The polo match defies description in many ways but in keeping with my website’s tagline, I’ll give it a quick go. The place dripped money, and it wasn’t even a Pretty Woman-type tournament. I did wear a sun dress just in case. The spectators consisted of about 10 cars parked on a steep rise overlooking the field. It was evidently a very exclusive New Year’s Eve invite. We sat on the grass and watched what seemed to be mostly 19-20 year old guys gallop around and around. Some had been flown in from Europe and Argentina to play. I heard one chatting up a girl, she asked if the poor horses were OK. I enjoyed the eavesdrop (but not as much as the game.)

It’s amazing, I am so happy I came! Honestly the only disappointment thus far was that on the plane from Amsterdam to Cape Town we had a real-time map of where we were and I slept through Libya. How boring of me to miss it!

Here’s a rough description of the week:

I am in Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape province, where Dan Hugo lives when he’s not in Boulder. On Friday I went with Dan and 5 other guys over to a town called George, also in this province but a good day’s drive away. We did a 100k mountain bike race on Saturday. It was a little insane for me, but the second most awesome part was I got so tired that I started to ride my bike up and down and over all the scariness because I was too tired to walk! I am suddenly WAY more skillz-laden!

The guys are now en route from George to Cape Town by bike. I was charged with driving (btw, to the large handful of you who think I am the worst driver, the “problem” is that my true talents lie on the left side of the road) the car back. I tourist-ed a bit in Knysna (pronounced like knife) and Plette Beach en route back to Stellenbosch.

Here’s a smattering of images:

I did find a couple cool photos though!

Tahoe is so pretty

I take racing very seriously.

The nitty gritty: I led from the gun, so I have no idea how many women were there or if any of them were any good. And if you are wondering about the outcome of the first debate of the day on Thursday: I wore my black Adidas running shorts that are too big, a long-sleeve Craft mock turtleneck base layer in Raspberry that my mom gave me last Christmas, my orange tempo trainers (appropriate for Fall), my Powerbar visor, Soap and Glory Sexy MotherPucker lip gloss, and my favourite ring. No earrings cause the back fell out of one as I was rearranging my outfit before the race and I couldn’t find it so I took them both out . OK back to the race! So my time was 41:57, not the fastest thing ever and in the context of a road triathlon I would be pretty disappointed in myself *BUT* considering that this was a twisty trail run at 6400′ elevation with a total of ~2500′ of uphill (and a super scary log crossing!), I’ll take it. I’ll take it AND I’ll go to Hawaii!

The mental mumbo-jumbo: So this race kind of marked a couple of anniversaries for me. One year ago today, I raced my first triathlon! I did the Olympic race at Scott Tinley’s, where despite an abysmal 45 minute dogpaddle/breastroke swim, I still managed to pass all the girls in my age group during the bike and run, and get a podium photo in a miniskirt. You’ll have to look through the archives for that one. That’s also where I met Eileen and first got a glimpse of BC Dot Org but he was pedaling too fast for me to even say HI!

The other anniversary was that of my first (and only) other 10k running race outside of a triathlon – on October 7, 1990, I ran the Fleet Week 10k in San Francisco with my stepdad, Rick, who had encouraged me to try out for the cross country team at my school and who told me that despite my fears, I could do it. He was right. He died of a heart attack at the finish line of that 10k, after we had run together in silence for 3 miles (I had gotten in trubs for being a brat to my brother, but come on I was 12), then made up in silence over the last 3 miles as we ran stride for stride. Even though I never got the chance to apologize or tell him I loved him, I still find peace with the fact that we ran together. We shared the best parts of the sport we both loved – the beauty of rhythm, effort, believing, and just being alive. With 200 meters to go he dropped back with breathing troubles and yelled “Go Courtenay!” to me when I looked back worried. Then he surged past me at the finish line. And then he collapsed and the rest is a blur of tears and shock and no.

