Race report- BDR Safety Harbor half Came in feeling out of shape. Was shooting for a 1:19-1:20, as other than running a short-course 5k, and a couple ofrandom sub 6:00 miles last Sunday during a long run, I had done zero speed work since November and not to mention I should throw out the entire month of December for the pathetic running I managed. So I shot for 5:55-6:05 pace for every mile and figured I could get away with that and feel healthy. The race: a group of 10 or so of us labored through the first two miles. Wait. I labored. Them? They did not. Fuck them. By mile 4 the group had shrunk to 5 with me still at the back. Bringing up the rear. Being the ass of everyone's joke. By mile 5 the group had shrunk to 3 and I had a weird feeling that I somehow had a shot at winning this if I raced it right. This was a surprise. I decided to start (attempting to) dictate the pace at about mile 6, and by the time it had settled as low as 5:38 per mile the group was still annoyingly together, I knew right then I had made a tactical mistake. My pace suffered, I suffered, and in the end the other two guys finished about 30 and 60 seconds ahead of me respectively. I did not think I had this race in me though. I certainly had no reason to run a sub 1:16 given my fitness. The negative split was also a shock. I planned on blowing up a bit after starting a little below 5:55, not to end up averaging a 5:48 per mile. I'm proud of my effort and VERY thankful to have those two awesome runners with me the whole way. It felt communal. Hopefully I can work harder and catch up to them if I see them again. I missed that feeling. Mile splits- 5:58, 5:50, 5:54, 5:55, 5:48, 5:43, 5:45, 5:41, 5:39, 5:38, 5:44, 5:49, 5:54, 0:38 1st half split- 38:20 2nd half split- 37:36 | 