Nippy Nor' easter half marathon

The day before this I realised it would be my first half since September 2010! I was able to show up fifteen minutes before the start, collect my number, walk two minutes to the start and join a queue of three for a port a loo - that's my kind of no fuss race! In the first mile I needed to reign in my pace; in the first third of a mile the Garmin showed me running at close to six minute mile pace. I let the hares go and completed the first mile in 06:36. Shortly into the second mile I overtook probably half a dozen of the first mile hares. Mile two 06:39 and mile three 06:42. By now I was running on my own but could see a group of about eight a quarter mile ahead who were slowly pulling away. During the next few miles I had increased the effort but was slowing; my HR was hovering around 92/93% of maximum. As I approached the turn around and halfway point my pace slowed into the high 06:50s and I knew the second half would be miserable. It was now obvious that I should have been much more disciplined in keeping the HR below 90%. Long story short: I was running on my own for the next couple of miles and then in the final 5k a number of people overtook me. This was actually something of a blessing as it gave me people to try and hang onto and prevented me from completely throwing in the towel. By now my splits were well north of seven minute miling and I crossed the finish line in 01:32:19 to avoid a personal worst by thirteen seconds! Amazingly in a field of over 200 I managed to place eighteenth; had I been in the kind of shape I was in in late 2010, early 2011, I would have finished third - if, buts and maybes.