There is not a race when I don’t think about Rick and how much I wish he were still here. So today, nearly 18 years later and here I am still bratty at 30 years old, and even though I had no idea who would show up or how I would stack up or even what to wear, I set out to win that race and to show Rick how grateful I am that he believed in me.

So there you go.

Also I really wanted to win that ticket to Hawaii. I can’t wait to see my brother again, and my tan’s going to need some replenishment come January .

First off, I won the bike! Fastest male and female bike splits at USAT Age Group Nationals won a new Blue Triad TT frame as well as an hour in a wind tunnel in North Carolina. So, I won a Blue on my Blue with a time of 1:03:17!! Also what was cool is I won by 4 seconds… the bike was 2 laps and my first lap was just *not* happening, halfway through it this girl passed me, we yo-yoed for a bit, then I got pissed at myself, committed to the effort, and rode away. Phew. The effort felt awful, as it should have, but I wanted that bike and I got it!

Second off, I can’t find my camera cable. So you’ll have to wait a day or two for photos, sorry!

Third off, my tally of random injuries from the weekend is perhaps the highest of any race weekend to date! My badass factor is totally increasing! How exciting! Three mysterious bruises, some scratches on my feet and legs from brambles, scrapes on my back from a clumsy fall (but not during the race this time!), and I think I have a black toenail or two but since the nails are painted with this fantastic new brown color I got myself for my birthday, I can’t really be sure.

Fourth off, people are so awesome. I had a great time meeting Maija and rooming with her, and hi anyone who invites someone they have never met to share their room for one of the biggest races of the season?? That is awesomeness. And I finally met Ben!!! And he was in the room right next to me and Maija (which happened to have a fridge and our room didn’t)!!! How fortuitous. Poor guy probably got way more Courtenay time than he bargained for but since he does ITU races and I don’t, our next race together could be ages away, so I maximized the hangout time . Side-bonus of that was that I also got to hang out with Chris Tremonte who I think talks more and faster than I do but I still like him. And Ben’s coach Victor Plata was staying with them too, he is also in the awesome category and this one time he wasn’t wearing pants when I went in there to get my yogurt out of their fridge. Wooo for pantless olympians!! (Maija and I got a photo of another pantless Olympian but it’s currently being held hostage by my cable-less camera). And of course a race weekend would not be complete without Kelly and her “Dunleavy classic” maneuvers about which I am sure she will blog. Also it was funny, little blonde Kelly is always all “fucking this and fucking that” and next to her is little pigtailed Maija with her “poophead”s!

OK I think this might be a step in the right direction for my blog, we’ll see. Really it’s just that races with cool people give me so much more to talk about than just another training ride through boring old Republican-ridden Incline. Speaking of Republicans, Steve Sexton is hilarious. Not sure if it’s intentional but he is, for one thing he has an incredible repertoire of bad songs that he’s willing to sing in public.

Now to find breakfast. Being gone for 3 weeks means I have to go to the store. Sigh.

Also, I have *no idea* why this gallery suddenly shoved the preceding posts down to the bottom of the page, yet another mystery courtesy of WP.org and IE 7 I am guessing, and I am stymied. I tried to fix it and now it’s even worse of course. So, for now, until I call in the experts, just scroll down… sorry!

-I got engaged. (warning: from a gossip standpoint, it’s all downhill from here…)

-I got famous.

-I stopped being engaged.

-I started documenting conversations with Mom. (see more here)

-I made a threat – little did I know it would actually happen!!

-I rode the crap out of my bike.

-I started teasing Huntress. Still haven’t stopped… sorry Lisa you know I love you!

-I raced.

-Shaz and I picked the wroooong place to stop.

-ImetGregweemailedhemovedin!! (it happened so fast I didn’t even get a chance to blog about it!)

-I got to hang out with the coolest massage therapist ever.

-I teased some more.

-I met Katie!

-I proved that girls love goggles.

-We moved.

