Courtenay Brown

First off, I think this race is everything that a triathlon should be. It's my new favorite. As for the gory details, my race was awesome. I'd be more wordy but I just sat in three hours of seminar (or really, circular theoretical normative falsifiable debate class) with some verbose classmates who definitely didn't spend yesterday racing and traveling ;) . We jumped off a boat into the San Francisco Bay at 7 a.m. yesterday. Actually I dove, because how often do you get to dive off a boat into the bay. Then we swam to Marina Green, we were supposed to follow a lead boat ...

Yesterday morning I went to the class I am TA'ing, Environmental Policy. Next Tuesday the professor won't be there, so I get to lead class (bwahahahaha), but actually I am just supposed to talk for a few minutes and then show a movie based on the book Cadillac Desert. The professor asked for a show of hands for who read the book... I was the only person who raised my hand. Yes!!! Credibility! Yesterday afternoon I had Data I (a.k.a. Statistics), two hours in the computer lab going over constructing political science datasets, etc. Come to find out we will be working a lot with Excel. I have been in love with Excel since I was 16! I ...

School started today! I am officially a PhD student! Friday we had all-day orientation, at the end of which I was kind of ready to not hear about how hard and stressful everything would be, but also at the end of which I was really excited about my fellow students and all the classes I want to take. I've only got 3 years of coursework, and about 10 years worth of amazing courses available. Some interesting facts: ~Our incoming "class" is actually called a "cohort", I guess because we don't all necessarily finish at the same time? ~Our cohort has 14 people, 3 of us are girls, and I'm the oldest person. ~I'm actually older than 2 of the professors I have this semester! ...

Well, I've been funneling most of my writing energies towards my next Inside Tri column, but I'm taking a brief break from that to post some news. Not to be confused with the brief breaks for watching 'Good Hair', going to the Apple Store (ugh), popping upstairs to see what Dan is doing, photographing Dan on Shelby's scooter for an article he wrote for a magazine in Sthafrica (authentic pronunciation), yelling at spiders that they are stupid and need to get out of my bathroom (it doesn't work well), and: Yesterday I had a Muscle Restoration Therapy session with Josh at Tri-Massage. Rather than ...

I just found a gray hair, and I wasn't even looking for one. Yes I pulled it out. My laptop right now has five programs running, thirteen Firefox tabs open, a record forty-one unread emails, and a really cluttered desktop. Maybe today I should clean it up and go through my iTunes. Also I need to fold laundry and populate the fish tank, but on the plus side, all my new furniture is assembled, I fixed the shower curtain rod (i.e. bought a new one), and I even made my bed! Phew. Appropriately, today on my bike ride I listened to a Radiolab podcast about stress. Even more fitting, I got home before the end of it. So I don't even know ...

We are now a multiple-cover household! Move over, Dan Hugo, I'd like a lemon-wedge sliver of your limelight please. I am writing a column for Inside Triathlon magazine. It's an op-ed column called "Conviction", and my first piece is in the current issue, September/October 2010. Right now I'm working on my November/December column, which I plan to finish before school starts on August 23. This has already been such an exciting, surprising, and fulfilling opportunity for me. I love it! I'm looking forward to exploring more topics in our sport. Here is what the cover looks like (and yes, that's my column at the top!), the magazine is full of gorgeous pictures and thoughtful pieces so it's definitely worth picking up ...

Aaaaa! Only 2.5 weeks until school starts!! I'm sort of kind of ready, I have no idea though. This week I have been working on moving in to my new apartment, which should be a smaller task than I am making it out to be. I'm still in Will and Shelby's house, but I moved from my sublet room on the main floor to my more permanent residence, the basement apartment downstairs. Since it has two rooms and its own bathroom, kitchenette, and hallway, obviously I have spent a ton of money at Cost Plus World Market (yes I am a Rewards Member) and Target (yes I have the ...

Today I did the Denver Tri for the Cure Sprint Triathlon. It was really fun, obviously partly because I won and had a very enthusiastic photographer in tow, but also because I really like meeting other women athletes of all experience levels. There were tons of enthusiastic racers! This race was touted as the largest all-women's 1-day sprint-distance triathlon in the world (although, at 3,000 entrants, it was smaller than the 5,500-entrant largest all-women's 1-day sprint-distance triathlon I also won last year, Danskin Seattle - either way, glad I have my bases sort of covered on winning the largest all-women's 1-day sprint-distance triathlon). I also enjoy racing for a cause, because it gives me a perspective on ...