10 years ago

10 years ago (May 2010) – I had been off for 5 weeks after Topaz surgery for my plantar fascia and the second week of May saw me getting back to running again!  In the middle of the month I headed up North to see Eric Morse get inducted into his high school hall of fame.  The high point was running with Eric and Francis Burdett on Sunday and checking out the somewhat rickety observation tower on top of Vista Peak in Bolton Valley (Pictured below).



The following weekend I set the course at Northfield Mountain, hiking it once then running it again and putting out mile markers.  Paul Baz joined me which made the long day on my feet go by a lot quicker.  I was able to head out 20 minutes after the race started and sweep the course (pick up the flagging and make sure everyone made it in).  That saved a lot of time after the race and gave me the opportunity to possibly run all of the Mountain Series races.  It is one of the rare occasions when I’ve finished last in a race. 

  

The final week of the month included a couple of “tests”.  I slowly upped the mileage and decided to go to Danvers for the weekly 5km to see where my leg speed is.  It was a hot night, over 80 degrees, but after a nice preview of the course I ran 18:10 trailing Jim Pawlicki the entire way.  I was pleased as I had hoped to run around 6:00 pace and due to the courses slightly extra length, exceeded my goal pace. 

1 17:23 James Pawlicki

2 18:10 Dave Dunham

3 19:28 Justin Jones



The other test was seeing how my foot would feel on rougher terrain.  I ran the Wachusett Mountain race, which is now mostly a trail race with a lot of up and down.  The plan was to run with Paul K as he was planning on running the up portion hard and not get hurt on the descent.  I started out with Paul and it felt pretty fast to me.  I began to worry that maybe I wasn’t in very good shape until we hit the mile in 7:27 which was only 29 seconds slower than my time last year.  We took the downhill very slowly and carefully.  Once we hit the dirt road climb Paul fell back and I decided to reel in the guys who had passed us on the descent.  I had a solid climb up to the highest point we reached (which isn’t the summit) then just tried to maintain position on the screaming fast descent back to the ski lodge.  All in all I’d call the race a good test for me, my foot felt no worse in the days after. 



Below: “Action Dave” courtesy of the Tripp family.