January 1982

35 years ago:  (January 1982) I averaged a little over 5 miles a day (162 miles with 2 days off) during the month while racing 9 times and doing 10 track workouts.  In all I did some fast running on 16 of the 31 days.  Wow, Coach Bradford sure worked us hard!  I started the month (01/04/82) racing Chelmsford Rivals Scott Spence and Keith O’Brien in a dual meet (which Billerica lost 56-30) in the Lowell field house (160 yard track).  I set the then (and maybe still?) track and Merrimack Valley Conference dual meet record of 9:33.0 in the 2 mile.  We took it out hard and I was 4:42 at the mile (4:51 for the 2^nd mile).  Spence took second and O’Brien was third.  I ran the anchor leg of the mile relay (typical) and ran 57.4 (also pretty typical time for me).  The next day (yikes!) I was on the track doing 5x800 @ 2:15 to 2:18.  A couple of days later it was off to Methuen for a dual meet loss to Methuen (51-35) with me (4:40) and Jim Sullivan taking the top 2 spots in the mile.  Two days later (01/09/82) I headed to the Hanover, NH for the Dartmouth Relays. I’d had good luck here having set the (then) school record the previous year with a 9:41 I ended up with a win in 9:31.5, just holding off Pat Gilooly (9:31.6) but came up one second shy of my school record (9:30.7).  A few days later I was on the track on consecutive days doing speed work.  The first day was 4x1200 at 3:25 to 3:30 and the second day feature 15x300 at 42.  These workouts were all done in the basement of the Marshall Middle school on a nasty concrete floor.  Next up was a dual meet against Lowell.  I ran the mile and won, running as slow as possible (4:54) with teammate Jim Sullivan taking second.  The meet came down to the 4x400 relay.  I was the anchor leg and Coach told me “If we are behind when you get the baton we are in trouble”.  I think he was trying to fire me up but was also being realistic as they had some faster 400 guys than me.  Of course I was behind when I got the baton, but I ended up running a 56.2 and catching the Lowell anchor just before the finish line.  We ended up winning the meet 45-41.  The following week we took on Andover at the Lowell track.  We won this meet in close fashion as well (44-42) but took 2^nd in the relay where I ran a 58 flat.  Earlier in the meet I took first in the 2 mile in 9:50.  Mike Busnach and Jim Sullivan both had good days running 4:37 and 4:47 respectively.  On 01/20 & 1/21 I was back doing track work (6x1000 @ 2:33 & 1x1200 in 3:19) in preparation for the big State Coaches meet. On 01/24 I was able to run down XC rival Sean Coughlin with a 65 second last 400 to take the win in a school record 9:25.1.  I closed out the month with four workouts in a row on consecutive days later the Coaches meet.  6x800 in 2:11 to 2:15, 8 miles at 6:00 pace, 20x200 in 30 seconds, and 1x1200 in 3:19.  I guess Coach knew what he was doing preparing me for the State meet.