Looking back - May 1982 & 1987

30 years ago – I raced 11 times in my final season of high school track and it really beat me up!  We trained pretty hard back then with at least two hard workouts a week and usually two meets a week.  The total distance raced wasn’t all that much (9.98) miles but I think the constant racing ground me down.  Anyway, we kicked off the month with a dual meet against Lowell which we won 91-53.  I took first in the half (2:06) and ran a leg of the winning mile relay team (3:46 – my split 54).  The relay team was all distance guys with Bernie Brown, Jim Sullivan and Glenn Burlamachi.  Three days later I took a third place running 9:10 for the 3,200 meters at the Loucks Games.  I believe this still stands as the school record.  Next up was a dual meet against our hated rivals (nah, not really hated rivals but we didn’t like losing to them) Chelmsford.  We lost the meet 91-54.  I ran “as slow as possible” to win the 2 mile in 10:15 and ran on the losing mile relay team (56.0).  Three days later it was off to Methuen for the Merrimack Valley league meet.  I took first in the mile with a 4:28 and ran a 55 in the mile relay.  A few days later I ran a 4:52 mile to win in a dual meet against Methuen.  The final dual meet of my high school career was an away meet at Haverhill.  I ran the half (!) and the mile relay.  We ended up losing the meet, but I won the half in 2:02 and ran a 54 in the relay.  My final race of the season was the State Class meet at B.C.  I finished 5^th in a highly disappointing 9:38.  I qualified for the state meet but was feeling so beat up and tired that I chose not to go.

25 years ago – In stark contrast to my final high school season, my final month of racing in College included just two races.  I ran a (then) school record of 14:11.6 to take fourth place at the BC invitational.  Conditions were pretty close to ideal as I hit splits of 4:28/4:37/4:36.  Two weeks later I headed out to the NCAA championships at Cape Girardeau MO.  The 10,000 meters was a tough run due to the high 80 degree temperatures.  I took 6^th place in 29:54 running splits of: 4:43/4:44/4:48/4:51/4:54/4:47.