Gateshead park run

First Gateshead park run today, and my second after Newcastle a few weeks back.
Ran down to the start as my warm up, although given the wind and rain on the way down I can't say I was that warm by the time I got there.
Was good to see Tom Williams make the effort to come down to the inaugural event and he gave a few words of encouragement before the start which was good to hear.
I was at the start of the field and when the gun went off was surprised to find myself in the lead for the first hundred meters or so. I'm still relatively inexperienced in racing and am not used to being in this position, so was expecting to be overtaken by a good few people at least.
This did happen as one lad ran past and I decided to try and hang in behind him and see how things panned out.
After the first lap of the top field I couldn't quite hang on and found myself drifting off the lead a touch, but on the positive side a few glances back revealed that there didn't appear to be anyone challenging me from behind.
After another lap round the lake I hadn't gained any ground on the lead, but I hadn't lost any more either, and had plenty encouraging shouts from the marshalls telling me that the lead was catchable and urging me to push on. A good few of them were from fellow saltwell harriers, despite me not really knowing any of them yet which I really appreciated and spurred me on.
In the end I just didn't have enough in me to push for the win, but was still well chuffed to get second place 23 seconds behind the lead with a parkrun and 5k pb of 18.49.
In reflection I wondered if I could have pushed harder for the win but I have concluded that once I let him build such a lead I was never going to regain that ground. In future races if I am going to try for the win I need to stay closer to the lead and find the strength to push on when the time comes.
Since I've decided to race more often this year I'm learning so much already and have another goal to for this year now:
8: win a parkrun