Looking back - May 2002

10 years ago – I raced five times in May of 2002, mixing it up with road, mountain, and cross-country races.  I started the month running my favorite (at the time) Mountain race, the 8.5 mile run up Mt Kearsarge.  Teammate Eric Morse took the victory in 51:49 and I placed 2^nd in 53:33.  The following week I headed to Bedford NH and attempted to double in the 5k & 12k races.  Neither race went quite as planned as I finished in 5^th place at both running 40:32 for the 12k and 16:42 for the 5k.  Back then there wasn’t as much of this global warming and race day featured rain and snow (on May 18!) and temperatures in the 30’s.  I noted that it “took 3 miles after the race to warm up my hands”.  A week later I also doubled but this time I had a day in between races.  I took 3^rd place at a very competitive Wachusett Mountain as Eric Morse and Craig Fram dueled to a 24:20/24:25 finish and I was well back in 24:59.  The next day I headed to Maudslay state park in Newburyport and took third place at Trav’s trail run with a 15:24, Hinga (14:45) and Galebach (15:10) were the class of the field.