This year, Ashley broke with tradition and got her first ever Bronze medal. She was happy to get a medal, she really doesnt care what color it is. It's a very pretty color. This year the officials decided to do things differently to move things along. Instead of running the heats by qualifying time as usual, which results in smaller heats of 5 or less runners, allowing 3 to medal and up to 2 to get a 4th or 5th place ribbon, they combined runners. This meant that there were full heats of runners who were not comparable with running times. It made for some grueling runs for some of the athletes and it left 2 runners with no reward. I find this to be a bad policy. These children and adults worked hard to qualify. If they were going to run the heats the way they did, I think they should have had participation ribbons so all could be awarded something.
Ashley's events were the 100 yard dash, which earned her a bronze. She came from the back of the pack to pass 5 of the runners to finish neck and neck with the 2nd place finisher.
Her second event was the 1 mile run. For the past 5 years there has been only one other competetor who has beaten Ashley. She is always there and makes for a competetive race, however this year, with the change in doing things, Ashley didnt have the luxury of knowing how to pace herself on the early laps. She went all out for the entire race and won the gold.
I think her favorite part was staying at the Boston University dorms with her team and visiting the olympic village to do some shopping.
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