Friday, February 3, 2017

January 2012

5 years ago: (January 2012) I had a great month with a lot of fun racing (7 races!) and 5 track workouts at the Hampshire Dome while getting in 384 miles with no days off.  I started the month (01-01-12) running the Frost 4 in Salem, MA.  I had a good battle with arch rival Dan Verrington J, he went out hard and I didn’t catch him until after 2 miles we went back and forth until 200 meters to go when I kicked it in for a masters personal best of 21:54 which was good enough for 5th place in the field of 675. 
1          21:25    Eric Sofen                      26M      SEATTLE            WA       
2          21:31    Nick Sousa                     28M      Salem   MA       
3          21:33    Michael Nickerson                       22M      Salem   MA       
4          21:51    James Pawlicki               37M      Lynn      MA        CMS
5          21:54    Dave Dunham                47M      Bradford            MA        CMS
6          21:58    Dan Verrington               49M      Bradford            MA        CMS
7          22:07    Ben Strain                      33M      Beverly  MA        CMS
 
The following weekend (01-08-12) I headed to Dartmouth for an unusual double of 800 and 1,500 meters.  I’d only ever run a 1500 once in college and the 800 twice.  The field was very small so there wasn’t any jostling as we headed off on 7+ laps.  I took the lead at 200m and tried to run an even pace.  My goal was to run in the 4:40’s, I thought a really good day would be a sub-5:00 mile equivalent and would be happy with anything equal to a five-O anything.  I slowly pulled away from the chase and built up a 3+ second lead with a lap to go.  I went into my kick but that was essentially the same speed as my running up ‘til that point.  Mark Coogan yelled at me with 100m to go “you better kick, they are coming”.  Unfortunately I was already full-out and was caught right at the line, missing out the win by 5/100ths of a second.  The double back in the 800 went well; I set a 3 second masters PR which was fun.
 
M45 800 Meter Run
  1 Michel St-Pierre          M46 Shawinigan, QC                   2:14.85 
  2 Dave Dunham                        M47 Bradford, MA           2:26.92 
  3 Dave Menard             M46 Waltham, MA           2:33.67 
 
1500 Meter Run
1 Brett Miller       M47 Montreal                 4:44.60 
2 Dave Dunham  M47 Bradford, MA           4:44.65 
1 Geoff Dunbar   M41 Hanover, NH                        4:48.40 
1 Maribel Souther            F36 Hanover, NH            4:51.78 
1 John Matthews M55 Gtr Spfld                 5:00.80 
2 Tom Kolb        M56 Merrimack, NH                     5:37.37 
1 Larry Smith      M67 Cooperstown, NY                  6:30.28 
 
The next weekend (01-14-12) I went to Tewksbury for the Fudge 5k .  I've been running Fudgesicle 5ks (actually 3.15 miles) since 'back in the day'.  This year with no snow so no snowshoe racing...so I headed over to Tewksbury.  The races are $1 and the course is marked and has mile splits, and results are posted on CR after.  They always get a decent crowd and it is great to have the race done and head for home by 9 AM.  Dan Verrington was planning on running 5:20 pace for 2 miles then easing up.  I had been sick for a few days and wasn't sure what I could run.  My plan was to push the pace with Dan through 2 and if I felt good enough try to continue on.  We did the course as a warm-up then did a couple of strides and we were off.
 
Dan took the lead about 1/2 mile in and I tucked behind him until we hit the mile (5:27).  I moved to the front and kept the pace honest, Dan moved back in front at about 1.5 and I took over again just before 2 miles.  I hit 2 in 10:53 (5:26), about 2 seconds up on Dan.  The last mile was tough with a solid headwind and a slight up hill.  I managed to close out in 5:46 (16:39) and 42 seconds for the final part.
 
In all I was pretty happy with a 17:21 and a win.  Dan came in 30 seconds later in second.  I figure the time would be a little over 17 on an actual 5k course, decent effort.  The win gave me my 34th consecutive year with at least one win.  The time is my fastest on the course as a master, my previous best was a 17:30 back in 2006.
 
