Wedding weekend recap

So, I'm not even sure where to start, so I guess I'll start with Thursday. All of the groomsmen and a couple other guys that were in town kicked things off with a golf outing before the rehearsal. While there was nothing spectacular about my round, but it was an awesome way to get things going. From there we went to the rehearsal followed by a large get-together at McGregor's in Canandaigua. Various people were showing up throughout the night as they arrived in town, everything was under control until Byrne showed up and started rounds of various shots, which turned things a little sideways for everyone that was still in the bar, but it was a great time had by all. The late-night activities did lead to one of the guys, who shall remain nameless, to jump into a random boat and get kicked out of the hotel pool at about 3am. I have seen some excellent pics from that night, but haven't gotten a hold of many of them quite yet. I will post some more pictures as I get them.

Friday was an absolutely amazing day all around, especially once I managed to shake my hangover from Thursday night! The weather couldn't have been better. All of the groomsmen met at Lucas' (best man) room at Bristol Harbor at around 1pm. We had a good time hanging out and getting all tuxedo-ed up. We did the pictures, which I'm looking forward to seeing. Nancy looked amazing. Jeff performed a great ceremony, which was followed by cocktail hour, which was highlighted by my buddy Kevin playing acoustic guitar. Following that was an amazing reception and I think everyone had a great time. Everyone I talked to seemed to be having a great time. It certainly flew by, and it didn't seem like I talked to anyone more than 30 seconds. Some pics from the weekend are below.

Nancy and I during dinner (the chicken french was just as good as I remembered it).
There's the whole wedding party. Really good crew, I'm very lucky to have the friends I have and Nancy is as well.

Lucas during the best man toast. He was a huge help with everything all weekend.

Natalie during the maid of honor speech.

RIT baseball alumni in attendance. Some really great teammates in that shot.

I'm not positive where this picture was taken, but that's Nancy's brother, Kate and Megan (both bridesmaids) and Nancy's father in the background. They certainly look like they're having a good time!

The day after the wedding, my parents hosted a barbeque at their farm for people that were in the wedding and those that were in from out of town. This is Nancy's grandmother and my mom.

From left to right - Doogie, me, Colin and Jeff at the BBQ. Funny story about Doogie on Thursday night, but not really the arena for that...it's a family show everyone...

Nancy's Uncle Ed, Uncle Andy and her father Doug. Andy and Ed both live on the west coast, so these three brothers aren't in the same place too often.

Following the barbeque several of us went to the Winfield to close out the weekend, where I was exposed to "being iced", which might be the dumbest concept I've ever heard of, but it was pretty funny at the time, more on that some other time. Sunday night, we left for the honeymoon in Aruba.

The whole weekend was a blast, but went by so fast. There were several moments throughout the weekend where I wished I could have hit the pause button. It really meant a lot to us that so many people came from so far away to be there.

After the honeymoon, I had very possibly the busiest week of work in my professional career, followed by Chad's bachelor party Friday and Saturday, then I flew to Poland on Sunday, which is where I am until Friday. So, I'm looking forward to this weekend where I'll be in Rochester riding my bike, watching the Tour De France and maybe try to put some type of organizational structure in my life!

Breaking blogger silence

Don't have a lot of time, but wanted to post a picture from the ceremony, the last 14 or so days have been the fastest that I can remember. The entire wedding weekend was awesome and the honeymoon in Aruba was amazing as well...the last two days at work have been less than amazing...but what are you gonna do. There were some great stories, some hilarious ones as well, everything from boats to partial groomsmen tuxedos found on the lawn to "tequilla time"...I will do a more in-depth recap with more pictures when I get a chance. Thanks to everyone who made this whole deal really special!

People are getting amped!

We're now two days from the wedding. Over the last couple weeks, there have been a lot of e-mails flying around about the weekend festivities. Most of them are the typical, "Can't wait!" or "Going to be epic"...there have been some pretty unique ones though, so I thought I'd share (the appropriate ones anyways):

- "Hi Jeff, I just noticed your e-mail address and think we should be friends." - Jane after noticing that Jeff works for Sam Adams

- "Hi Jane. We can be friends. I'm friendly! Thursday can't get here fast enough!

