15 Years Ago

15 years ago – (May 2005) - I had a pretty weird May with six races and four 40+ PRs. I did some odd distance races which accounts for the PR’s. I was sick a good part of the month with a sinus infection. I started the month (05/03/05) beating eight people to take the win at the Felton Frolic trail race which was hosted by Petey (at noon on a Tuesday). I ran 16:03 over 2.85 miles to beat Ken Tripp by a little over a minute.

1 16:03 Dave Dunham

2 17:22 Ken Tripp

3 20:13 Steve Peterson

4 20:18 Patrick Mousaw

5 21:38 John Piekos

6 25:50 John Parker

7 26:31 Dennis Lindenberg

8 27:22 Dave Wheat

9 27:40 Rich Busa



On 05-07-05 I got “girled” by some Providence College lady who broke the women’s CR at the Breakheart 6k (she had run 16:20/34:36/1:17:19 for 5k/10k/13.1). The race was held up for a while as part of the course was blocked by a fallen tree. It was incredibly windy. Somehow, I ended up winning $50 despite finishing in 8th place.  I believe Jim Pawlicki was the only person in the top 10 to not get money, either age group or overall!  Only 78 finishers despite a pretty decent amount of prize money.

1 17:55 Joe McAlister Providence

2 18:26 Jarrod Shoemaker Sudbury

3 19:45 Dan Verrington Bradford

4 19:57 James Pawlicki Beverly

5 20:07 Shawn Wallace Wakefield

6 20:18 John Ayers Beverly

7 21:13 Orla O’Mahoney Providence

8 21:24 Dave Dunham Bradford

The following weekend (05/14/05) Teammate Richard Bolt and I headed to Lake George for the Prospect Mountain race.  I felt awful and ran the entire race alone. Bolt took the win, beating me by over three minutes.  The sinus infection had basically knocked me out.  I ended up missing work the next day and sleeping through the entire day and took a rare day off for illness (as opposed to injury).

1 35:56 Richard Bolt CMS

2 39:17 Dave Dunham CMS

3 39:56 Matt Mallet

4 40:34 Devitt McKew

5 41:44 Nathan Jenkins



Then next day I met up with Team Gloucester for their Mt Washington Road Race preparation day.  I fun adventure from Peter Watson’s house to Doctor’s run hill and a post workout jump in the quarry.

On 05-22-05 I was still feeling awful, but it was the final year of one of my favorite Mountain races. I took 10th place overall at the Kearsarge hill climb. Kevin Tilton beat me by nearly 10 minutes!

1 52:25 Kevin Tilton

2 52:34 Josh Ferenc

3 54:42 Paul Low

4 54:56 Richard Bolt

5 56:24 Greg Colburn

6 56:36 Peter Maksimow

7 57:54 Ben Nephew

8 59:52 Randy MacNeil

9 60:54 Pat Conway

10 61:33 Dave Dunham



I’m not sure what I was thinking but for the final weekend of the month I decided to race twice!  On 05-28-05 I took 10th place at Wachusett Mountain. Paul Low won in 25:29, beating me by nearly 3 minutes but I did top the masters.

1 25:29 Paul Low CMS

2 25:55 Kevin Tilton CMS

3 26:14 Peter Maksimow CMS

4 26:29 Mario Fraioli BAA

5 26:31 Ben Nephew CMS

6 26:34 Greg Colburn MM

7 26:55 Paul Noone

8 27:09 Greg Ward MM

9 28:14 Jim Friedmen BAA

10 28:20 Dave Dunham CMS



The next day (05-29-05) I showed up at Trav’s trail run and somehow forgot to bring racing flats! I borrowed a pair of 9.5 (I wear 8.5) and had a decent run finishing 14th (3rd master) in 16:58.