Courtenay Brown

My Brother.This past weekend my little brother Nathaniel flew in from Honolulu to visit! He used to live here, back in 2003-4, so he has friends and quite probably a better working knowledge of Seattle than I do. He got here Friday morning and left Sunday evening... Quick trip! "WELL," said my mom,"he OBVIOUSLY needs to get off the ISLAND." No, he obviously needs to party with his big sis. (If by "party" you mean ride bikes to a local winery and inform sibling he/she is dumb and fall asleep at 10 p.m. when there is a barbecue and beer going on ...

Ben, Rory, Mojdeh and I headed down to Portland this weekend for the Freshwater Trust Portland Triathlon. We had an awesome time! Rory and Mojdeh were already going as part of the USAT Mobile Tour, plus Portland is great, and I wanted to race. I knew I wouldn’t feel at the top of my game, but I figured it would be a really fun way to get in some good intensity work. We drove down on Friday, stopping in Federal Way for an adjustment at Spencer Chiropractic, and arriving in Portland in time for a quick dinner at the saddest Whole Foods I’ve ever visited (salad bar was on a par with Applebee’s ...

We are heading down to Portland in a couple of hours, for the Freshwater Trust Portland Triathlon this weekend. It was a last-minute decision for me and I am excited about it. Yay for racing into shape :) ! Relatedly, I shelled out the big bucks for my winning photo from Danskin. I finally realize why you are supposed to pick up the finishing banner and hold it over your head when you win, rather than just running through it like they do in the movies. You can't see my sponsor logos! Oops! But I still like the photo. Go Team VAC! Last ...

Congratulations, Champ!Yesterday I raced the Danskin Women's Triathlon here in Seattle. It's a sprint distance race consisting of a .5 mile swim, a 12 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run. The race is in its 20th year and is actually the largest all-women's triathlon in the country! There were over 5,000 racers yesterday, it was amazing. And, my race went pretty well. I won! (click link for official media recap, read on for my own personal and awesome recap). I went into the race with several distinct advantages. I had a hefty cheering squad, in the form of ...

We all know that I know better than to say "here's a few". It's "here ARE a few". Secondary to that, we also all know that I definitely don't love everything, although I do at least like most things on that list. A more accurate post would have said something like this: I woke up this morning and thought crap, my alarm sucks, so does morning, so does pretty much everything, I mean what is even the point. Crap. But then I got out of bed anyway because I remembered I didn't have to swim until later! So my dread of general movement lifted somewhat, at least I wasn't leaving warm bed for cold water, plus I had to hurry ...

This morning I woke to find the sun shining brighter than a train emerging from a tunnel on a winter morning in the alps. The world, overnight, had gained a shimmer that has never existed in my eyes. Around me were the ingredients of happiness which had been waiting patiently for to catch my attention, but which I had ignored for too long. The short list of what I have found a love for is: everything. Here's a few examples: USAT's Endurance Mobile Tour BenCollins Phil Spencer Triathlon Cycling Amazon My Sponsors google chat rainbows butterflies unicorns rambo splish suits parties in pants bedtime baths Leo (phils dog) Trader Joe's wine Pirates Lists

On September 7, I am having a birthday, and I'm celebrating it at Bumbershoot. I'm going on Monday only, it's $35 for a ticket now but if you wait until August 22 it goes up to $50. I'm pretty stoked about it - I complain somewhat heartily about Seattle's winter weather, traffic, pools, training routes, bla bla bla, but one thing (besides Dan Savage and Bauhaus) that doesn't remotely suck is its music scene. (Although: Saturday's headliner is Sheryl Crow? With Katy Perry in the afternoon lineup?) Relatedly, next week, on Friday the 21st, I want to hit up the Mural Concert, the Moondoggies had a song once on KEXP's Song of ...

I could have raced my bike tonight at the ...

Mostly though it was just looooong. Days are feeling that way, now that I am cycling again in addition to running and swimming. Funny how 3 weeks off is all it takes to realize that triathlon training is COMPLICATED. Anyway Wednesdays and Fridays are my days off from work, so those are the days I do interval workouts. I even did intervals in the pool today, I was out of breath and everything! Then I met up with my friend Stephanie to show her how to do hill repeats on the bike. She is one of those girls I really want to hate but can't - she swam in college and is really good, she is a blazing fast runner, she ...

Don't be jealous. Ben and I just harvested three awesome batches of our home-made Kombucha: Green Tea, Ginger/Green Tea, and Mango Black Tea. MMM!! We finally seemed to get our recipe sorted out and actually want to drink our harvest, rather than turning it into salad dressing or fruit-fly traps. A couple days ago we made Ginger Cinnamon Ice Cream. Sadly, it is gone now. Plane Races and Rooster TailsThe other thing that happened was today we went to the hydroplane races at Seafair. They are actually boat races and as far as I ...