I'm a middle child and, therefore, a peacemaker -- by nature and by birth order. I'm always in the middle trying to keep everyone happy. And, I do a pretty good job of it.

When I was growing up, my more competitive brothers and sister stole the spotlight most of the time. And, I willingly let them. I just figured I didn't have that "drive" in me -- whatever it was. Competitive is never a word I'd have used to describe myself.

Until I did my very first road race 10 years ago.

I wasn't a fast runner and I claimed to not really care where I finished or how fast I ran the race because "I just wanted to finish" -- and I did. But, I wanted to finish before that girl in front of me in the orange shirt and the girl in front of her in the blue pants and the guy in front of her who looks like he's fading and....

Turns out that competitive part of me was there all along -- buried somewhere below all the nicey-nice peacemaker facade.

Competition puts a fire in my belly and some serious speed into my run.

It was an innocent query from an acquaintancelast week about my pace-per-mile for the upcoming Run Around Erie 15K (which is now a run around Presque isle, by the way) that fueled my fire during yesterday's long run. Convinced this person may be inquiring about my pace so that she can be prepared to keep up with me, I decided I needed to step it up.

I ran a good, hard 10+ miles yesterday at a pace I hadn't found the motivation to run in quite some time. It was fun and exciting....not the usual long-run plodding I'd been content to do lately. I'm now a long-runner with a purpose. I've found motivation to work harder.

All it took was one little question to take 15 minutes off my too-often-leisurly long run.