Cross Country Angst

My daughter had just finished her run at the middle school cross country meet.  My wife and I were trying to find her among the swarm of people surrounding the finish area.  Then we spotted her, but we could tell even from a distance that something wasn't right.  Her body language and frown told us something was bothering her.

Was it an injury?
Disappointment in her performance?
Bad day at school?

Even as we congratulated her and gave her hugs, she fought back tears until she could explain.
It turns out she was concerned that she had run the wrong race route.  When the team did their pre-race route walk they had gone a lot further than what they ran.  My daughter had noticed a flag on the other side of the field, a flag they had walked past during the walk thru, but they had not run past it during the race.   She said she wanted to run to that flag, but nobody else had.  And now she felt like she cheated.  (Just as a side note here....she probably finished about 60th out of 100 girls.)

We could tell that she was not going to be able to let it go, so my wife took her to find a coach or official to talk to.  It turns out that he flag was in the wrong spot, they had run the correct route and everything was good.

I think I am more proud of her honesty than I would be if she had won the race.