I Did It! I said I'd do it, and I did. I'm almost certain of it!

It really doesn't matter if I win. Usually. But it's true that I've become more competitive over the past year.

I started out racing just for the adrenaline rush, the camaraderie and the fitness test. Where else do you really push yourself to do the best you can, but in a race? No excuses for "taking it easy," it's a race! The time to take it easy is after the race.

This weekend's five-miler called "Run for the Hill of It" was on my "home turf." The course is a wide, beautiful trail I run at lunch in mild or cold weather and early or late in the day in the hot summer time. I've run the exact part of this trail for almost an entire year, at least once a week and four or five days a week for the last half of 2007, until I began cross-training for triathlon. This is the trail I take to when I want to pass a new time, distance, or intensity milestone. It's like a favorite pair of jeans. So, yeah, I wanted to win my division in this one. I told everyone at work I was going to. Everyone was very excited.

It was an unbelievably gorgeous day. Low humidity and low 70's. It's JULY and it's Philadelphia!!! (I guess it's too much to think it could be like this next weekend too, for the SheROX triathlon?) We'd had some rain a couple of days before. A lot of rain. So there were some mud puddles to dodge and the usual horse poo and path irregularities that I am so familiar with. The race was very well attended. There were just over 400 people registered. I was kind of surprised. I had no idea it was this popular.

I met a lot of very interesting people and had a ball. I love meeting other runners and hearing their stories. There's always a good story!

My race was good, but my pace wasn't. I was faster going out than I was coming back. I've got to get a handle on this! It's starting to bug me. I passed a very fit chick who was obviously younger than I am on the way out, and I knew I would never finish before her. But I still couldn't force myself to slow down and save up for the last half. In a race like this, a five-miler, there is so much opportunity to improve a lot about your run, especially on a very familiar course. It's one of those things I like to do on this trail. A milestone. But I continued on "in my zone." On the way back, she did pass me, and she finished almost a minute ahead of me. She was the ONLY woman I saw after the turn-around. I decided that if I didn't win my division, the winner was way ahead of me and there was no way anything I did would have mattered. Maybe that's why I slowed down a bit.

Just before the finish line I overtook someone who was flagging. I said, "Come on! we've got to finish strong! I'll 'race you' to the finish!!" He smiled and said thanks, and poured it on. We sprinted to the finish, crossing at the exact same time to the enthusiastic cheers of everybody watching. Now that was fun!! We "high-fived" and then I never saw him again.

Next came food and meeting up with people I talked to before the race and hearing about plans for the next races. Lots of the women I talked to are doing SheROX. Very cool.

Then came the awards. This is where it got confusing. I really should have been wearing my glasses. The timing was provided by Lin-Mark, and they post the results on a board at the race finish line. I asked someone to read my line for me so that I would know my pace, my time and my overall place as well as my place in my age & gender division. According to the results, I placed second out of 17 women in my age group, 19th out of 165 women, and 114th overall. Not bad for an ol' girl whose only been back at running for 11 months, after about 20 years off. I was happy, even though I didn't live up to my promise to win First!

Then the awards were given. When they got to my division, they announced the third and second place winners (not me! Huh!!) and then, "First place, from Broomall, PA, finishing 39 and change [I'm sure that's what he said!!], Diane Arnold." I was stunned and confused. But hey! They handed me my medal and my envelope containing a gift certificate and that was that. Back with my friends, one pointed out that they gave me the silver medal, not the gold. "Eh, it's ok, I said. Maybe they were confused and really I should have had the silver all along." It's just too bad the real winner didn't get the verbal acknowledgment and applause.

So, I went home and after lunch and a shower and my husband's return from his stuff and after I returned from getting my glasses adjusted, I finally told the story to my family, who had already seen the medal and GC sitting on the dining room table. (Dave, my husband, pointed out that the envelope for my GC said "M 55-59 2nd place." They *were* confused!!) We decided to check lin-mark online to see what the official results looked like. As of today, the results are still contradictory. My stats (see #114) still say 2 out of 17 in my division, but the awards page (F 45-49) says I placed first.

The only thing that bugs me about this is that the husband of a woman I was talking to was upset because when he got to the podium for his second place award, they were out of silver medals. "Out? How do you run out?" I asked. I'll tell you how... You give too many silver medals out! I might have his. I would like to be able to give it to him. I sent an email to Lin-Mark and I plan to forward it to the organizers of the race, in case they want me to return my medal to give to this other winner. If they don't still have my medal, I won't die. I had a great day and I don't need the medal to remember that.