Victory!

No, not my victory, and I'm happily surprised by how much more excited about someone else's victory than my own. Amy won the Rochester Med-City Marathon today with a time of 3:32 on a brutally hot day. The temperature topped out around 90 on the day, and she stayed strong while the others withered. She couldn't have run a more perfect race, letting an early leader go out too fast and choosing instead to run with the woman in 2nd place. The early rabbit folded at 13 miles, and Amy took over the lead with half the race left to run. She and her racing partner worked together for five miles or more, putting more distance between themselves and the chasers. At mile 19 Amy looked beat, walking an aid station. She set off from the station with only about 15 seconds on the second place woman. She then put more than ten minutes into her chief competitor over the last seven miles. That's an astonishing achievement. No, she didn't negative split the race, but she effectively double-split the race by staying strong while everybody else went home. Racing in the heat is hard—it requires patience and a steely attention to detail, which Amy has in spades. Bravo!