I can recall a hot evening 10k race last July. I wasn't particularly working on this race to be a goal race at all, just a fitness of where I was at during my summer base building. I was warming up doing my usual routine when I seen a very familiar face with his gf. This guy beat me in a few other races, but his most recent was a race when I was coming back from a minor injury and he beat me by 40 sec in a different 10k of about 900 finishers. After that race he approached me and said, "man, I went out slower than you and passed you as soon as I could and hung on to the finish". The truth was I was never ahead of him in any point in that race, in fact I had no idea he was even there until I saw him walking around with his race bib still on. But it stuck to me about what he said and how he said it. Did I over react? Perhaps. Did his humble brag get my attention? Sure did! So anyways, I saw him during my warm up and thought to myself do I wanna beat this guy today or do I wanna just run my own race? I went with option 2 since I just wanted to test my fitness, not try to PR. The race starts off. He takes off at an unrealistic pace, I just maintain my pace. Halfway into the race, sure enough I've reeled this dude back in. He's about 100m ahead of me and looking rough. I just maintain my pace and slowing pulling on him, he checks his shoulder sees me and makes a small surge with about 600m to go (I'm now about 20m behind him) and I respond easily. He backs off as I pull up shoulder to shoulder with about 300m to go. We're running stride for stride at this point, I'm trying to see how bad he's falling apart so I can make sure he's done. With about 200m to go I had enough info to ensure I wasn't gonna get beat by him today. I threw down a devastating kick and that was the end of that. Post race he said "good job" sheepishly and left. Felt great finally beating that guy and his humble brag, at the same time I realize I put a target on my own back now. Let the rivalry continue.