     1 Dave Dunham          166   1/4   47 M4049 Bradford   MA   17:21  5:35
     2 Dan Verrington       167   2/4   49 M4049 Bradford   MA   17:51  5:45
     3 John Rheaume         174   1/10  30 M3039 Lowell     MA   18:00  5:48
     4 James Sullivan        74   1/2   26 M2029 Chelmsford MA   18:05  5:50
     5 Liam Skinner         100   3/4   45 M4049 Lowell     MA   18:37  6:00
 
01-21-12 Whitaker Woods Snowshoe It was 9 degrees when I arrived at the race site.  I met up with race director and teammate Kevin Tilton and we headed out on the course.  We ran the 4 miles putting the final touches on course markings to make sure everyone stayed on course this year.  The loop was very fast groomed snow with a little single-track that was also well packed.  It would be a good day for the fast guys.  At the start everyone bolted like it was a sprint.  I was hurting and in 5th place in the first 200 meters.  I slowly caught up to Chris Dunn and passed him about ½ mile in, then got Danny F on the first climb.  At the same time Jim Johnson broke away from Judson Cake.  I caught Judson on the second climb and felt pretty good, but JJ was out of site now except on the long straights.  I gapped Judson but he came back on the descent and caught me with about 1 mile to go.  He really took off in the last mile and I didn’t have another gear.  I worked as hard as possible and was rewarded with a third place finish and over a minute improvement on my time from last year.
 
Place     Time     Name                Gend     Age       Club                  Points
1          27:27    Jim Johnson       M          34         CMS                  100.00
2          28:25    Judson Cake      M          34         Acidotic             96.60
3          28:40    Dave Dunham    M          47         CMS                  95.76
4          29:49    Danny Ferreira   M          29         Acidotic             92.06
5          30:33    Chris Jasparro    M          44         TNT                  89.85
6          31:06    Chris Dunn         M          43         Acidotic             88.26
7          31:52    Ryan Welts        M          31         Acidotic             86.14
8          33:44    Dan Hayden       M          25                                 81.37
9          33:53    Scott Mason      M          54         TNT                  81.01
10        34:22    Jason Massa      M          44         Acidotic             79.87
 
01-22-12 Constitution hill
Lots of fun at the WMAC race in WAY Western Mass.  When the horn sounded I immediately found myself in the lead, which was fine by me because it meant I could keep the pace slow.  I threw in some fast running on a little snowmobile track but TiVo then went by when we got back in the deep snow.  Tim M then took the lead for a little and we sat behind him until the loop was completed.  At that point I took off at a pace I knew I couldn’t maintain but I wanted to put some distance on Tim (M).  TiVo came along with me and very much like last year took the lead at 14 minutes in.  By the time we hit the base of the hill he had 13 seconds on me.  About ½ way up the 500’ climb I took the lead and he tucked in.  I snuck a look back to see Tim M and Ross Krause (both CMS teammates) not far behind.  Breaking trail is a lot of work!  TiVo said he’d take over whenever I wanted and just as we reached the summit ridge I waived him around.  He was off like a shot!  The ridge was untracked but nowhere near as deep as last year.  He motored away and I just tried to stay on my feet on stay in second place.  Not much changed in the last ½ mile of descending and TiVo took his first win of the year and I took second.  CMS took the first four places.
 
1 Tim Van Orden            32:58    m 43 CMS
2 Dave Dunham              33:40    m 47 CMS
3 Tim Mahoney              33:58    m 32 CMS
4 Ross Krause                34:18    m 32 CMS
5 Dave Merkt                 34:23    m 28
6 Steve Dowsett             34:55    m 23
7 Rich Teal                    35:08    m 33
8 Ashley Krause             38:16    f 34 CMS
9 John Agosto                38:37    m 47
10 Erik Wight                 38:52    m 52
 
Track workouts at the Dome with Dan
01/03/2012        6x800    2:41.2/2:41.3/2:39.7/2:41.2/2:38.6/2:41.1            483m    Hampshire Dome
01/10/2012        800/800/Mile/800/800     2:45.6/2:43.2/5:15.2/2:43.8/2:43.7          160/480/320/160/200     Hampshire Dome
01/17/2012        4x1 mile 300 rest            5:31.2 / 5:28.4 / 5:28.7 / 5:24.5  1:38/1:40/1:34/2:07       Hampshire Dome
01/24/2012        8x800 w 400 rest            241.0/241.1/241.3/241.8/240.3/241.1/242.4/241.6           400+     Hampshire Dome
01/31/2012        400/800/1200/1600/1200/800/400           78.9/242.1/401.6/522.0/400.7/240.9/77.9            115/51/205/329/211/47/142       me
 
 

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