Color me surprised

I've been very careful of how I list my racing goals for this season. I've stayed away from "getting first place" kinds of goals, instead opting for top 5 finishes, or depending on the race, getting on the podium. Don't get me wrong, I'm going out to win, but there are too many variables to simply state "My goal for X race is to win first place". You don't know who is going to line up next to you at the race, or if some sort of mechanical issue is gonna sideline you.

That said, I thought a good goal for my upcoming NORBA Nat'l, and the future FL State Championships, would be to get a good enough placing to qualify for the Nat'l Championships.

So, I went on the USA Cycling website to check to see what the qualifications were (this is where the surprised part comes in.), and see exactly where and when the Championship is held in case I could qualify this year. In my search I came across the list of current qualifiers, so I decided to check out the list to see how many people were already qualified. I'll go ahead and cut to the chase... I saw my name on that list of qualifiers! That's right, I'm qualified to go to this year's National Championships in Mammoth, California. How cool is that?!?! For the record, I qualified at my first ever race. A race, that by my current fitness standards was kinda lame...go figure.

Now I realize that this isn't a huge deal, not like I've qualified for the Olympics or nuttin'...but it just hit me the right way. For a guy who used to be too overweight to ever be good at any sports, let alone be qualified, is enough to get me kinda excited.

My day has been made, strike that, my week has been made.