Old May results

30 Years ago

I was busy back in May of 1981, racing seven times over the course of the month.  I kicked off the month with a rare road race.  I’m not sure why I chose to do this especially with it being the day before a dual meet against Methuen.  I ran 24:38 to take second place at the Dunster street race in Cambridge.  The next day I won the 2 mile in the dual meet (10:04) and ran the 4x400 relay (55.6).  The next weekend I traveled to White Plains NY for the Loucks Games where I took third in the 3200m (metric 2m) in 9:24.8.  The pace in the raced was very unusual (for me) with a big negative split (2^nd mile faster than the first) running 4:48 and finishing in 4:36.  A week later I was victorious at the Northern Area Championships running a 9:26.9, with nearly opposite splits of the week before (4:38/4:48).  I got sick in the closing weeks of the month and ran a disappointing 9:45 at the Sate Class meet (fourth place) and a 4:31 (2^nd place) at the MVC league meet to close out my High School junior year of track.

20 Years ago

I made the most of racing in May of 1991 with only four races, but I covered 45 miles and got two wins.  My first race of the month was the NEAC (now USATF NE) 10 mile championship in Worcester.  Scott Bagley seemed to have the race in hand at 8 miles, at just after 9 Dennis Simoniatis and I went by and then I took Dennis in a sprint with both of us timed at 49:36.  It was one of those rare days when everything seems to come together.  A week later on a hot and humid day I won the Lawrence Eagle Tribune 10 mile in 54:28.  Teammate Dave LaPierre was second in 57+.  The next weekend I hit the trails taking on the Soapstone Mountain.  I took the lead at the start and promptly lead the top 25 people off course at the top of the mountain.  We had to plow through the rest of the field on the descent and I finally got back into the lead after a few miles.  I ended up losing the race by a couple of ticks over Brit Andy Moffat.  I finished off the month with a trip out to the US 20km championships in Wheeling WV.  It was a brutal day with temps in the 80’s and 90% humidity.  Times were slow (winning time was 1:03:07).  I ended up finishing 3^rd U.S. with a 1:05:31 (8^th place overall) this is my best finish in a Non-Ultra U.S. championship.

10 Years ago

May of 2001 saw me on the mountains roads and cross-country as I prepared for the “big” race up Mt Washington.  I started the month on a shortened version of the Mt Kearsarge hill climb.  The race was cut to 5m due to unsafe road conditions on the mountain.  Basically it became a tough 5 mile run.  The following week I directed a race at Windblown Ski area in New Ipswich NH.  The race was a qualifier for the US Mountain running team and I devised a course that I could do well on (steep climbs and long gentle donwhills).  Eric Morse was out in front alone after one loop but somehow got lost on the second loop.  Dan Verrington and I tied, thinking we had the second and third spots and were surprised to find that we tied for the win.  The following week we shifted gears again, this time running the USATF NE 12km championships in Bedford NH.  David Hinga stopped at two different times during the race but was still somehow able to win.  I finished in third place (37:44).  During the final weekend of the month I ran two races.  The first was a second place finish at Wachusett Mountain back when the race went to the summit…the way a mountain race should J  Morse beat me by over 30 seconds.  The next day I ran a fast 15:18 at the Trav’s trail race.  It was only fast enough for second place as I lost the lead and the win in the last ½ mile uphill.