It was race three in our 3 mile handicap series this evening. My tactic? To latch on to one of the other runners in my batch and to hang onto him for dear life. I managed to stick with him until the final push, when he found a sprint, and I faded. But a better result than race two, when I was overtaken by pretty much everyone.
And for anyone celebrating their birthday today:
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear [insert your name here]
Happy Birthday to you.
You know who you are.
abradypus 
Sounds fast!
I have the opposite problem… If I do a long run, I’ll always save a bit too much for the sprint finish and hence go dead slow for the main run.
It was happy, thank you. The singing was particularly fine.