If one had taken a snapshot midway through yesterday's Attleboro Y 10K, the winner would seem to be readily apparent.

Warwick's Robert Jackman held a 20-yard lead, his stride was fluid and his barely-visible breathing indicated that he was not operating at full capacity. He appeared to be cruising to a certain first-place finish.

Trailing Jackman at three miles was Walpole's Zach Laidley, whose flailing stride and lumbering gate gave the impression that he was not a threat to Jackman on this day. Several yards later on Berwick St., the race turned around.

Laidley won the second half and with it the overall title.

The women's 10K was won by East Greenwich's Jackie Gorski in 40:17. The 5K was taken by Sharon's Adam Greenspan in 17:15 and the women's 5K went to Dighton's Katrina Hegeman in 20:55. "I wanted to go out with him at 5:35/5:40," Laidley said of the opening mile pace. "He ran 5:25 so I was kind of resigned to second place."

The 10K field separated with Jackman, Laidley and Attleboro's Sean McNamara clustered early. Then Jackman moved to the fore but not by design.

"I wanted to go out at the pace he (Laidley) wanted to go but I got out there ...well I got to go with it now because I had committed myself which was a mistake obviously from the second half."

Climbing West St. after the first mile, Jackman pushed back his sleeves and it looked like he was ready to expand his margin but he was never able to shake Laidley. The 20-yard lead stabilized and Laidley recovered.

"After mile two or three I started to feel better so I tried to pick it up," Laidley said. "He ran mile one hard. I got my legs back underneath and I felt pretty good."

Laidley made up the deficit shortly after the three-mile mark on Berwick leaving the next move to Jackman.

"When he went past me, I couldn't go with him at all," Jackman said. "After he got a gap I started to get back into a little rhythm. He said he pushed those miles and it showed because I never caught back up. I tried to put in some surges of sort to get myself going but it never helped."

Laidley expanded the lead gradually over the final miles but was never certain until late that his first place was secure.

"It wasn't until mile five," he said. "I did a check at mile five and I felt pretty strong. The last mile I felt pretty comfortable."

His winning 34:14 confirmed that he had made the right decision. "When I saw him (Jackman) go in the first mile, I thought, 'Jeez I should have done the 5K.'"

Although Jackman wasn't able to win the 10K, his fiancee, Gorski was able to provide some solace by winning the women's 10K.

"There was a pack of three of us through the first mile and then it kinda separated a little bit after that," Gorski said. "I tried to stay ahead, keep my pace where I was, not pick it up and hopefully hang on."

Norton's Lorraine Mohan was in that group but realized that the pace was not sustainable.

"That was six miles and that had to stop!" That left Gorski to contend with Somerville's Jen Wilson. "It was the two of us for two miles," said Wilson. "I knew I couldn't run that pace the whole way so I dropped back a little bit. I tried to keep her in my sights the whole time and see if she would drop back and have a little kick at the end. She stayed pretty even the whole race."

Gorski, who ran a 3:08 at Boston two weeks ago, came in with minimal expectations.

"I just came in to help out our team," said the Tuesday Night Turtle. "This was just for fun. I was trying to run not so hard to see how my legs felt from last week. Just trying to run my own race."

The 5K had some brief early moments of competition but Greenspan laid to rest any thoughts of a frantic finish with his hard charge up West St. before the first mile. That scuttled any insurrection plotted by Providence's Joshua Kane and Grafton's Nick Bailey.

"I took it out a little easy after a mile or so, picked up the pace a little bit and cruised the rest of the way," said Greenspan.

"We took it out kind of slow and he just broke it open after about three quarters mile," said Kane. "I thought at a mile and a half there was this long flat. I saw him and I thought I could. Maybe work with the number three guy. That was it. He was gone."

Women's 5K winner Hegeman "was sort of in my own zone out there. My objective was to run a PR; I wanted to break 21 which I did by a few seconds. I'm pleased at that."

Attleboro's Amy Shireman trailed throughout the race and had doubts about overtaking Hegeman.

"It was my first race back since having a baby," said Shireman, whose cousin Joshua Kane placed second in the men's 5K. "It's been two years since my last race. I haven't been training just exercising. I just don't have it in my legs. I've been going for jogs."

When asked whether she entertained any ideas about mounting a last-minute surge for the win, she replied, "She (Hegeman) looked like she was serious with racing flats. She looked like she did workouts. It crossed my mind but then I thought I'm pretty comfortable right here."

ROB ROSE is a running correspondent for The Sun Chronicle and can be reached via e-mail at LSXPLRER@comcast.net