Sun 5/21 - AM 95 minutes incl. half marathon

Fourth year of racing the length of the Ashuwilticook, although racing might be putting it too strongly. With the combination of jet lag and the still-dodgy calf strain I wanted to do the minimum required to defend my old fart title. The main and only competition for this, having learned from his head-scratching tactic from three years ago of insisting on leading while setting an irrationally fast early pace, this time glued himself to my shoulder from the outset and refused to budge. After rolling through the first three miles in 18:10, I slowed it down to see if the guy would take the bait which he didn't. Miles 4-9 went in 37:30 and felt like a joke. Calf was not a problem through this although I felt some twinges at around 5 miles. This middle portion of the race went slow enough that two randos behind us caught up and passed my barnacle and I around the 7 mile mark. I was grateful to have someone to follow as the usual persistent NW breeze was in effect. Decided to end the suspense at 9 miles and changed gears substantially, although I had to pull back a bit when the calf started barking. The next three miles went in 17:38, a pace I'd like to think I could have done for the whole thing had I not been dealing with a muscle strain. By mile 12 the barnacle was far enough behind that I couldn't see him. The calf was feeling increasingly frayed however and I had to put the brakes on for the final mile which I was planning on doing anyway but maybe not to the degree that I did. 13th mile went in 6:40 or so and the final bit from there was a jog. Finished feeling not particularly tired, but aggravated the calf more than I had thought which was disappointing. Mission accomplished nonetheless.