January - long ago

Looking back


30 years ago

The seven races in January of 1980 is the 10th most I’ve done in a month. I also recorded six PR’s (personal records) during the month. I started my sophomore year of indoor track racing (after a very disappointing XC season with multiple ankle injuries) with a first place team finish in the 4x880 at the Methuen Freshman sophomore meet. Then I started my quest to earn a varsity letter. We earned points towards a letter by placing in the top three at dual meets. I ended up fourth by 1 second against PA running the two mile then a week later took third against Tewksbury running the same time (10:45). I picked up another point three days later with a PR of 4:55 and followed that with another PR for 2m at Andover running 10:34. The final PR of the month was a 10:27 third place in the 2m at Methuen. I closed out the month with a 2nd place in the 2m versus Austin Prep, losing my streak of PR’s in the process.

01/05/80Methuen MA 0.50 2:18 Freshman/Sophomore PR
01/07/80Andover MA 2.00 10:45 Central @ PA PR
01/14/80 Andover MA 2.00 10:45 Tewksbury PR (tied time)
01/17/80 Methuen MA 1.00 4:55 Wilmington PR
01/21/80 Andover MA 2.00 10:34 Andover PR
01/24/80Methuen MA 2.00 10:27 Methuen PR
01/28/80Andover MA 2.00 10:46 Austin

20 years ago
I only raced twice in January of 1990, the first was a win at the Derry, NH hangover “classic”. I believe Mike Beeman was the race director. I ran 24:47 to win by nearly 2 minutes over Mark Kimball (???). The other race was also a “classic”, the BU indoor track classic at the old cold track where the Agannis arena now stands. The track was always interesting with dead spots that could cause you to wipe-out. I ran decent 5,000 of 14:17 to finish 5th in a field of 17. The race was won in 14:00 by my former U-Lowell teammate Dennis Simoniatis.

18 years ago
I ran my first race for CMS, the Sterling Freezer five. Larry Sayers and I decided to “take it easy” and tie. We ran 24:00 which is still the course record.

15 years ago
I only raced twice in January of 1995 once on the road and once on the indoor track, I believe I was limited due to Achilles tendonitis. The year started well with a win in 25:09 at the Freezer Five and I closed out the month with a 14:52 second place at the BU indoor track series.

10 years ago
I started 2000 with a sore ankle that carried over from 1999. I was diagnosed in Susa, Italy (I couldn’t walk after the Challenge Stellina mountain race) with a “distorted ankle”. I ended up missing five weeks and was still getting back into shape as we headed into 2000. I started the year in Florida doing a snowshoe race. No, not what you think…it was Florida MA and the South Pond shuffle where I took third behind Leigh Schmitt and Ken Clark. Ten years later and I’m still seeing Ken at snowshoe races and sometimes Leigh. The only other race I did was a win at the Greylock Glen snowshoe race where it was -4 degrees and the wind was howling at 40mph. Great day to be outside!