This is just effed up.
This weekend San Francisco saw, among other things, the Nike Women's Marathon.
So there's, Arien O'Connell, who considers herself a strong, decent runner but nothing particularly special, runs the best time of her life. Personal best.
And runs the fastest time against any other runner by a good eleven minutes.
But the officials didn't, and won't, identify her as the winner.
No trophy, no prize money, no spectacularly awesome school teacher Cinderella story.
They won't recognize her as the winner, while noting that she had by far the best time, because she didn't take a twenty minute head start with the self-identifying "elite" runners. They didn't even think to look at the times of the "regular" runners.
As the story says, "It doesn't get much simpler than a footrace. All it takes is a starting line, a finish line and a clock. You fire the gun and the first person to the end of the course is the winner."
Once their own records identified the error, they should have made it right. Instead, what we're left with, instead of a women-empowering and inspiring story, is that in our race, if you try your very best, and you succeed-- we'll still make sure you're a loser if you aren't considered "elite."
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