Ophelia Bonner

 

So...I got another age group win last Thursday.  This time it wasn't at some backwater town race, but in an actual city race.  Ok, so maybe it wasn't a large race, and, yeah, maybe the heat chased most of the runners registering that day into the 5K (instead of the 8K), but a win is a win.  The guy who got 2nd in our age group and I pretty much ran side by side most of the way.  Every once in a while one of us would pull ahead, only to have the other compensate and catch right up.  This went on for the entire race until the final stretch where we both cut loose on the last sprint.  He'd go faster...I'd go a  little faster...he'd go up a gear...I'd go another.  Eventually after the 6th or 7th ramp up, I heard a cuss word from him and I pulled ahead at the last second.  Of course I didn't know we had been racing for 1st until after, and the times for us were both the exact same time in minutes and seconds, meaning I had won by a fraction of a single second.

It would have been a really fulfilling moment for me, but unfortunately that person that I beat out had to be my good friend Jason.  I still think he could have lost me at some point, but he swears not, and that if he had I would have caught up.  Who knows?  Either way, I still kind of feel like I robbed him blind of a win, but he still got an award.  I guess that will teach him to leave me behind next time, if he can.  Again...I'm just the....worst...running...partner...EVER!  Also, there was another person in our group that was faster, but he was taken out of age group awards for being the overall winner, I guess.  Whatever.  I don't get this stuff sometimes.

Also, I have to mention that this race had watermelon for the finishers, and that is the best thing that I have ever had after a race.  I think I had like 8 corners of it, and, at the time, I probably would have pawned off the trophy to take one home, maybe even just half.