My first "win" in a while

At my age 48, there are very few possibilities of winning a race outright anymore, but last weekend was the closest I will probably get. Last Monday, a national holiday in Japan, I ran an ekiden , (relay) with one of the clubs I train with, the Yodogawa Runners. This particular ekiden consisted of 5 legs of 3K. I ran the first leg. The great thing about this ekiden is that you only run against people in your age division. If I run against 20 or 30 years olds I have little chance of winning but against 40 year olds I have a slightly greater chance. It is quite fun and different from a usual race. Where usually at the start of a road race all the young pups bury me at the start, at this race I was in the lead for a little bit at the beginning. Anyway after my short time in the lead, 5 people moved ahead and I settled into 6th for the first half of my 3K leg. One thing I noticed when we were heading out, on this out and back course, was that the lead pack wasn't pulling away at all. They were maintaining a steady lead but it wasn't growing. After the turn around I saw one guy that I thought I could possibly catch, so I kept my eyes on him and tried to reduce the gap. With about a K to go I caught him and without realizing it I had caught the entire lead pack and passed them all within 100 meters. One of that group re-passed me but I gathered up strength again and passed him fast so he wouldn't consider trying again. I then coasted in and handed of the sash for my first "win" in many years. Our team went on to win the team title also.