Wow! It was amazing to toe the line with almost 200 60+ guys who were that good. The fields in all the SF races were incredibly deep. All things considered, I am very pleased with my race effort. When the gun went off I tried to get out quickly, but not too quickly. Our race field was small enough that there was plenty of room for people. The first 400M or so across Speedway Meadow had a lot of gopher holes in the grass and was pretty bumpy footing. There were about 60 people in front of me by the time things sorted out at 1K. I missed my mile split but heard 13:20 at the 2 mile which was consistent with my expectation of running about 6:48/mile for the race. From mile 2 to 3 I was running well and got past one person in my age group and about a dozen people overall. For the last two weeks I have been nursing a calf strain that I thought would heal by race day. I had been walking 6 miles each day since the strain until Tuesday before the race when I started doing some strides at the end of my walks. Thursday I walked 2 miles and ran 4 and the calf felt fine. Friday morning I ran about 3-1/2 miles moderately hard and felt some tightness in the calf after the run. In an atypical moment of common sense Saturday morning I decided to race in my warmup shoes, NB 1400s, rather than the adidas steeple spikes I used for our local championship race a month ago. My calf was fine until almost exactly the 4 mile mark when it suddenly got tight and sore. At that point I was about 50th in the race and 9th in the 65-69s, I had been chasing another 65+ about 20 meters ahead of me for a couple of miles and thought maybe I could kick him down in the last mile before my calf went bad. I went through the 4 mile just under 28:00. At that point I had to back off the pace to keep running. I immediately became very grateful for USATF's requirement for back age numbers in masters' championships. People started passing me and I would check each guy's back # to see that it said 60, not 65. About a dozen 60-64 guys came by me in the last mile, but no one in my age group. I finished 62nd in the race and 9th in the 65-69s in 35:19. If my calf had held up I think I could have been around 34:55 and maybe picked up one more age group place. Despite the injury I was pleased with my race effort and thrilled to be part of such an impressive field. Conditions were great. The race organization was great. Congratulations to all the racers and event staff for a great meet.