Looking back (way back)

40 years ago: December (1979) - I raced four times in December of 1979. This was my sophomore year at Billerica Memorial High School (Go Indians! Crush Chelmsford!). As I recall the big goal of that year was to run a 2-mile faster than the fastest girl at BMHS. Sandi Cullinane ran 10:30, so it was a pretty lofty goal (which I did eventually meet). I picked up my first “Disqualified” in a race. The DQ was from “impeding the progress” of another runner. I kept accelerating whenever this guy tried to pass me and forced him to stay in the second lane. I’m still not sure exactly what I did wrong. I’m pretty sure we didn’t protest the DQ because we won the meet anyway. I only have one other DQ and I’d dispute that one as well. (I won an XC meet at Andover HS but must have gone off course. The course was very poorly (if at all) marked. Mike Busnach and I were so far ahead of the first Andover runner that we just ran what we thought was the correct course).  We kicked off the indoor season as we did back in those days with the Falmouth Invitational.  On 12/15 I ran a personal best for 2 miles taking 5^th place in 10:45. Two days later I finished in third place in a dual meet against Lawrence at Lawrence with an 11:09.  On 12/22 I ran 5:02 for the mile against Lowell at Lowell but was DQ’d.  I closed out the month with a personal best in the mile with a 5:02 at the Methuen Invitational.

35 years ago: December (1984) - This was during my sophomore year at the University of Lowell; it does not feel like 35 years ago. The first race was weird in that it was an “away” meet, but it was kind of a “home” meet as well. We did all of our track workouts at Tufts University (it would be another year or two before we started sneaking into Harvard and BU). We won the quad meet and had a strong showing in the two mile. Dennis Simoniaitis and I tied. Tom Chamberas ran 9:09 and Dave Quintal ran 9:10, I believe it was a PR for both.

My final race in December of 1984 was another quad meet, this time it was at BU against UMASS, S. Conn, and Bentley. We (me, Dave Q, and Chambo) took turns leading in the early going and somehow, I managed to get to the finish line first (just ahead of Dennis who I don’t recall helping with the early pacing). My 14:20.9 was an indoor personal best.  Soon after this race I ended up with plantar fascia problems that were bad enough that I was sidelined for three weeks. I worked-out hard in the pool and on the bike and was rewarded with a 14:12 and a fifth place finish at the national championships later that season.

30 years ago: December (1989) – I didn’t race at all this month I was recovering from “fatigue syndrome”.  I did put in 412 miles over the month with no days off.