Since you finished in the middle of the pack there must be a lot of story-telling to put here in your log.
Nothing too exciting. It was a bit of a boring race.
That was a good story. It's a tough call, staying with your splits but ending up in no-man's land. Despite your disappointment, I suspect that running your splits got you the PB. Good job!
THe gains of having someones back does not outweigh the con of running too fast. So you should be satisfied with that. Of course it would be a lot more fun if more people ran consistently out from the start.