Courtenay Brown

Oh my god, I am leaving the ranks of the unemployed. No longer will I be a triathlete bum. I got a job! A real one! Not a like, oh here organize a bunch of stuff over the next few weeks and I’ll give you some money. This one is a real live job.

A few weeks ago, a recruitment firm in Seattle contacted me about a part-time contract accountant position at Amazon. The experience requirements were pretty hefty, so I thought I was a long shot at getting the job, but might as well try. Then I had two phone interviews last Friday, and thank god Amy arrived at our homestay for Eagleman 20 minutes before my interview because she helped me practice and got me really excited about it!! And lo and behold, I start Monday.

In other news, I got back to Seattle last night. My bike isn’t here yet, which is actually great. The airline sent it on a later plane, so they will deliver it to me, and I didn’t have to drag it through the airport, a practice which I swear is harder on my back than all of the racing and training I do. Also I think I might start a consulting business on the side: “How to get out of Airline Bike Fees, or at least get Really Reduced Ones.” Over the past year and a half, I have flown to 9 races and paid a total of $315 in bike fees. Not bad!

As for my race at Eagleman 70.3, I am kind of glossing over it. The race was fine, but a lengthy report on my blog might just be a boring case of SOS (same old shit) so I will spare you all the gory details. The brief details: yes I got stung by what seemed to be an armada of jellyfish, it was awful. Yes I was last of the pro women. Since even before the race started because the start was ~25 meters from the shore, they let us in the water 20 seconds before the start, I think *maybe* one time in the pool I have done an all-out sprint 25 in 20 seconds… The bike was really flat. The run was really flat. My mom and sister and aunt and niece came to watch. Which was really cool and motivating, on the run I was so hot and tired but I kept thinking “my family is here! They might be around the next corner! I better look good and run fast!” They were actually at the finish line, so I had to keep up this chant for quite a while . So that’s about it. Last place kind of sucks, but I was not surprised about it. I just have to keep working on my swimming, that is the place where I blanketly lose giant chunks of time. And ugh, one more fun fact: at Oceanside, my pace per 100m was 1:53. At Wildflower, 1:54. At Columbia, 2:05. At Eagleman, 2:11. Screw *improving* my swim, at this point I would be happy to just stop getting worse!! (BTW I know that you can’t really compare races like that… saltwater, wind, length, wetsuits/speedsuits, bla bla bla, but it’s still annoying).

Speaking of wetsuits: I have a 2007 Blueseventy Helix size WMS for sale. If someone buys it then I will have money to buy a speedsuit!! So please please please spread the word, it’s in good condition and not stretched out at all since it is too big for me.