[code"> [/code"> Courtenay Brown: August 2006

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Mt. Tam Reconnaissance

So our friend Jim called us up and asked if we would pre-ride the Mt. Tam Hillclimb course with him, since he had never done it before and Devon and I are such awesome climbers. Ha. But we do know the course and that was the important thing. For those of you who know those roads: we started in Fairfax, rode Bolinas Fairfax Rd. to the dam and up to the ridge then down to the coast, turned along Highway 1 to Stinson, where the race actually starts, then turned around and did the course (back along 1, up Bolinas Fairfax, then right on Ridgecrest along the 7 sisters), then we turned around at the end and rode back on ridgecrest to Bolinas Fairfax Rd., past the dam again, back to Fairfax. It was about 6,000 ft of climbing which for a couple of crit racers is pretty daunting. I forgot what the mileage was but it actually wasn't that high.

Here we are at the dam:

Here I am with Jim in tow heading down to Highway 1, making a face because the weather is suddenly not so beautiful:

See? Ew:

But by the time we left the coast the weather cleared and moods improved:

"So my plan is to attack on the 1st sister and take it from there...":

"It is so good to be back in California!":

"Look at me, I am a climber!":

Me: Please can we go back through Mill Valley? Then we will only have to climb for like 5 more minutes this whole ride?
Devon: No! We are taking the scenic route!
Me: Hmph. I am not talking to you.
Devon: Hmph.

To the conversation above, Jim was like "Can you guys, like, stand next to each other for the photo?" So we did and then I decided to stop being a brat:

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Monday, August 28, 2006

Photos from Chicago and Surrounding Groves

Devon, Hayden, Peter, and Glenn with their $7,500 check for a PRIME! More $ than the entire women's prizelist...


After the Elk Grove weekend, Devon, Dave and I went into Chicago to be Tourists. Here we are at the Picasso sculpture downtown. Devon is admiring the sculpture, Dave is admiring something else...


After the sculpture we had pizza and went shopping and then went to look at the city from the top of the Sears Tower which was mysteriously called the John Hancock Plaza at the entry way. Then when we got to the top we saw another taller building across town... that one was the Sears Tower and we were in the wrong building! Here is Devon pointing to the real Sears Tower:


Midweek we moved from Elk Grove to Downer's Grove, where we stayed with the Doaks who were really cool. Here is Emma Doak in front of her newly "cleaned" room (close examination of the background will reveal why I used quotation marks!)


Unfortunately I did a horrible job of communicating when I was going to take photos of everyone so I don't have pictures of her brother Ian, her sister Caitlin, or her mom Breda. But I do have a shot of Caitlin's little bunny Fufu:


Here is a photo of Devon at the Doak's house playing with his bestest friend ever, his cell phone!


I don't have photos of the races at Downer's Grove because, conveniently, my memory card got full and I didn't know how to dump everything, but then I figured it out in time for the after-race shenanigans.
Here is Hayden after two dinners, one at McDonald's and one at Taco Bell, followed by a few beers:


And here I am with Devon!

The End.

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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Clouds

I just got back from a 10-day trip to the Chicago area, for races in two of the seemingly 500 suburbs that are named [Something] Grove. Apparently there used to be a lot of trees in that part of Illinois, but now there are a lot of houses, roads, and shopping centers with my two favorite stores, Walgreens and Target!

Overall the trip was fun - Devon and I stayed with some really fantastic people, we hung out in Chicago for the first time ever, and I had lunch with a good friend who I haven't seen in 5 years. I have some photos from the trip, I will post them separately. But the races were not a good as I had hoped, and despite the double latte, Zachary's pizza, and Devon's arrival at home after almost 2 months on the road, I haven't shaken my cloud of disappointment.

But it could have been worse. I crashed, but I didn't break any bones like some other girls. I didn't even break any equipment. I improved on my finishes from last year, I was at the front in each of the 4 races (not the whole time, mind you, and especially not at the finish which is when it really counts, but still...) I bought some cool sunglasses. I got dragged to only one horror movie, and in turn got to drag the boys to Devil Wears Prada. The guy at Hertz gave me an SUV for the week even though I only paid for a Ford Focus. And after plenty of videogame conducive down time, I am now at 60% completion of the Daxter game on my PSP!

So my pipe dream of getting an amazing result and then getting onto a pro team didn't come true. Oh well. I still learned some good lessons and had a good time.

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Thursday, August 03, 2006

My New Car

I went to Starbucks just now to get out of the office while the keyboard tray guy was drilling into our desks. This big, sweet-looking car rolls up, a young guy steps out, and hands me the keys...
Obviously that last bit is just a daydream. But seriously this car is sick, trust me I got a close-up view... it's a Bentley Continental GT and it costs like $200,000. Taitt this is my new if-money-were-no-object car, replacing the audi or mercedes or whatever conventional luxury car it was that I named before.

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Photo of Taitt that would not upload in previous post

This is Taitt at the Albany Crit.

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