Courtenay Brown

Am I the cat or are you the cat?

(Life and blogging could be easier for all involved if I would just get a camera! As you can see, I’ve kind of given up. So now all you’re getting is random pet photos from cheezburger.)

On Friday night, Ben, my brother, and I went to the Elite Distance Carnival at the UH Track. They had a women’s 5k followed by a men’s mile race, and they’d flown some elite runners in from the mainland. Even though promotion seemed somewhat last-minute and only through facebook and word-of-mouth, there were a lot of people there and the atmosphere was great. Everyone was really stoked to be watching these high-level athletes! My favorite part was towards the end of the women’s race – the girls were spread all over the track by this point, huffing and puffing and most of them looking like they were going at a fast clip. Then suddenly you would see one girl FLY past the others like a ROCKET, and be really tall, with dreads, and warmup pants? Oh right. It was the men, doing their strides! That is what I wanted to take a picture of. Googling “elite men track warmup strides bla bla” is pointless. Anyhow then the men’s race itself was cool, but not as cool as their warmup .

On Saturday we went to my brother’s lacrosse buddy’s friend’s surprise 30th birthday party, where I met a real live 11-year-old boy who is a swimmer on the age group team coached by John Flanagan. I don’t even know the last time I talked to an 11-year-old boy (perhaps in 6th grade?) but this one was pretty funny and adorable. He said that he swam 7k each practice, but after a little bit we learned that maybe he only does that every once in a while, if at all. (And then I had a funny note-comparing conversation with John during our ride yesterday.) He’s pretty stoked on swimming though, and is looking forward to trying for a swimming scholarship to one of the local private schools in a few years. I’m rooting for him.

Yesterday the excitement started bright and early with the Boca coaches’ ride up to Waipahu and Schofield and some other places. It was a really great ride and, again, I wanted a camera. The ride went to some really beautiful places. I saw a crazy sign at the entrance to the base, touting “26 days since the last fatal accident! Safety is our first priority!” Wow. Someone died in military practice right here on this base just after Christmas? That is sad and scary to think about, and I hope I misunderstood the sign and really it meant 26 days since someone died in all military everything. The safety message must not have stuck with everyone, because by the end of the ride we were subjected to some really reckless riding – sprinting into and out of red lights, on a busy 6-lane road on Superbowl Sunday, jumping into other lanes of traffic to hop in the draft of a passing motorcycle, cutting off cars and other riders, all in the name of “winning” the Sunday morning ride… Napoleon oedipal freudian complexes wherein others’ lives are risked, and the only prizes on the line are bragging rights. Sweet. What was that thing about how exercise makes you and your pet mouse smarter? Is there a subsequent study about the severely counteractive and dumbifying effects of testosterone presence?

Anyhow this is shaping up to be a lazy week – I’m resting, Ben is leaving Honolulu tomorrow (for good this time) , I’ve canceled the job search since I too am leaving in just a couple of weeks, plus the giant thank-you card project is fairly complete. Get ready for some beach time and some extra blogging!