i'll field this one: you overestimate the field (and i assume you're alluding to me as one of the guys who "should have handed him his ass"), and underestimate pete. you also misunderstand pete; it's not that he doesn't train hard--i've done some workouts with him, and they were hard, so hard that maybe only a handful of masters in this country could do them--but that he trains intelligently. he also happens to have a fair degree of talent, and an incredible amount of grit. he does more mileage than me, though i probably do a little more quality; his is more by design, mine is more by happenstance.
my defense of my race--since, if you watched the interview, pete claims i was the fittest and fastest in the race--is half-impatience/half-searching for "that rhythm." it was one of those days, that happens more easily in x-c than on the roads, where it didn't feel good going slow, and it didn't feel good going fast. in retrospect, sitting probably would have increased my chances of winning, but 5:30 pace, even on that soft grass, felt so slow, yet still uncomfortable. however, these races show that, for all my reputed talent, fitness and speed, you can't have a sub-par day and still expect to beat these bad-ass m-f'in 49-ers who work as hard as, or harder, than you do.
what has always made this fun, and meaningful, to me is this: fast and fit don't mean shit to the clock, and if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
that's my story and i'm sticking to it...