The moment I just described, where I received my bronze medal for the women's 1500m at the IAAF World Championships, was be the pinnacle of my athletic career thus so far. In fact, in terms of best life moments, it ties with marching into the Beijing National Stadium with my fellow countrymen for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

Yet it's funny, because although I have fantasized my entire life about what it would feel like to own a medal, not much has changed now that I have one. As soon as the awards ceremony was over, I had to rush to do my cool-down and to go to drug testing. Less than a week after that, I was racing again in Zurich. Now that I'm home, my medal sits on my dresser in the tin case it came in and I'm back to base training in preparation for the 2010 track season. In this way, I have come to realize that it's not about the medal at all. Instead, what matters most is the sense of pride in accomplishing a goal I had worked so long towards and the joy of sharing that success with the people that helped me to achieve it.