It's a long race

Not the race for the White House.

I just read a story about the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, where it turns out that the woman who ran the fastest time - by a significant 11 minute margin - was not declared the winner, because she didn't start with the "Elite" group.

It makes sense. The lead runners, who started 20 minutes earlier, didn't know there was someone "beating" them - they ran to beat the runners that they thought they were in the race with, and we all know from watching the Olympics this summer that even Michael Phelps swims differently depending on where his competition is. If you know someone can finish later than you and still beat you, you run differently than if all of your competition starts along with you. And rules are rules.

But it isn't fair, either, now is it?

It's sort of like winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college.

So perhaps I am actually thinking about the elections again.

But this isn't 8 years ago.