Nancy. What do you guys want me to use? Binder? Trapper keeper? Let me know and ill get something.
Marty. Is there any point in the ceremony where you would like me to sing? I know you love my angel voice! Thoughts?" - Jeff

- "Here I am sitting here wondering why the hell all of you are still at work sending emails when its 4:30 my time....and then it dawned on me. I am sitting in NY, not LA. Wow, I need a drink." - Doogie, who just flew in from LA, apparently struggling with the time change

- "I might bring the man-purse filled with American Honey and pre-mixed Jack and Cokes." - D2

- "It's just about f'ing game time, b*tches. Bring your A-Game. The Miller-Maynard Wedding waits for no man." - D2

- "Fat bottom girls is always appropriate..." - anonymous

- "Hey guy, RSVP is in the mail. I want to say I went with the red meat. Gotta protein up to keep up with you on the dance floor." - college buddy Mark Sapienza

- "I get out of work at 7am on Thursday, so I can golf anytime after 10. Let me know, I don't think I'm going to sleep, just going to drink 5 hour energy until Sunday at 5pm, then sleep for 18 hours and go back to work." - Knodel, who just started a new job, where he's occasionally working a night shift. He also has a bridal shower the day after the wedding and a birthday party for his daughter on Sunday, so he might actually not sleep. I've seen him do crazier things.

- "I will be in the US for 72 hrs and 40 of those are dedicated to Maynard/Miller wedding festivities. The other 32 will be spent pulling my life together, doing about a week's worth of work, saying hello to my family, and hopefully getting an hour or 2 of sleep. Can't wait." - Kevin S., who's flying home from Tbilisi today, and flying back to Europe on Saturday night. He's been on the road for the better part of 3 months, and is pretty much a complete disaster physically and mentally at this point...being an international sales guy isn't always that glamorous, I know he'll bring his A-game this weekend though!

- "Just a reminder…as long as tuxedo junction didn’t eff up, my tux should be in Greece.. but it may be at eastview...Flyers should win Wednesday at home and I’m sorry but it looks like a game 7 on Friday." Scott...There are a couple pretty serious flyers fans as well as a couple blackhawks fans going to the wedding, so a game 7 Friday would definitely create some interest from some in the crowd.

- "I've been trying to get a press pass to Bonnaroo for years, and I finally got one this year. Too bad one of my friends decided to get married that weekend. It's sad irony that it's you. Thanks buddy." - Kevin, who I went to the first three bonnaroo's with, along with a bunch of other shows...it is sad irony...

And for a couple responses from the "English isn't my first language" category:

- "YESS! When you go on moonfull (translate honeymoon), make sure to eat and drink a lot and forget about everything else!" - One of my bike racing teammates, originally from Cuba

- "Congratulation my Friend! Wish you all the best on the new road! Many People says..."road to hell", but I can strongly disagree." - My buddy Sylwek from Poland

Can't wait, going to be Epic!

crazy week

Don't mistake the lack of blog posts over the last week for a lack of activity. In fact, maybe too much activity.

My original plan was to spend the week prior to the wedding (by coincidence only) doing the following races:

- Tues, June 1 - GVCC Team Time Trial (TTT)

- Thurs, June 3 - JP Morgan Chase Corp. Challenge (3.5 mile running race)

- June 4-6 - Full Moon Vista Grand Prix - three race series consisting of a friday night crit, saturday road race and sunday crit.

As you might have guessed by the wording "my original plan", things did not go as planned.

My "5 races in 6 days" idea started out great with the TTT - I teamed up with Rick, Jason and Chad for the first ever GVCC team time trial. It was the first time I'd competed in this format and I have to say, it was one of the funnest races I've done that wasn't on skis. It was tough, and full gas for over 40 minutes. I'm sure it added to the fun that Jason, Chad and I have spent so many hours training together in various activities and Rick is quickly becoming a great riding partner and teammate. We ended up winning our category and beat some of the A teams, and were close to a few others, so we definitely came away happy, but also motivated to beat the benchmark we set, one month from now when we give the TTT another go.

