There were two miles left to go in the run when I passed a tall red headed woman. She had been run/walking. She was walking when I passed her. She didn’t have her age written on her calf so I wasn’t sure how old she was. (Every participant had their race number on their left arm, age on left calf, and event on their right calf: S for sprint, O for Olympic, L for long course) I had paid attention to everyone’s age throughout the race and I couldn’t tell how old she was by looking at her. After I passed her she saw my age on my calf and said, “We are the same age! I can’t let you pass me!” Then she started running and passed me. I was tired and didn’t have energy to pass her again. I just kept running at my steady pace trying to go as fast as I could without burning out before the finish line. This red headed runner kept run walking. It was frustrating because she would run and get ahead and then walk until I was almost caught up. So annoying that I couldn’t pass her but I just had enough energy to keep running my pace and that was it.
I finished the race about 15 seconds behind her. I congratulated her when I got through the finish line. She told me I motivated her to keep running in her over confident voice.
I really wasn’t sure if I had placed in my age group. I kind of figured I was lucky to have gotten third place but I thought I probably got fourth place or something out of podium.
I decided to go get my bike and other gear out of transition and take it to the truck. Then I would go see what the results were. While I was at transition I passed the red headed runner getting her stuff. She told me she checked the results and she took second place. So she told me I must have taken third place since I finished right behind her. Then she said, “I had to go to the bathroom at the end of the race but I would rather poop my pants then let you beat me!” She definitely came across as very conceited.
We both headed over to the podium for the awards ceremony.
They announced the third place finisher and it was a name of a different woman, not me! Then they announced second place and the red headed woman went to the podium. Then they announced my name for first place!!! I was ecstatic! I stood on that podium beaming and feeling all the good feels. The red headed woman wouldn’t look at me or talk to me.
I realized that based off the chip times I was faster even though she crossed the finish line before me!
