PHP variable not accessible until halfway through code

Question

I am trying to access data by:

echo 'Item = '.$this->item->title;

However, I'm only able to access this data after line 124 in my code: http://www.codeshare.io/fW9ZJ

You can see my attempt to access that data on line 33 and 123. Neither return a value. However, the same code at lines 125 and 376 do.

Why isn't the data accessible? (Note: this is part of a Joomla! K2 template file: category.php).