Essential Pittsburgh

Sara Middleton and Catlyn Brooke both teach cross fit at the Allegheny YMCA on the North Side. They renovated the upstairs studio themselves. Middleton built the barbell racks, as well as a huge structure for pull up rings and high bars. “I fell in love with it and I got certified to teach,” Brooke said. Middleton is the Program Director of Healthy Living at the YMCA and leads a team of personal trainers. Brooke is the full-time aquatics director for the Y downtown. The two are in their mid-twenties, met a few years ago and got engaged this summer. Both grew up in pretty small towns - one outside of Pittsburgh, the other outside of Philadelphia. Middleton said she’s always been a registered Democrat, while Brooke held onto her family’s conservative political leanings a little longer. She said she didn’t vote for Obama in 2012, but that her values shifted amid college, Americorps and more community involvement. “All my friends make fun of me because I only recently switched my voter