Looking back - 40 years ago

40 years ago- April 1980: I raced 7 times over the month of April during my Sophomore year at Billerica Memorial High school. I had some big improvement over this month, as I set 6 personal bests over the 7 races. On 04-07-80 I took 2^nd place in the 2m in a dual meet versus Lawrence at Billerica. We raced on the Middle School track which was up on a hill and always seemed to be windy. My teammate Jack Healey won the race in 10:32 and I came in four seconds later with a new outdoor track personal best (10:36). Five days (04-12-80) later Jack and I teamed up with Eric Thissel and my next door neighbor Paul Bradford in the 4x880 at the Wilmington Invitational. We took 2^nd place in 8:32 and I took 10 seconds off of my fastest ½, running a 2:08. Two days (04-14-80) later I raced the mile at Dracut in a dual meet and ended up with a win and a personal best with a 4:43. That knocked off 12 seconds from my previous best.  Three days later (04-17-80) I was back in the mile in a dual meet at Lowell versus Central. Teammate Dan Sullivan took the win in 4:32 and I dropped a surprising 10 seconds off my PR to run a 2^nd place 4:33 (splits of 65/71/71/66). A week later (04-24-80) it was back to the 2 mile. This time teammate John Dangora and I worked together and tied for first place in 10:08. That knocked 28 seconds off my previous best. Three days later (04-27-80) Dangora, Sullivan, Dennis Cullinane and I teamed up for the 4x1 mile at the State Relays in Andover. We ran a school record of 18:27 while finishing in second place to Lexington (18:27). I ran a 4:35 for my leg.  Two days later (04-29-80) I finished out the month with another 2 mile, in a dual meet at Wilmington. I got in a battle with Carl Borgeson (Wilmington) and we traded back and forth throughout the race. I ended up losing by 1 second, 9:52 to 9:53 with Borgeson and I both setting new personal bests. I was upset that I lost the race and remember Coach Mike Granfield telling me something like “you can’t be discouraged about losing if you pushed yourself and the other guy to personal bests”.

Post-meet antics on the bus.  I'm the eye in the lower left.