overtaking haynes

trail run at huntington...again too tired to wake up in the morning. i decided to stick to the easier less technical trails to get in as many miles as i could by 6:40pm when it is dark in the trails now. today was kind of exciting....i was running at about the 5 mile mark when i saw another guy probably around my age pass me going the other direction. he looked relatively strong going down the hill but who doesn't. i've seen him before and he looks solid but not overly good as a runner. it so happened that we were circling in opposite loops and ended up intersecting each other now going the same direction. if i had been about 20 steps ahead i would have simply sped up and tried to dust him without saying hi, but as it was he had about 5-10 steps on me at the intersection. at first i didn't want to seem like i had the desire to dust the guy and just ran up to him and it was kind of awkward because i think we both knew that one of us was going to get dropped about 1 mile from the finish (his finish, i ran a bit farther). i started small talk, like how it was too bad it got dark so early and to that he replied he got caught out in the dark the other day. then i asked him if he's seen  a coyote before and he said he hadn't. there was really nothing to say after that and i felt him start to speed up a bit. it was almost imperceptible with each step but there we were, about 8 min pace at the intersection down to probably 7:15 after a quarter mile. the trail was uphill, flat then had a solid uphill finish. i didn't want it to come down to the last uphill...at 7:15, you could have made the case that neither of us was really racing, we were just on a steady and friendly tempo run. the pace dropped to sub 7, i could tell he was pushing me, just as i was testing him, but not wanting to be rude i decided i wouldn't try to drop him quickly but hopefully let the pain build and also mask my true intentions, just a slow acceleration. i could hear his breathing and on the 1/2 mile flat section about half way through i just started to break away. it felt awesome....i could hear him behind me and then i could tell he was falling back...i pushed it up the hill and heard some heavy breathing but i decided i wouldn't look back...that just felt rude. i didn't want him to think it even affected me. it was actually quite easy to pull away. i kind of miss dueling it out with haynes even though he would always kick me in the end....except once...he knows what i'm talking about :)