The Corporate Challenge went ok, I haven't been running a ton, so I wasn't delusional about what my time might be, but I wanted to give the team a good chance to do well. It turns out the other guys one the Harris team all had great races, and I was pretty average, but the Fleet Feet team had 3 guys in the top 10 and another in the top 20, so it would have taken something really special to beat them. I think we may have ended up 2nd, which would be the best finish ever for Harris. So it was a good day, despite the fact that we were really hoping to come away with the "W".

Friday was when things started to go sideways (literally). Let me start by saying that the Full Moon Vista squad puts on some amazing events and this was no exception, extremely well run and very organized. Once you read the following paragraph, you may think I had a negative impression of the race, which couldn't be farther from the truth.

The first race of the Full Moon Vista grand prix was a criterium in Genessee Valley Park. As stated previously, crits aren't my favorite thing, but I'd like to improve, so I went into it feeling positive that I could have a good day. The race started out ok, things were fast but comfortable, then 3 or 4 laps in there was a crash, which took Chad out (he was ok), Jason and I braked to avoid it and were gapped by about 10 riders. I knew there were some strong riders (including Rick) in that group and immediately went into TT mode to try and catch on as did Jason (who was ahead of me when the crash happened). Chase, chase, chase, and 5 or 6 laps later I made the bridge, Jason had already bridged the gap along with a couple others, but for everyone else, it was game over at that point. Once I made it to the break, I immediately thought 'ok, chill out, sit on the wheels and recover, you're still in this'. I did that for another 5 or 6 laps. At this point there was 14 or 15 guys in the front group and we were riding hard, but nothing crazy, I was feeling pretty good. Now we're starting to get towards the end, and I started to think about how to move up - we had Rick, Jason and I in the front group, so we had good numbers for the team, we should be able to come up with something, right? Not so much, with 8 laps to go, I took one of the corners a little too aggressively and crashed pretty hard (or at least that's what everyone told me who either saw it or heard it). My back and helmet took most of the force of the fall (Uvex helmet is no-joke, not even a scratch!). I was a little dazed, but thankfully, a pair of volunteers (who happen to be xc skiers I know) were right on top of the crash to get me and my bike off the race course. Once I took inventory, I felt ok, pretty banged up, but nothing seemed serious, bike was also ok. The volunteers had just finished picking me up, when Jason went down in the same corner, literally into some hay-bails (note to race organizers - If you think it's a good idea to put hay-bails in a corner, it's probably a better idea to not put that corner in the race course in the first place, I digress). He was also ok. Then Rick got stuck in a tough spot, because the front group lapped the rest of the field with one lap to go, which cause some extreme confusion by everyone, so he never really had a chance in the final sprint, so the team went from being in a great position to being totally out of it in the matter of 6-7 minutes...that's bike racing I guess. I will say, it definitely meant a lot that there were so many riders who came up to me after the race and again this morning to make sure I was ok. The GVCC crew definitely has some good folk in it, no doubt about that.

Anyways, I got home last night still hoping to race today, but when I got up this morning I was really hurting. I tried warming up to give it a go, but couldn't get out of the saddle to climb without my tailbone really causing some pain, so I decided to pull the plug. Total bummer, I had been looking forward to this particular race because it was a tough, hilly course as opposed to the sprint finishes and criteriums that seem to have dominated my season so far. So, I ended up watching the race in street clothes, which is never ideal. It was however, a fun race to watch and my teammates were really strong, with 4 guys making the final group of 15, and 2 more in the second group on the road, on a very selective course. After the race, I got some x-rays done on my tailbone and everything came back negative, just a "contusion" which I think is doctor terminology for a "really bad bruise".

This morning I was definitely a little negative about my bike season thus far, which seems like a never-ending string of "what-ifs" but now I'm feeling more positive about things, I've gained a lot of experience, and I still have a lot of racing later in the summer. I am feeling fit and also having a great time riding with the guys on the team.

Now, it's time to focus on more important things like the wedding and then healing my "Coccyx Contusion" (I think that means tailbone bruise) by spending a week on the beach with my beautiful bride-to-be in Aruba!!