-I won a triathlon!?!?

-I made tons of cool new friends.

and the rest is pretty recent history…

Bike Racers on Triathlon Logistics:

“So after you finish the swim part, do you like really quick change into your skinsuit and then jump on your TT bike or what?”

How Annoying Words Like “Booyah!” Come Into Existence

“Instead of ‘ginormous’ I am going to start saying ‘egantic’. So it’s enormous plus gigantic, instead of gigantic plus enormous. Whaddaya think??”

“Hm. What’s wrong with just saying ‘big’?”

Not Everything Soft is a Kitty

“I am snuggling something suspicious. Can you tell me what it is?”

“Yeah, it’s your sweatpants.”

On Mollycoddling in Modern Childrearing

“I can’t believe they don’t even keep score in games anymore to avoid hurt feelings. With my kid, they’d better keep score in the softball game!”

“You say that now, but if you had the retarded kid with a left foot sticking out to here you’d be the one insisting that your kid play and that no feelings get hurt.”

Allrighty, time to move on, oh and btw none of these were spoken by my mom, Sal. She usually gets an entire blog post to herself…

Pics tomorrow of the sweetest pad in all of Healdsburg and wine country, and pics of the 11 cutest blue-spandex clad butts! But first, my favourite quotes of the trip thus far:

During Sunday Night Out In The City With Good Friends:

Steve: … so anyway my roommate is totally fucking nuts. He fucking calls the five hot nursing students who live upstairs to bitch when they play their stereo in the kitchen or when the girl who’s right above him moves her chair, so now I can’t even talk to them because they hate us, I mean I can’t talk to five hot chicks because my roommate is crazy?! Anyway the other day I got the phone hooked up so I could get internet and there hasn’t been a phone in our place for five years and it rings and he flips out because he thinks it’s his dead mom calling!

Maisie: So what you’re saying is he has auditory hallucinations?

(she’s in grad school to become a counselor)

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Today on the phone I asked my mom for one of my sisters’ email addresses. This particular sister has been somewhat estranged for several years. And I have had lots of good positive conversations with my mom recently so I was statistically bound to have a dud at some point.

Sal: WHY?
Me: Well I was going to see if she wanted to do a half-marathon together.
Sal: – and by the way I am at the BARN right now so I am busy and I CAN’T SEND it to you NOW.
Me: Well I’m in the car so I don’t even need it right now.
Sal: – and just so you know, she has been running races for YEARS so she is probably really good and you CAN’T EXPECT to be able to KEEP UP.
Me: Uh, thanks for the vote of confidence. I checked out her times on line and I think we are compatible. Can you just send me her email.
Sal: I’M AT THE BARN for another TWENTY MINUTES so blah blah blah.

————————-

So I hung up and called my younger sister Sarah (Scare), wherein I learned:

- she’s the current freshman girl wingman-of-choice at Dartmouth, despite the apparent fact that her ugly t-shirts worn in attempts not to outshine the friends with specific boys on the brain seem to actually attract more boys than the outfits of the friends who are actually supposed to do the attracting. Or something. Scare has a whole theory about this but I have the attention span of a warthog these days so I can’t remember the theory or the outcome (aside from the fact that Scare doesn’t have a bf)

- she’s the only girl on the sports staff of the school newspaper, she covers squash, and when the head sports editor was like “the only reason girls want to be on sports staff is so they can get in the jocks’ pants,” she was like “yeah well if that were the case I sure wouldn’t be covering SQUASH so lay off” then one of the senior editors who happens to be a girl told Scare that she had her back.

- Dartmouth freshmen tend to party on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays are out for certain people because certain people have 10 a.m. classes on Wednesdays and Fridays and certain people find it hard to focus at that hour after quote-unquote partying.

———————

I spent $40 on parking in the city this morning so that a. I could swim for an hour and b. I could drop $1500 at the dentist’s office.

O.K. I’ma go do some gossiping!!