Notes
Went out a little fast from start due to a good down hill then backed off a bit because no real warmup so I didn't want to crash and burn. Tried to keep a consistent strong "tempo" pace through mile two and three.
From about 4th mile tried to cach two guys ahead of me. I mostly reeled them in: one fell off pace a bit, the other eluded me for the rest of the run. "Black shirt guy" stayed very strong. I tried to close the gap but never came closer than about 5 yards before he could stretch it out a bit more.
Held mostly sub 7s for miles 3-8 then a tough hill right near the finish.
"Black shirt guy" managed to hold me off most of the last couple miles.
I tried to rally hard on the last mile but he had more power on the last hill than I did.
I rate the race a pretty good effort for me right now given lack of speedwork (Last year early Nov I ran same race on same course -with a small wrong turn well over 8 min pace!). The course has some good hills and I get the distance to be a bit long (9.47 - 9.53 miles)
I hope to go under 1:03 in winter sessions with some focused speed and tempo work. My PR is 1:01:30 (approx 6:35 pace) but dont know how long it will take to get me there.