You mentioned it was on a trail; normally you'd only have a peloton on a paved road where the event organizers had checked the surfaces beforehand. You get some fairly close formation riding in (road) club runs as well, but riders are typically less closely bunched together, subject to conditions, experience and the level of competitiveness that morning.
Yeah, I chose to use “formation” rather than “peloton” because the latter would have been a stretch. It was two long, closely packed columns. It definitely was ill-advised and ended exactly how it should have.
