Notes
Races starts with a 1/4 mile uphill, and I got out comfortably to the lead (I guess the high schoolers aren't going out as fast as they used to). Rick Paul matched me and we stayed side-by-side for a while. Mostly I was just trying to find my pace and be comfortable.
Drew came up beside us after the half mile or so, and I proceeded to draft off the other 2 (Drew thought Rick was a bit eager and boxed me back behind, but I wasn't concerned). Our mile split was about 5:14, which wasn't encouraging. We then had a 180 turn which always leads to needing to decelerate and accelerate.
After the turnaround, Drew started testing the water with some moves. The first was matched by Rick (I did not match it but they slowed down back to me). The 2nd pickup got Drew a couple meters ahead. I figured this was the move to break Rick, so I pushed pretty hard to stay with Drew as we pulled away, getting a 10+m gap by the 2 mile.
I wasn't feeling good but I tried to keep pushing the pace in the 3rd mile to prevent any comeback. I wasn't even thinking about racing against Drew, so maybe I should have tried to actually make a move around 2.5. Instead, Drew pulled away before the final turn (I probably should have known, but didn't know for sure that this was the final turn). I matched his final downhill sprint and ended up 4sec behind him.
I'm happy that this is the fastest I've done this race (which was more like 3miles). I wish I had felt more comfortable at 5:10 pace but things can feel a lot better after a few races. In the end I can say I "trained through" this one and it will keep me optimistic.