Courtenay Brown

This week has been awesome and worthy of a play-by-play. Monday I drove 823 miles from Seattle to San Francisco, where I stayed with my friend Maisie who I know from U.Va., although we were distant acquaintances there and didn’t become great friends until we randomly ran into each other in San Francisco in 2003.

On Tuesday I swam with Jaffa at USF (nice pool, but $15 drop-in fee, boo). He is Irish/Canadian-Native-American, a bike messenger, fellow triathlete, and one of my favourite friends. We met in 2002 when I was a legal assistant and coordinated all the messenger services for my firm. I hated that job and nearly became a partner in Jaffa’s messenger company, but instead took a job with ValueAct Capital, where I worked for 4 years.

After swimming I went to visit ValueAct, where I accidentally called my former boss “Dude”! I’ve been out of the corporate world for a while . I saw Jaffa again while I was there, he was making a delivery for VAC.

Then I did a track workout at Kezar stadium, which we can just skip right over, and then the Park Sprint ride which I used to do every Tuesday night during Daylight Savings. Except this time we couldn’t ride in the park because of some giant movie/TV carnival setup all across the road, so we went to the Presidio, where someone came up with some totally jackass route for bikes in rush hour, so Mack, Jaffa (yay! 3 times in one day!), and I did our own route and gossiped.

On Wednesday I swam at the Presidio YMCA. Then I rode across the bridge and headed North on Hwy 1 out of Mill Valley, to Muir Beach, to Stinson Beach, over Panoramic, down into Mill Valley where Emily and I had coffee and gossip hour, then back along the bike path to the bridge and over into the city. I have done that loop going counter-clockwise, it is just as lovely going clockwise. Then I ran at Crissy Field, where by the way there is a TON of construction going on in the Presidio!! I should tell that to my mom next time she says that “the state of California is in DIRE FINANCIAL STRAIGHTS so don’t get your HOPES up about FINANCIAL AID from UC Santa Barbara.” (where, by the way, I was accepted!! Their Bren School is top-notch and I am thrilled to have yet another option for grad school )

The wonderful thing about Wednesday is that I accidentally relived so many memories I had forgotten all about. The days when I used to get up at 4 a.m. to go for a ride to Camino Alto before work. I’d have to push the button to get the bridge bike path to open, and after a few months of this schedule I got pneumonia. The time I thought I wanted to do a double century so I rode 118 miles by myself. It took a really long time! The time I got stung by a bee coming down from Alpine. The time I got off my bike and walked down the hill to Sausalito because I thought it was too steep. The time I had a front blowout on that descent, and three cyclists went flying by but a guy in a car stopped to help me (it was also my first flat tire!). The days when I used to listen to a portable CD player in my jersey pocket!

It occurred to me that suddenly, I have been doing this for a long time. Sometimes I say I hate my bike, but with so many special memories and endlessly beautiful views of the bay area… I can’t think of a better way to have spent my 20’s.

Then I walked into Sports Basement and again realized I am an old-timer… I used to spend an hour in their nutrition section, looking at all the amazing options and what on earth should I buy?! Now I am a speed demon. There are exactly 4 products I will buy and the rest of it is crap to me . I’ve been doing this for a long time.

Wednesday also featured the essential Beer-and-Burger at Zeitgeist with Sarah (although, since it was St. Patty’s, they had a special menu, and they said I could get a burger if I really wanted but they were disappointed with how boring I was, so: SHEPHERD’S PIE!), where we recalled the time I had my 27th birthday there and Maisie made me a cake from scratch and it was delicious, but, the first thing I said was “Maisie did you burn the bottom?!” I always say the right things. So I met Sarah in 1999 in Charlottesville, where I was in school and where she had been in school for a semester before dropping out to wait tables and become a townie. She was “Crazy Asian Sarah” back then. She moved to San Francisco in 2004, and lived with me in my studio on Page St. (across the street from Maisie’s studio on Page St.) for 6 weeks. It was awesome. I love Sarah. She is finishing up her M.A. at UC Santa Cruz and about to move to L.A. to apprentice for a tailor in Hollywood. I love Sarah. Then we went over to Tartine to say hi to Nate who gave us eclairs. I love Nate.

On Thursday I left for San Diego. I got a leisurely start, and then made a pit-stop 30 miles into the 502 mile trip so that I could say Hi to everyone at Nutrition53, INCLUDING the famous Bill Romanowski! He is awesome!

Then, the rest of the drive… where I remembered countless drives through the central valley for Kern County, San Dimas, the Fresno races, Redlands, Manhattan Beach, Red Bull Road Rage, and I think that covers it. “Are you eating aGAIN?!” “Wait, since when were we on 99?” Etc. During this drive I found out (thanks to my phone, yes I moved over to the slow lane) that I got into the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington! I was offered a Research Assistant position, which is fantastic because UW is one of the top research institutions in the country and the program is very highly ranked. I am excited to hear what my project might be, and who I might be working with. Then at some point I will get down to deciding where I will actually go.

Maybe that will come next week…