Looking back

40 years ago – April 1979: I ran 127 miles and took 7 days off during the first full month of outdoor track during my freshman year at Billerica High School.  I raced six times, mostly in dual-meet races.  I started the month with a third place 2 mile versus Central Catholic (11:47).  Five days later I lowered my PR by nearly a minute running a 10:50.4 and placing fourth in a meet against Dracut on our home track at the Marshall Middle school.  Two days later I ran a 11:00 2 mile against Tewksbury and followed that up a week later with a 10:58 versus Wilmington.  After that I ran a 2:25 for a half-mile leg in the Class Relays.  I closed out the month with an uninspired 11:18 2-mile in a dual meet against Andover.  In all I scored 14 points towards my letter.  I’m not sure how many points you needed but I ended up getting the outdoor track letter (a large green “B”).

35 years ago – April 1984: I only ran 255 miles with five days off due to a badly sprained ankle during the start of my sophomore outdoor track season at the University of Lowell.  I opened the month with the Fitchburg relays 5,000 meters.  We used to call it the “iceberg relays” because it seemed to always be cold and rainy at this early season meet.  Dennis Simoniatis and I planned to tie, doing the race as a hard workout.  We ran splits of 4:41, 4:48, and 4:38 for a 5k of 14:32.  Twelve days later I ran my first 10,000 meter track race at the BC relays.  My goal was to break 30:30 which was the qualifying standard for the NCAA National championships (D2).  I ran splits of 4:44, 4:50, 4:49, 4:50, 4:52, 4:56, and 70 for a 30:12.  That put me over a minute behind the winner (Sapienza 28:55).