I surprised myself

Yesterday I did something amazing, and I even surprised myself! I did 3 sprint* triathlons last year, and decided to do the international* distance this year for the same series. I did the international in May, but I haven't been running much and it is really hot in Florida in August, so I decided that for yesterday's event, I'd better just do the shorter sprint distance. Well, I was flying past people on the bike (and they later passed me on the run) and when I got my results, I was SHOCKED!! to see that not just by age or by the Athena category (women over 150lbs) but overall female, on the bike part of the triathlon, I placed 18 out of 105 women!

I still can't get over it. I credit most of it to my new bike, but also the training for the longer distance. If I focus and lose a few pounds, I could run faster, maybe swim better too. I am really motivated by this. Just to clarify, I am the former Math Team nerd who literally walks into walls. Apparently I have an inner athlete who is just waiting to break out. Maybe I need to let her do that!

Oh, I also got 2nd out of 9 Athenas. The lady who was 1st finished 10 minutes ahead of me, is 14 years younger, and weighs 33 pounds less. I'm not out there to win (yet) but maybe one day I actually could. I can't get younger, but I could weigh less. I feel so good about this accomplishment.

Okay, so the math nerd in me made a spread sheet to compare results from yesterday to the results of the 3 I did last year. Antone interested can look at the numbers here.
https://docs.google.com/spre
adsheet/ccc?key=0ApNHnBdVx
oJ4dDVOU1JOdEhvTkVmMlVrMkF
oc1Q5elE#gid=0
(if the link is split, you'll have to copy and paste instead of clicking the highlighted half)


*The distances for this event series:
sprint = 0.25 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run
international = 0.5 mile swim, 20 mile bike, 6.1 mile run