Sun 5/17 - AM 95 minutes incl. half-marathon

Return to Berkshire County for another trip down the Ashuwillticook RT. After last year's tactical experience I was intrigued to see how things would unfold given the fact my personal pace car from a year ago was also returning. Some trepidation involved as I could tell right away that I wouldn't be dealing anything close to my A-game after a couple of less than stellar nights of sleep and spending much of yesterday afternoon and evening working at a track meet after having done the sandbag road race thing yesterday morning. From the outset, the goal was to win the age group with as little effort expended as necessary. Initially it looked like my competition had learned his lesson, hanging off my shoulder as I hung off someone else's. The pace for the first few miles, in contrast to last year, felt laughably easy. This because it was in fact quite slow. At three miles the pace car took over the group and I figured I was in for some sort of repeat of last year. However, at the water stop just before 4 I found myself in the front of the group we were in and never saw any of them again. Tried to stay relaxed and fluid, deciding that if no one else would take the lead I wouldn't let any of them draft right behind me. In fact I didn't take a peek behind me until after halfway, by then no one was in sight. In fact I ended up well behind the next runner in front and over four minutes ahead of the next runner behind, which was surprising. Overall the race could be divided into thirds, the first third feeling like a lark, the middle third an honest effort, and the last third a tiresome chore that seemed to drag on forever. The pace stayed within ten seconds a mile of six minute pace except for the first mile around the mall parking lot which was 5:49. Splits overall:

5:48
5:58
6:06
6:11
5:58
5:50
6:05 (seemed long)
5:55
5:53
5:59
6:09
6:03
6:31 - pulled the rip cord at mile 12, this felt a lot slower than 6:30

No breeze when I first arrived at the mall but within a few minutes it kicked in and like last year, blew into our faces the length of the rail trail. Warmer than a year ago as well. Some clouds of bugs to run through as well alongside the Cheshire reservoir that I don't remember from last year. Overall this effort pales in comparison to last year's but with the same overall result.