Raced a local 10k today. A couple of good runners showed up in addition to our high school guys, so I had some quality people to run with. The Hermiston coach was my top target, so I ran next to him the first half of the race. He put a few moves here and there, but he's about 2 weeks out from a 2:25 marathon so I figured he'd be a little fried. I recognized his younger brother at the start line, despite a heavy beard, but had no idea what kind of shape he was in. He didn't go with us at the start so I guessed he'd be a non-factor. At the half-way mark the course runs up a brief, steep hill, which he surged up. Went with him and continued the surge over the top and it broke him. We'd been running at 5:20-5:25 pace (16:08 at 3miles), dropped to about 5:10 here for a bit. I figured from there I could slow back down to 5:20 pace, but the pace felt good so I kept it up. Clicked off miles of 5:12 and 5:14, and glanced back with 1/2 mile to go to see a shadowy figure closing in. I got scared and picked it up, then picked it up again with 1/4 and 200m to go. The younger brother was apparently in better shape than expected and he nearly caught me, finishing 10 seconds back. | 