Notes
I think overall that this was a good race effort. The time isn't particularly fast, but I ran most of the race alone and the wind was fairly stiff.
At the start, there was myself, Amy Lyons, and one other guy wearing flats. For some reason he looke stocky enough I wasn't overly concerned with him, but I knew Amy to be a fast 5Ker. Attempted to just run with her the first part of the race. Got out at what I thought was a pretty relaxed pace and it was just her and I from the start. She faded a bit about a half mile into it, but then fought back to even on the far end of lap 1. I was still feeling fairly relaxed, but based on her breathing and footsteps, I felt like the race could be won on the second half of that lap. I threw a bit of a surge in and her footfalls disappeared.
Finished the first lap with a decent gap and tried to maintain a solid tempo through the really windy section of the course. I figured that if I could get to the one mile to go mark this one was all over. Get there and am still all alone and now dodging a few walkers. Legs are definitely tired at this point, but I've got push left if I need it.
Round the corner of the lake and now its just me. Give a little glance back with a half mile or so to go and she's back there just close enough I need to keep running hard. No real push to the finish, but didn't completely shut it down. Not overly happy with the time, but very satisfied that I pushed and separated at the appropriate point in the race. Competed very well today.