Notes
Very happy with this performance. Definitely didn't have my A game and the humidity was a bit rough. However, I saw Billig in front of me and after a while I realized that he was in play. At that point, I just tried to key off of him and race.
Gout out comfortably, and after about 600 settled into the goal pace. Saw Billig ahead, but wasn't going to do anything stupid. During mile 2, John Vandanacker came by me looking strong. Gave him some encouragement and tried to stay in touch. He was pulling away, but just kept chugging. When we got to the top off the hill just before mile 3, he probably had 30 meters on me and then Billig was a ways ahead of him. Just tried to relax and chase to see what would happen. Funny, to that point I was feeling pretty crappy, but when I realized that I was in the hunt, I started feeling better (odd?). During Mile 4, Billig started coming back. John passed him and what I think was the first woman during this mile. Kind of funny being behind them because when John passed Pat, he did it too closely and Pat took it as a challenge. He actually cut off the woman to try to lock onto John. I just worked on turnover and kept my head up. John was rolling and started to pull away. Pat was in play, but it was going to take some serious work to get onto his shoulder.
Plan was to try to close the gap by mile 8. Pat was battling someone ahead and I was just chasing. Just before mile 6, there was a water stop. Pat grabbed water, I skipped it. As we headed down into Hidden Falls, we both went down the road and I was just letting gravity roll. I stayed in the road a bit longer and rolled in front of him when I finally got onto the path. Felt like I pulled away a bit, but wasn't sure. Another runner up ahead that I thought I could catch. I did at one point during mile 8, but he took me back. So, just kept pushing a listening for the freight train behind me. Never heard him again, but wasn't looking at my watch. Just trying to keep up with the guy in front of me. He held me off by 8 seconds, but I held off Pat by 8 seconds. :)
A little PR and the first time I have beaten Pat.
AG -- 83.24% (49.09)