SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE.

That's what I got tonight. I was looking everywhere for last year's indoor tri results, trying even to access my archived blogs, with no luck. I really wanted to compare last year's results to this year. So I e-mailed the race director and asked if he would send them to me, and he was kind enough to comply.

I was extremely surprised then to compare last year's results with this year's: last year 8,010 yards; this year: 8,996 yards. Unbelievable! I really could not remember, and had no idea I was that much ahead. I really was trying not to get too down on myself about maybe not doing as well as last year, or so I thought. I even tried not to make excuses about the fact that there was new competition in the age group this year (overall woman & masters winner, one in the same) or the fact that they didn't give dual (or more) awards to the same person this year, meaning my second place last year really was third behind the masters winner. I even resigned myself today about the fact that this will never change. These same two or three women have always and will always beat me, no matter how much better I get. They are too far ahead of me. (As an example, the overall woman did almost twice my yardage!) And of course I had to rerain from consoling myself over the fact that my training was severely interrupted for months because of the accident.

Oh my gosh! I really didn't expect this! I am so much more encouraged now to work harder still to get to a new level before the next indoor tri. (I actually found about 4 of them in our area coming up!) While I thought my swimming was way down from last year, I was only 2 laps off; my biking this year was over 1/2 mile better (I really had bike issues last year); and I thought I did farther on my run last year, but I really beat last year's distance by 1/2 lap.

I'm happy.