Thu 11/22 - AM 80 minutes incl. 5k road race

Unexpected win given lateness of last night's bedtime and earliness of the start time. Putting a bow on the NVGP, which required merely finishing the race, anything beyond that is gravy. Pleasantly surprised with how relaxed the pace was up front at the start, and found myself leading by the mile mark (about 5:20) without wanting to. I was thinking about making a move as early as halfway, but I was relieved of the lead by the halfway mark and fell into second as we dropped the rest of the field by mile 2. By this point I was starting to feel like I was reaching my limit and vulnerable to being dropped. Surprisingly, instead of delivering the coup de grace the guy leading sort of stalled, once with maybe 600 to go and again with less than 400 to go. I took this as an invitation to go and held the surge long enough that I was in the clear by 50m to go. Felt pretty good to change gears, such as it was. Felt like it took something out of me do it, although that may have been the underlying tiredness. Chilly morning, but the sun showed up just before the start and made a difference. Cooldown happened in two chunks, before and after awards. Enjoyed a nice putter on the rail trail for 25 minutes or so on the second part.