Looking back - 20 years & 15 years ago

20 years ago: December 1993

I raced twice during this month mostly due to ankle woes (tendonitis).  The first weekend in December found me out in Las Vegas at the USATF national convention.  Lyndon Ellefson convinced me to go out there to help with the formation of a sub-committee for “Mountain running”.  This would be the beginning of the Mountain Ultral Trail (MUT) council.  We both ran in the delegate’s race 5km.  I took 1^st in 16:04 and Lyndon finished in third place.  I still have the deck of cards Lyndon gave me, on the Joker he wrote “Founding Member – Mountain council”.  A week later I headed to Worcester MA for the CMS weekly 5km series.  This was my 26^th time out to the series during 1993 which earned me a hooded sweatshirt.  I ran 16:40 for first place that day.  I was the only person in 1993 to not only win a series race (I won 17 of them) but I also finished dead last in one of them.  Don Drewniak and I race-walked it on June 16^th taking next-to-last and last place respectively.  I didn’t want to race that night as it was too close to the Mt Washington road race.

26 races at the 52 week CMS series

Date        Time         Place        Field

01/02/93 16:20       1              35

01/09/93 15:01       1              54

01/23/93 14:44       1              52

01/30/93 15:23       1              40

02/13/93 16:48       1              6

02/20/93 15:12       1              37

02/27/93 16:51       1              33

03/06/93 16:56       1              27

03/13/93 19:47       14            30

03/20/93 20:41       18            30

03/28/93 14:54       1              63

04/14/93 14:59       1              17

04/21/93 15:27       1              20

04/28/93 20:56       8              16

05/12/93 20:23       14            50

05/19/93 14:40      1              25

06/02/93 19:26       5              20

06/09/93 15:24       1              82

06/16/93 31:45      2              2

06/23/93 17:36       4              30

07/07/93 16:49       1              20

07/14/93 15:45       1              26

07/28/93 19:00       9              25

08/18/93 14:59       1              68

09/29/93 19:07       7              50

12/11/93 16:40       1              28                                                                                                                                                                                                           

15 years ago: December 1998

I only raced twice but I made the most of it, with the first races as a tune-up for the second.  I headed to Framingham for a 5.1 mile race the first weekend and won in 26:18.  I was not happy with the result and noted I “felt crappy”.  Probably felt lousy from dropping down the mileage in anticipation of the Rocket City marathon.  I headed to Huntsville with Dan Verrington and Byrne Decker.  CMS had some history at Rocket City and we were hoping for another team victory.  I felt lousy in the early miles but better after half-way.  I moved up from 11^th place at 13 to 8^th by 18 and finally into 4^th place at 23 miles.  I held on to 4^th place running 2:22:35.  Dan took 9^th in 2:27 and Byrne just missed the top 10 ($$$$) getting passed by the Russian in the closing stages as he ran 2:28 and change.

                    1 2:19:13 28 Elly Rono Evansville IN

                    2 2:19:30 29 Pablo Sierra Oxford MS

                    3 2:20:24 27 Fred Kieser Cleveland OH

                    4 2:22:40 34 Dave Dunham Bradford MA

                    5 2:25:05 33 Paul Aufdemberge Redford MI

                    6 2:25:29 32 Greg Olszowik Willowbrook IL

                    7 2:25:36 32 Michael Harrison Virginia Bch VA

                    8 2:26:07 31 Guy Murray Detroit MI

                    9 2:27:55 36 Daniel Verrington Bradford MA

                    10 2:28:42 33 Sergi Karasev Memphis TN

                    11 2:28:54 31 Byrne Decker Yarmouth ME