Looking back - part 1

35 Years ago – January 1979

It was pretty easy for me to set PR’s back in ’79, since it was my first season of track.  Pretty much any time I raced I got a new personal best.  During my first full month of running I logged 145 with 4 days off, or an average of just over 5 miles a day (on the days I ran).  The month was kicked off with a 2 mile relay with Jay Sullivan, John Dangora, and Dan Gee at the Freshman/Sophomore Methuen Invitational.  We ran 9:34 and my 2:25 split was a personal best as it was my first half-mile race.  Two days later we were back at the Methuen field house for a dual meet against Wilmington.  I finished third in my first two mile (11:27) which John Dangora won in 10:14.  A week later we were back in Methuen, this time in a dual meet again Methuen.  I took 14 seconds off my 2 mile time placing fourth, second place was 3 seconds ahead and teammate/neighbor Paul Bradford was .8 ahead of me.  The next week saw us back at Methuen yet again, this time in a dual meet against Lawrence.  I dropped my PR down to 10:59 placing third.  The final race of the month was the League meet at Methuen.  I noted in my log that I ran a “bad pace” again running 10:59 for two-miles, this time placing fourth.

30 Years ago – January 1984

I raced three times during this month and ran 324 miles with two days off. I was having a lot of trouble with my plantar fascia, an issue that would plague me for many years.  I kicked off the year with a long drive up to Colby College where I ran the two mile.  I never felt good during the race although I was able to win running negative splits (faster in the second mile than the first).  My splits were 2:19/2:20/2:21/2:16 for a 9:16.  A week later I ran an open meet at BU, running a rare mile.  I ran a PR of 4:17.8 with splits of 64/66/64/63.  I closed out the month at UConn in a quad meet with UConn, Adelphi, and Manhattan.  I ran an even more unusual (for me) distance of 3,000 meters.  I’ve only run the 1.86 mile distance 13 times while I’ve raced 2 miles 92 times.  I took second place running a time of 8:28.