Notes
I'm glad I got to race today, since it was just confirmed yesterday that the race would go ahead, with the entire area being under an extreme fire risk.
Based on past year's results, I thought I'd have some 18-minute guys to work with, but when I didn't recognize anyone I thought I'd have a chance to win it and decided to leave my watch in the car and just focus on racing.
The race takes place on a paved bike pathway at the bottom of a mountain, through a forest. Since we're on a mountain, we should expect hills. I did part of my short warmup as an out and back along the first and last kilometre of the course. It started with a steep climb, followed by a bunch of rollers the entire way. Fast forward to start time. I lined up front and centre, and off I went with two others. Those two guys were really going after it, and I was content with just keeping them in sight. As expected, I pulled them back in within 500m, and my plan was to just hang behind them until the turnaround, then start to put the screws to them if we were still running together on the way back. But it was getting boring so I took the lead and we were down to two 1km into the race. It was really weird to be leading a race! There were a bunch of ups and downs towards the turnaround, with things generally oriented downhill. Since I was getting bored again, I started using the little inclines to put in mini surges to see what my competition would do. I kept seeming to gain some distance on him, but he always caught up. After the turnaround, he took control and I was just trying to keep up. He had a minor gap on me at 3km, but I always kept him within striking distance and we were side-by-side with 1km to go. There was a slight ascent for the first 2/3 of the last km, and he was pushing and I was just hanging on waiting to get to the top of the hill. Once we got to the top with the finish in sight, I started my kick and felt like I was creating some space with us, but then he'd always find another gear, then I'd have to find another one myself. With about 20m to go I thought I'd had it but just kept pushing forward as hard as I could, and I thought he may have just edged me at the line. The result was called a tie, but it's still nice to see my name on top :-)
Despite the course profile, I think I could have run faster but would have needed the competition there to push me. It was fun racing for the win and getting a taste of the front, even if it was just a rinky dinky race. Good workout.