Looking back - 20 years ago

20 years ago – I only raced once in November 2001 (11/17) but got a little over 50 miles in during that one race!  On a perfect day (38 at the start and 65 at the finish) I joined over 800 others in Boonsboro MD for the JFK 50 mile.  The first 16 miles on the Appalachian trail left me well behind the leaders (getting stopped by a freight train meant waiting a couple of minutes at the aid station at the end of the trail).  I was in 9th place at the 15.4 mile checkpoint, 9 minutes behind the leaders.  The next 26 miles on the C&O canal path had me reeling in many of the front runners.  I ran the second fastest time of the day for that marathon split (3:07) trailing only Chad Ricklefs (3:02).  During that stretch I moved up to third place and then on the last 8 miles of hilly road running I moved up to 2nd place at 45 miles and that was my final position as I crossed the line in 6:11:18.            

1 Chad Ricklefs            6:00:47
2 Dave Dunham          6:11:19
3 Clark Zealand           6:12:18
4 Sean Andrish            6:14:28
5 Gregory Loomis        6:24:05
6 Ian Torrence             6:29:23
7 Wes Kessenich         6:33:57
8 Matt Mcdonald        6:36:13
9 Eric Clifton                6:36:32
10 Serge Arbona         6:38:07
37 Mark Godale          7:33:41
40 Mike Woodman     7:37:30                  

At the end of the trail portion

Cruising along the Canal path