double d mountain runner: histroy

Showing posts with label histroy. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Undefeated on Work Naked Day

Kara posted that she was undefeated racing on Mother’s day. I thought that was pretty cool and of course it got me thinking “am I undefeated on any days”?

I’ve raced on nearly every day of the year, having only seven dates that I’ve never raced on (Feb. 29, April 4 & 13, Aug 11, Nov 19, and Dec 18 & 24). I ended up finding 12 days that I’m undefeated on, but 9 of those are days I only raced on once.

Multi-win undefeated days:
02/05 which is “shower with a friend” and “Work naked day” – 1981 2m versus Central 1^st place 9:41.6, 1983 tri-meet versus Colby/Bowdoin 2m 1^st place in 9:11, and 1995 Freeze your buns 5m 1^st place in 26:45.

02/23 which is “National dog biscuit day” – 1991 Twosome 3.6 mile race won in 18:11, and 1992 DH Jones 10m won in 50:36.

09/27 which is National chocolate milk day – 1987 Marshfield 20k won in 63:10, and 1992 Fallon 5m won in 24:25

Single win days (and what holiday it is):
National be kind to Lawyers day        04/13/13         Bow Lake 5k 17:20
Earth Day                                            04/22/95         Mt Kearsarge                         53:09
National no bra day                            07/09/85         2 Mile series 8:56
International cat day                         08/08/90         2 Mile series 8:57
World gratitude day                            09/21/81         Chelmsford XC 15:07
World rabies day                                 09/28/81         Austin Prep XC 12:00
Festivus                                               12/23/81         Haverhill Dual meet mile 4:32
Christmas                                            12/25/08         Winnekenni Snowshoe race 26:39

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Looking back

August long gone by

30 years ago

I began my training for college (U-Lowell) by putting in some 70-80 mile weeks over the summer of 1982. I raced a couple of times in August. Tom Mixon kicked my butt at the Billerica Crime Chase 10k where I took second place in 32:15. The course started/finished near the Billerica “house of correction”, one of the many scenic locations to visit in “Brica”. Later in the month I ran the Grab Bag 12km race in Lowell taking 7^th place in 38:57.

25 years ago

I only raced once during August of 1987. I ran the NEAC (now called USATF NE) 15km championship in Worcester. This was my first “Grand Prix” race. I went on to win the series an unmatched seven times. As of July 28, 2012 I’ve raced in 91 USATF New England road race championships. Greater Lowell Road Runners teammate Bob Hodge took the overall victory in 46:05 and I finished second crossing the line 3 seconds later. 5km Splits: 15:33 / 31:11 (15:38) / 46:08 (14:57)

20 years ago

I had hit or miss race results back in August of 1992. I was preparing for my first trip to the World Mountain running championships and training fairly hard during the month. I started off with two races within an hour in Oakham, MA. There was a little bit of cash if I could break the course record. I decided to take a crack at both records (5k & 5m). I started with the 5k running a 14:43. After a brief break I headed out and ran 26:12 on the 5 mile course running just hard enough to break the course record. Two weeks later I had one of the worst races I’ve ever had. I headed to Parkersburg WV for the USATF half-marathon championships. I was hoping to run in the 1:05 range and could only muster a 1:08:02. My training log says “felt awful the last 4 miles”. I ended up finishing in a very disappointing 38^th place.

Outkicking Howard Nippert

The following week I was off to Europe for the first of many trips across the pond for the Mountain running championships. We tuned up with a race up the Kitzbuhelerhorn in Kitzbuhel Austria. The course is similar to Mt Washington in total climb but had a mostly flat first 3k and a very tough last kilometer. I ended up finishing in third place (59:22) over the 8 mile course that climbed over 4,000’ and won $400, my first international prize money! The following week we traveled to Susa, Italy and trained on part of the course. The World Champs course was just over 9 miles and had over 5,000’ of climb and one big drop of about 400’. I ended up just cracking the top 10 with a 9^th place finish (1:13:08). I was kind of disappointed as I’d worked my way up to 5^th place on the first big climb but lost 7 spots on the downhill (I’m not good at downhill running). I gained back a few spots on the final climb but vowed to come back the following year and get into the top 5.

In Italy (me, Tom Sobal, Lyndon Ellefson, Jay Johnson)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

30 Years ago

30 years ago (April 1982)

I raced five times as my final season of outdoor track at Billerica High started to wind down. I started the month with a win over 2 miles at the Haverhill invitational running a 9:38. The following week I went on my first plane trip, flying down to Philadelphia for the Penn Relays 3,000 meter run. I had what I considered a disappointing race taking 10^th in 8:44. The following day I ran the ¾ mile leg of the DMR at the Mass State Relay championships. We ran 11:11 with Jim Sullivan running 2:15 for the half, Mike Busnach running 4:41 for the mile, Kevin Norman running 56 for the ¼ and I ran 3:20 for my leg. I closed out the month the following weekend with an unusual double, running the mile and the 1/4 in a dual meet against Andover. I took the win with a 4:28 win in the mile and a few minutes later ran the open ¼ in 55.0 for third place.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Most raced on date

Most raced on dates

Date

Number

Rank

4-Jul

1-Jan

Thanksgiving (various days)

3-May

25-Apr

5-Jan

28-Apr

29-Apr

5-May

12-May

19-May

25-May

8-Jul

15-Sep

17-Sep

18 tied with 6

Thanksgiving

Date

Where

Dist

Time

Field

11/24/1988

Boston