Notes
Sunny cool and a little windy. Ran about a 2 mile warm up. I forgot my watch at the mill, so no idea how fast I was running. I don't think I've ever done a race without any kind of watch. Saw a couple guys who looked like the could potentially be good. One guy was tall and had a Boston Marathon jacket on, he really looked like he could run.
3 guys took off together fast at the start. I was a bit behind them, but once we started to climb the small hills I started to catch up. Passed the guy in third before the curved road to 7th street. Caught the second guy on 7th street but the tall guy had a big lead. The second place guy said go catch, but I wasn't sure I could. Kept the pace steady and felt like I could reel him in. Any small hill I would gain on him, and by Webster Ave. I was getting close. I figured if I could catch up by the time we got to the turn at the bottom of Buck street I could pass him on the hills in the final mile. Picked up speed going down hill, but wasn't all out. He crossed to the other side of the street and when he came back to make the left turn I was even with him. I followed him up Larkin St. and passed him as we made the turn on Lincoln street, again he crossed to the other side of the road, not sure why he was doing this. Kept going hard up the hills on the last couple streets and was all out for the final stretch and turn onto Fifth St. My legs were really getting tight, but I beat him by a good amount to win the race. This was a fun race, strategizing how to catch and pass him and staying patient. I couldn't believe I ran that fast, I thought if I could break 24 minutes I would be doing good. I talked to the guy after the race, he was in town for one day and saw the race. He thought I was toying with him, but I told him I had to work hard to catch him. It was all good.