table, of course—which reminds me, I have some news about this year’s race schedule. Will have that here this week too!

At some point I remembered that I was supposed to hand the bouquet to Mini . . .

Congrats for Cat after the ceremony . . .

And Cat was like, “I need a drink!”

The kids & cocktails. Big coats provided by Peggy, who was thinking ahead. Peggy=lifesaver!

Cocktail tables outside. Heaters, crucial.

With our super puppy-escorts, my little cousins!

Getting the full report from Zoey . . .

I was so excited about the vegan food, which included a build-your-own macro burger bar and sweet potato fries. YUM.

Dad gave a classic speech about “how we got here,” all of which related to my becoming a crazy ironman person, since that was my connection to Maik.

He went back to Alyse and George Shaw, my second parents, with whom mine shared swim-team carpool duty when I was a kid, to Mr. Woodling, my legendary high-school club swim coach, to Dr. Muffin, whom he blamed for turning me serious about triathlon.

True story: Dr. Muffin is indeed to blame for that. Dad may have also referred to him by his previous name, “Love Muffin,” which elicited the above reaction from Dr. Muff.

With my dear friend, Erin—one of the first athletes I ever coached!

My cousin Heidi is fluent in German. Thank god.

Uncle John is not. But he is good at smiling.

This was another highlight:

Our own coffee-bar extravaganza! It was New Year’s Eve, after all, so the party still had to continue for a couple of hours after the wedding was over.

Peggy and the tri crew!

Okay, you now get a rest from wedding-day photos ‘til the professional ones arrive . . . However I do hope to share a report on the after-party tomorrow!

Okay I have just delved into Big Happy Snapper’s wedding pics and discovered that I still have too many to share (and this is before the professional ones) to squeeze them into one post. I am going to get this done today, so I will throw the rest up later! For now you get as many as I can drop in here before it’s time to head out to ride!

I loved my bouquet—especially because it had coffee beans in it!

But you know what I love even more?! My Cat!!

I especially love this picture of him practicing his vows while walking Ms. Eva before the ceremony. So cute.

I am glad someone caught these moments that I missed on film . . . like him getting emotional while walking his parents down the aisle.

My parents!

Little Callie and Zoey with Ms. Eva, who likes to be involved in everything, so of course she had to be part of the ceremony.

We walked down the aisle to a wedding march that was written by my Great Aunt Justy’s dad for her mother and we walked out to the USC Trojan Marching Band!

FIGHT ON!!

The other night the GCM and I had “date night” and saw an awesome cycling documentary on the big screen: Chasing Legends . It’s already available on DVD, but our local artsy theater was doing a screening for charity. We were lucky that we bought tickets ahead of time as by the time we arrived at the theater, the movie was sold out—that’s what I love this about Tucson!

The GCM and I absolutely could not get enough of this movie; it followed Team HTC Columbia through the Tour de France and had amazing footage of the tour as well as awesome commentary from the guys on the team. We are definitely going to order a copy of this one; I think it ranks right up there with my other two fave cycling documentaries, Overcoming and Hell on Wheels. Those DVDs actually need to be replaced because I am pretty sure my teammates and I wore them out during our camp days with good old Brett Sutton. In fact, at some point, the “outtakes” DVD part of Overcoming disappeared—not surprising, as it was the best part.

That is Ms. Adorable Allison from the Big Island in her new jersey! She is 18 and training for the Honu 70.3; a long-sleeved jersey meant she had to ride up Kaloko to the top of Hualalai . . . in other words, a toughie of a climb up to where it gets a little chilly—hard to find that in Hawaii. Love your work, Allison!

Soooo being inspired by Chasing Legends had me thinking about inspiration for trainer-riding. All three of these flicks would be right up there on my list, but more and more, I find that I am mostly using the trainer for very short, hard intervals, and during those, I cannot actually see. So I now opt mostly for blaring the music for these workouts.

I am keen to know other people’s favorites for inspirational viewing . . .

What are your favorite inspirational shows to watch from the trainer? Or do you prefer just music??

If you missed part one, you can check it out here.

This was the men’s lead group somewhere between miles 2 and 3; they had to run through the start area before the women could take off. The set-up looked very much like an ITU World Cup race, with four loops (one short, 3 longer) that took the runners through the start/ finish/ grandstand area each time.

This was the lead women at essentially the same point; it was interesting to see the contrast, as the men had already split off by this point, but the women (who had a much larger field) were all strung out across two huge groups.

Ash and training partner Danna were running together, like usual.

This was the lead group somewhere in the first half, I think, before it got too small . . .

Ash ended up with a group for almost the entire time as well . . .

Apparently when a girl has a 2:44.0 marathon PR, at most races, there aren’t, say, several girls who can run that speed, so having girls running so close for hours was a new experience. Ash said she liked it because she didn’t have to think and could just run on auto-pilot.

In the beginning before we got completely involved in trying to track Ash/ calculate paces, etc., I enjoyed taking in other sights in the race. Since I am obsessed with Born to Run, I was anxious to see Jenn Shelton in the flesh. She was a last-minute Trials qualifier in December with a 2:45. That’s her in the purple tank top with pigtails. She didn’t finish and this was the only time I saw her.

This chick was awesome because she crushed a 2:40 marathon in a pink ruffled lulu skirt.

Bootyshortsgalore!

Proud hubs, TJ!

This was the last time I saw the guys. Bad picture, I know . . . I was across the road trying to catch Ash on an out-and-back. But here the guys had maybe 4 more miles and Meb, Abdi, and Ryan had clearly dropped Ritz. I was actually surprised to watch the TV broadcast later and see that he fought back and almost passed Abdi in the end, as it looked like a done deal at this point.

Ash, right about the same time . . .

My super-mom athlete, Dawn, and her mini-triathlete, Paige. They came up from San Antonio to spectate and brought bikes for the GCM and I; these were key because we could ride along the closed side of Memorial Highway and watch the runners right alongside us on the other side of the highway . . . In summary, it was an awesome spectating experience!!