Notes
Temp 51 Wind 8 mph.
Cold rain scares most off, but decent field. Faster and deeper than last year. Always lots of "wishful thinkers" on the starting line of this race. Never makes sense to size things up until first mile split. Glanced at watch around the 1K mark and was averaging 6:19 pace. Very smooth, very easy breathing...little scary not having raced since last September. Will be very good day or very bad 1/3 of a day.
Mile one split 6:19 running in 8th OA having just passed a kid stomping cracks in the concrete. Two high school runners, one the state champ, are out of the question. Won't catch AJ or kehamm either. Other three appear to be the same three I chased all race last year. Marcus L., Storm E., and I believe Nick P. Only caught one of them. Shifting my focus to Marcus this year instead of the other two.
Lot of headwind, but get through mile two split with a 6:28. Passed both SE and NP around 1.75 mile mark. Once again, may have let ML get too much time on me. Still smooth and under control. Navigate cracks and puddles, keep my focus and press on. Still feel good.
Make the left on Dame and ML is coming back to me. Go ahead, surge up, and latch onto his right shoulder. He starts to surge. Had noticed earlier that he tried to stay with kehamm when he passed him. Guessing he's red lined once already this morning. Not a strong finisher to begin with, he will not be able to recover a second time. Drag him into surrender. Feel him fall back a couple of strides, then surge and bury him. Mile three split 6:14. Had already started my "kick", so bore down hard brought it in at a 5:35 pace.
Garmin has 19:32. Will see what JW had for me. If the 19:32 holds, will be a 79.1%. Have not ran this time or age-grade number since 2016. May have actually won age-grade OA? 5th OA and AG win. CBEGM teammate kehamm in 4th OA at 19:00 flat. Looked back heading to the finish line and saw me. Just like old times. Never gets old. CBEGM rolls on...