As we were waiting for the race to start, I saw him, warming up right next to the "Leadoff Hitter" pace sign (under 8 minutes/mi).
I went up to him and said, "Are you Brett Gotcher, the Olympian?"
The guy looked at me funny and said that he wasn't but that he would love it if he were.
Oops. I kind of mumbled something about how he was blond and he looked fast so I just assumed he was the Olympian (what makes someone look "fast" you ask? Short shorts and a running singlet. And flowing blond hair. I guess).
Then we lined up at the start line. I got right in the front. If there is anything I have learned over the past several races, it's that I hate having to pass a bunch of people at the start. So now I get as close to the front as I can. In this case, it was the second "row" of people.
They started the announcements and one of the things they said was that Brett was here and There He Was! The real Brett Gotcher. The funniest part is that the guy I had mistaken for Brett was standing right behind me, so we had a laugh about the case of mistaken identity.
This is the end.
As soon as the event photos are online, I am going to post a side by side, because I swear these guys look very similar!
Here is a video of the start, where you can see Brett (blonde guy, orange shirt, black shorts) and me (blonde girl, white hat, orange shirt, black shorts). What? Is that confusing? No really, I am at about 11-12 seconds. Brett is around the 7 second mark. So technically, I was only 4 seconds behind Brett!! It's a bit of a blurry video but I thank the person who took it!
Have you ever mistakenly talked to someone who you thought was someone else? Where do you line up: at the start/in the proper corral/anywhere/you don't care?
