In the park with Frank 2015

I put the 2015 in the title because the last time I ran the Frank Duffy 10 mile was 2013, and it certainly does not feel like two years ago.
I wasn't expecting too much today, I figure I am 10 to 15 seconds per mile off  a good pace, and I had the bad run in Duleek the week before. I resolved to take this easy, and use it as a tempo training run.
The weather was ideal and as usual, there was a massive crowd, with 4000 runners taking part.
After dropping the bag, and the club photo, I did a bit of a warmup. It was a bit lonely this year, there wasn't many from the club, and the guys I would have normally ran with, the two Brian's, Glen, Stuey, Eamon and the like were all absent.
I took my place at the start, well back from the front, as I planned to go out at a relatively easy 6:40 pace, previous 10 mile was 6:30 pace. At the off, I ran to an easy feel pace, but the watch quickly showed a 6:10 which I knew was typical of the early exuberance of most races, so I resolved to discipline myself and slowed right down towards target. I was astounded at the volume of runners passing me, obviously running to a 60 minute pace, many who must have been deceivingly fit.
Runners stopped passing me at 1.5 miles, and I started passing many early speedy guys from 3 miles on.
6:12, 6:35, 6:35, 6:37, 6:33.
Going through 5 miles I felt very comfortable, amazingly so. I was passing a lot of runners every few meters, even though I was breathing easily. I took some water at both water stops which I normally wouldn't do on a relatively short run. I remember passing 7 miles thinking how much I was enjoying this run, far more than I had probably enjoyed a run in a long time. The 10 seconds or so a mile slower I was doing really made a difference.
6:32, 6:29, 6:27.
I was hardly even looking at my watch at all, just running to  a comfortable pace by feel, and looking now, the splits were getting faster. The dreaded last two miles were left to go, and obviously I was not quite so comfortable as I had been earlier, but still feeling good.
6:38, pleased with this for the hilliest mile of the course, and still passing a lot of runners who had run out of steam. The hills did take a bit out of me though, and the effort was much greater after that mile.
Mile 10, 6:16. The fastest mile of the run, save for the first, which really is the ideal way to finish a race. At about half a mile to go, I put what I had left in, and was able to up the pace to the finish, which they sneakily moved a bit I think, and I finished much stronger than I have done in a long time.
Chip time 1:05:04, which is only 30 seconds slower than when I felt I was running mush better.
I am quite pleased with that relatively speaking, of course I would have hoped to improve on a time two years ago, but a lot has happened in between, and life is a lot busier.
If I can put some quality training in between now and the Dublin half, I might have a chance of a decent time for the marathon.