overtaking haynes

I'm definitely never running the day before a race ever again, I just feel so much better when I don't. I was hoping that no one good was going to be here but usual trail race winner Ben Nephew showed up and was in for the full marathon, but gave me a glimmer of hope when he said he may opt out for the 1/2. We started, and I was right behind Ben for the first mile or so but then the hill came and he pulled away. 3 others passed me on the first climb of 2000ft (a ski trail) but not by much and 2/3 of them were doing the half. Next was some single track and i got to the 5 mile aid station in 49 min feeling pretty good. More rolling single track and I got caught on an uphill by another guy who was doing the half and then i passed him on the downhill section but then we ran together.  A long steep downhill brought me to mile 8 which i dreaded having to climb on the 2nd loop which would be the reverse direction. The  course became ATV trails which were not in the best of shape but pretty good. Lots of up and downs to the aid station at mile 11, I had to poop which made me feel better. I think I need to stop eating dunkin donuts egg and cheese and the new flat bread egg thing before races. I like it though at 5am. Anyways, to get to the turn around point it was definitely longer than 2.1, probably 2.5 to 3 miles as the mostly downhill on good roads took a full 21 minutes. I saw Ben coming back and he was for sure about 12 minutes ahead at the turnaround which i got to in 2:05. I would have beaten the several people in the half marathon as I went out pretty easy and wasn't further back than a couple minutes on the winner of that. The second place guy was maybe 2 mins ahead of me and I was determined to catch him. I started very strongly on the uphill but became discouraged when i couldn't see him. I started to hurt a bit up the steep climbs but felt really strong again with about 7 miles to go. I was slightly nervous I could get caught since i was only ~6 mins ahead of the next people at the turnaround but knew i was running well enough that i should be fine. I ended up finishing 20 mins ahead of 4th place. I actually did catch up to the 2nd place guy in the last mile but it was only because he did a mini loop of ~1/3 mile cause he had his head down and missed the turn. He was too strong-a sub 3hr marathon runner according to his friends...hopefully not 2:59,  and he pulled away from me and kicked it in 2 mins ahead of me. All in all i don't feel too wrecked, haven't been getting sore from these weekend races but i think this week may be an exception...i definitely hurt a  little bit right now and waking up at 4:20am to drive to the 8am start doesn't help either....much better than last week. I only got ~6 mins slower on the return trip of 2:05 instead of 13 mins slower on the return trip of 1:20.