The Japanese are one of the most enviable people tbh . I wish I was in their situation , and I sincerely hope they continue as they are . If they do they will never have to worry about all of the racial conflict the US currently has . Who could want our problems ? <| sep |> Races with self seeding honor systems are always a shit show . Those that are super new racers tend to misjudge and jump right to the front . Then you have folks with experience but know they aren ' t placing trying to figure out where in the mob they should fit in and that ' s damn near impossible by looking at people . I ' m a moderate pacer at an average 9 . 510 mm and I ' ve been smoked by people larger and older than me so I try not to be cocky about pushing in front of most people . But I always do my damned best to try and get in front of the stroller brigades . Even they can kick my ass sometimes but 810 times it ' s people sipping Starbucks and bitching about runners being rude for . running . As others have said try another smaller non flashy race out before you give it up . And even if racing isn ' t your thing don ' t give up on running altogether ! ! It got better for me when I started going to the runs my local running store puts on like pub runs or coffee runs . Low key , nice folks , and you eventually want to get faster so you can spend more time drinking with them ! !