C.A.R.E. 5K -North Liberty, Iowa -Saturday, August 23, 2014

I arrived to the race at 7:10 a.m. then I warmed up with a 1 mile run. It was about 80 degrees with 98 percent humidity. I was dying and wondered how I'd get through this race. My friend Lorna showed up soon after and we took pictures.  Lorna is a friend I met at work and she said she wanted to do her first 5K.   Then I saw Ashley and got a picture with her.  Ashley is a girl that used to take my Body Sculpt class all the time and we have done a few faces together.   There was a storm brewing and the race director felt he had to start the race early.  So about quarter till 8 he started the race.  In all the races I have done, I've never started early, so this was weird and I knew the weather must be getting bad soon.

I ran well despite the humidity.  Then at 15 minutes in the race the rain started.  By 25 minutes in it poured rain.  That felt good.

Lorna and I started and ended the race together.  At the end of the race the printout showed that we had the same time, however I was 3rd in our age group and she was 4th.  I figured then that my foot must have crossed before hers somehow.

It showed me as 20th overall and her as 21st.

So then that afternoon the results were printed online that showed this: the results
I was confused.  Why did I received the medal for 3rd in our age group if I was really 4th.

So I wrote the director of the race that told me he had paid a professional timer and it was out of his hands.  I told him that I had the medal and Lorna would be looking at the results soon and IF I wasn't supposed to have this medal then I need to know about it.

On Monday morning I interofficed the medal I got to Lorna.  Since the results showed she was 3rd then I felt it was the right thing to do to give her the medal.

Finally that afternoon the director wrote me back and said this:

Here is a copy of what the timer wrote the race director who then sent it to me:
Ted,

I found that the Awards report that I gave to you yesterday was sorted by gun time mistakenly. 
The times were very close as you can see below

Sorted my Gun Time Michelle wins by 1 tenth of a second
3 Michelle Clark, F41 Iowa City, IA 29:09.51 9:23/M 29:05.10 9:22/M 
4 Lorna Yoder, F49 Kalona, IA 29:09.61 9:23/M 29:05.05 9:22/M 

Sorted by Chip Time Lorna Wins by 5 hundredth of a second
3 Lorna Yoder, F49 Kalona, IA 29:05.05 9:22/M
4 Michelle Clark, F41 Iowa City, IA 29:05.10 9:22/M 


So as you can see, we basically tied.  I won by Gun Time, she won by chip time.

 shoe with mine.

Back of shirt

Front of shirt

Lorna and I

Ashley and I

After the race.