Notes
Felt pretty lethargic going into the race and just never got that pop of energy even after the gun went off. Mile one has a couple of minor rollers to get through but nothing significant. I immediately fell out of the lead group within the first 1/2 mile after getting boxed in briefly. At this point, I was sitting back in about 7th place. I didn't exactly go out slowly but probably about 5 seconds slower over the first mile than I would have preferred.
Mile 2 I continued my battle for 6th/7th with Chris Lotsbom (HFC). I usually finish ahead of him, so knew it was a bad sign that I was staying next to / behind him this far in the race. Finally around the 1.5 mile mark I was able to break away. I could see the leaders far ahead on the straight stretch of road, but no chance of being close to then, even Pick who was now in a solo chase back.
Mile 3 brought some hope. I could see the pack of 2 in front of me become human and slowly work back towards me. I picked it up a bit to see if I could reel them in and to my surprise I began closing ground. With about 1/2 mile to go I passed a white singlet (which later I found out to be Andrew Holmes - HFC) and began closing on the other runner who was making a little kick himself. I finally caught the other guy (Sebastian Putzeys - Northeastern?) with about a 100 meters to go but used everything I had to close that gap. I still closed strong but couldn't kick with the young legs and finished about 2 seconds behind.
Overall, a little disappointed about finishing 3 seconds slower than Bernie's Run 2 weeks ago. Looking at the splits, it looks like mile 2 was just too relaxed and didn't quite push as hard as I should have. The race definitely didn't feel easy and I was pretty tired throughout, perhaps just wasn't my day. Splits also show about 15 extra seconds over 0.06 miles, so clearly some inefficiencies in my route (thought I had the tangents reasonably well) and GPS precision.
Ended up finishing 3rd in the pub series (should have been 4th but Danforth who was battling 2nd/3rd with Pick was sent away for a month for work and couldn't close out the series - another reason why I would like to see some of these series be best x out of y rather than 100% of the races).