30 Years ago

October – I’ve raced 93 times in October over the last 35 years.  Over half of the races were on road (47) and a large chunk was over hill-and-dale racing XC (34 times).

30 Years ago = Oct. 1983 – The U-Lowell XC team continued to rock and I continued to race well, with the goal being a chance to race at the NCAA championships.  I raced three times this month taking first twice.  The month started with the Codfish Bowl a staple of the XC season and one of a seemingly endless list of races at Franklin Park.  I took first over the 5m course running 24:11, teammates Dennis Simoniatis and Scott Rafferty took 3^rd and 4^th place (DQ was 10^th, Joe Regan 12^th, and Dawe was 13^th).  The next week we took on U-Mass Amherst, Northeastern, and Keene state in a quad meet back at Franklin Park.  I won again running 23:50 over 5 miles, taking the lead from Ralph Moore in the last 800 meters.  We ended up in second place with Northeastern edging us out 33 to 37 points.  The final race of the year was a trip to Worcester for the NCAA qualifier over a hilly 10km course.  We took 1^st place with 61 points thus earning a trip to Nationals!  I took 4^th place overall running 32:01, Rafferty was 9^th, Quintal 12^th, Simoniatis 15^th, and 800 meter ace Tony Gilbert stepped up taking 29^th to round out our team.  We beat Indiana (PA) by 3 points.