The 80s

40 years ago: January 1980 - The seven races in January of 1980 is impressive but only the 13th most I’ve done in a month. I 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 finished out the month with a 2nd place in the 2m versus Austin Prep, losing my streak of PR’s in the process.

01/05/80           Methuen MA        0.50      R          2:18      Freshman/Sophomore PR

01/07/80           Andover MA        2.00      4          10:45    Central @ PA PR

01/14/80           Andover MA        2.00      3          10:45    Tewksbury PR (tied time)

01/17/80           Methuen MA        1.00      3          4:55      Wilmington PR

01/21/80            Andover MA        2.00      2          10:34    Andover PR

01/24/80           Methuen MA        2.00      3          10:27    Methuen PR

01/28/80           Andover MA        2.00      2          10:46    Austin

35 years ago: January 1985 – I was dealing with arch issues and didn’t race at all during this month.  I missed a total of 18 days but logged nearly 10 miles a day on the days I actually ran.