61F, 88%, overcast. Meh, I give myself 4 out of 10 on this one. Not quite where I want to be, but given the course/conditions, my highest mileage week in awhile and recent lack of track workouts, it was ok.
1 - 6:05 - First mile was flat. I committed to sub-38 pace for mile 1 to see how it felt. It didn't knock me out but I started to get the feeling another 5 miles like that was too much to ask.
2 - 6:21 - This mile was on rocky gravel roads and had one nasty uphill, but the effort level probably equaled mile 1.
3 - 6:02 - Back on roads, and got back some of the climb from last mile with a little bit of downhill.
4 - 6:33 - Wow. I mean this was a net uphill of 30 feet, but still, I was starting to lose it. Good news is I caught up to Army guy, who was in 6th, and we both started pushing each other. He would pass me on the uphills and I would pass him going down. We would stay within a few feet of each other until the end; it really kept me motivated trying to keep up.
5 - 6:27 - Still feeling weak but battling Army guy kept me at least pushing a bit. Miles 4 and 5 were on the Howitzer trail which had a bunch of annoying ups and downs. I can try to blame that but the truth is the fitness was not quite there. In general, you probably shouldn't be going slower than your HM pace on a 10k.
6 - 6:09 - He picked up the pace and I followed. I was surprised I was able to find that gear, and saw that sub-39 was a real possibility.
6.29 - 1:34 (5:29 pace) - I thought I was going to catch him but just as I was within a couple feet of him, my legs went Julia Lucas on me and he ran away. I saw the finish line clock tick past 39 minutes. Boooo!
Polling a couple other people, the average was about 6.3 miles on the Garmins - anywhere from 6.28 to 6.33 miles....hmmm. My overall AP was 6:14 by my Garmin, enough to get my B goal of sub-39, but I can't really count it based on GPS alone, even if the course was potentially a little long....we'll have to stick with 39:11 which is still a small PR.
I think I have to face facts and realize I can no longer just take huge chunks of time off my PRs anymore. It's going to get harder and harder to drop time, which I knew would happen. I just wish I could've had a stronger showing to make me feel better about some of my goals. The good news is the racing season is just starting down here, and I usually peak in the Spring (Boston?) | 
