XTERRA Southeast Championships trail run recap

Because the race a day ago didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped for I wanted to make up for it at the trail run. I figured if there was anyone to run with I will try to hang on and relax for the first loop then pull away if I had more left in the tank. As we lined up at the start line I noticed the winner of the Vegas half marathon winner, Roberto Mandji and the uber athlete Josiah Middaugh. I already knew it wasn't going to be an easy stroll. What I wasn't sure was how much the triathlon took out of Josiah. Well.. I received the answer rather quick. 5 of us stayed together for a good while then it was just Roberto, Josiah and me. We were started 10 minutes after the 10k mu run participants and quickly caught up to them. On the twisty- turny singletrack trails it was rather difficult to pass them. We managed to go the loop with only one hiccup when Roberto tackled a gal. Funny thing was as we both tried to help Roberto up then ran off inly to hear the gal shouting after us that " .. and don't worry about me, I'm OK, too". I felt bad for her. Though it happened so fast I didn't see her. We completed the first lap in just 7.5k only to question the actual distance we will cover by the end. It was at the start of the second loop when I dropped the band I was given, lost some fround on the guys and took me a while to recover. When I caught up we just reached the trails again and my feet strted hurting, too. I happened to run in my Pearl Izumi Iso Seek tri shoes with loose lacing.. What was I thinking? At every turn when I had to support myself my feet were sliding in the shoes, generated some friction and eventually created some nice blisters. I hit the wall sometime around 10k then just cruised to the finish as I had no one in front of me nor behind me. It's odd how you feel going fast in the trails but in reality you ain't. My 1:04:10 time over the 15k distance is no where near 4min/km pace. Unless my gps tricked me and/ doesn't measure properly under trees and when making sharp turns every 10 meters. The blisters were so bad I wasn't able to walk normally for days. They're getting better now but with only a few hours away from the BEast of the Southeast opening race still not 100% ready.