I sent the wrong result after the race.
My email said I had run the 10K in 41:15 and finished sixth out of 2,500 people. The official screenshot on my phone said 41:47, tenth out of 1,630, eighth among the men, and third in my age group.
I had the time wrong by 32 seconds and the place wrong by four. I also had the field too large by 870 people.
It was still a good race.
The event was the Women's Health Run 10 Feed 10 in New York. I wore bib 1807. A photo from that morning has me standing in front of a huge race backdrop, smiling in black Aaptiv gear and still wearing the bib.
In the email, I called it a slower race and moved immediately to the next thing. I was trying to find a way into Ironman Lake Placid. The available spots looked limited, but I was still in. I needed to figure out the best way to get a place in the race.
The plan did not stop with running. I had asked about a fall cycling camp in Greenville and was trying to make the trip fit around my work schedule. A week later I was showing up late to a bike maintenance class. Running, riding, and the next race were all moving at once.
My left leg was still a problem.
The morning after the 10K, I wrote another email. I had been struggling badly with my left leg and ankle for about a year and a half. I was confident that something unusual was going on. The usual answer from a doctor was rest, or something much more aggressive, and neither answer had settled it.
I asked a friend if he could help me reach a good sports doctor. I was eager enough that I apologized for being eager in the first line.
One email had the wrong numbers from a strong race. The next said I had been dealing with the same leg problem for eighteen months and wanted somebody to take a better look at it.
The correction changed the race result. It did not change the problem with my leg.
I could still race well. I could also tell that the problem had lasted too long to keep treating it like an ordinary sore ankle. A good result did not make the question disappear.
Work and training were mixed together too. The friend who got my race note wrote back that he had taken his first Aaptiv class that day. I was helping build a fitness product while trying to sort out my own body and decide which race came next.
I did not know yet what the appointment would show. I only knew that rest had not answered the question, and eighteen months was long enough.
The official time was 41:47. Tenth place. Then I asked for help with the leg that got me there.