10k undulating pace run

A little earlier in the week I did a 10k pace run again, see map at top with the elevation prfile. I chose a far more challenging route, in that it was uldulating. No flats at all. The actual 10k on the 21st May is a flat route, no hills at all.
More information here
http://www.greatrun.org/events/event.asp?id=17

I found the run quite difficult. first mistake was starting on a hill. Literally it starts with a 3/4 mile steep climb. Trying to maintain an 8 minute mile pace proved to be very difficult and in fact I didn't really recover until the last couple of miles of the race. I won't start on a steep bank at full pace again! I also lost control of my breathing between 2 and 3 miles, which is a nice downbank. Not having recovered from the start I had strided out too fast, long my breathing techinque and got a stitch. The first time I have got one in as long as I can remember. As a result I had to slow my pace up and sort my rythym out again. At one point it was looking like a poor pace, 8:45 a mile, but I gathered myself together and recovered for 8:08 minute miles, only 7 second per mile slower than last weeks virtually flat 10k. So lessons learned there, but overall I was happy with in

Good points:
Recognised loss of breathing techinque quite quickly and corrected.
Recovered in later part of race and turned in a very fast last 1.5 miles.
Peformed well over a challengin course

Bad points:
Started on a steep hill at full pace.
Lost control of breathing, trying to increase my pace too much. I used 1 3x3 breathing pace, on the flat for some of the race, should have been 2x2 throughout.

How to improve:
Do not start training runs at full pace on that 3/4 hill.
Always use 2x2 breathing (2 steps whilst breathing in, 2 steps whilst breathing out) on a 'pace run'. 3x3 is only suitable for a slower pace.
Stride out on downbanks, but not too fast to avoid stitch.