Notes
First mile was a little faster than I had planned (5:19) but I felt pretty good so I decided it was a good day to go for a time and if I died then that's how it would be. Early on a small group trailed the two breakaway leaders and I contemplated going with the group. I decided not to and fell back a bit because I recongnized a couple guys in there who I was sure would come back to me anyway. They did the first mile in about 5:10. Coming through the out and back (near mile 5) I caught three guys from the group I previously let go. I slowed and tucked in asking them what they were planning for the day and tried to get a sense of whether or not I should stick with them. No one said anything. I asked two or three questions and no one said anything, silence. Then one of the guys (Joe) said he had 5:30 as we hit the 5 mile marker so I moved past them and only Stuart came with me. I knew who he was because he won Seattle the year I ran it. At that point I was thinking it would be great to work with him because he is probably going to be running fast (He must have DNF'ed though because he is not in the results). About a mile and half later I slowed just a bit to let him take a turn in front. I ran behind him for a half a mile then realized I was having to force myself to slow down to run behind him and went around again. He held on for a little bit but I was alone again between mile markers 7 and 8. For the next couple miles I could see a guy named Chris up ahead and was trying to get up to him. Then at about mile 10 I heard footsteps and a guy caught up to me. He said he had been after me since mile 2. I asked if we could work together to reel Chris in. He said yes but then surged to a pace I could not hold and I let him go. For some reason at just after the 11 mile mark I was able to relax and begin to push again. I edged up slowly and caught the guy that passed me. Then, continuing to push, I finally caught Chris with about half a mile to go and reached the finish line still going pretty strong. Not sure where that last bit of the race came from. Splits at 5:19, 5:22, 5:24: 5:19, 5:12, 5:17, 5:23, 5:22, 5:22, 5:26, 5:26, 5:20, 5:14, :47 for 13.15 on the Garmin for a new PR. Also, I happened to look down at 10k and notice that I was at 32:58. A PR for that distance as well.