I can attest - when I got trapped in the 6:30 group in WWOS, I found that they were using a different interval ratio than I, and they were walking much slower than I. Because there was just nowhere to go to get past them, I started following their intervals/pace and it was hard! Not so much mentally, but physically: the slower walking pace was really uncomfortable at that point of the race and I was so used to my own intervals, it was hard to do a different ratio. Might have been different if I'd been with them from the start, I suppose, IDK.