Fly me to the moon...

I decided to jump in this race despite the fact that I just started running again on Thursday this week after 11 days off.  I was really sick last week and still pretty congested this week.  I wasn't expecting anything spectacular and was treating this as a nice tempo run.  I arrived with my family about 15 minutes until 8am and headed out for a short warmup.  I went out 600m and headed back to the start.  The race started and Sasha & Jeff took off.  I was at the back of a small pack of Jeff, Sasha, Steve Cutitta, and Mary Ann.  I thought about trying to stick with them, but it just wasn't there today.  Mary Ann and I started falling back.  I hit the first mile in 5:38, which was respectable.  I think Mary Ann was around 5:34-35, so she was already starting to pull away.  With about a half mile to the turn around, I hear someone catching up to me and realize that it is Ted.  I put in a little surge to see if I could lose him, but I slowed down and he started coming back.  He was getting closer with a little over a mile to go, so I decided to really pick it up the last mile and try to lose him.  I felt like I had a lot left in the gas tank at that point, but I just didn't feel like pushing myself any harder.  I was content to relax in the place I was in.  I didn't want to get passed though so with a mile to go I took off.  I quickly distanced myself from Ted and coasted into the finish with a 6:08 last mile.  It felt good to race.  The legs were a little sore and tired afterwards, but generally okay.  It was good to see Ted running so well after major knee surgery and only a few months back into training.  I finished up with 2000m cooldown and a total of 7 for the day.