Looking back September 2000

 20 years ago Sept 2000 – I had a decent month, covering 416 miles (despite a sprained ankle on the 18^th), I also raced five times with the last three races being “tune-ups” for my first Ultramarathon race.  I started the month with a win at the Hochgrat Berglauf in Oberstaufen Germany.  Dan Verrington, Paul Low and I were training and racing in Austria and Germany and chose this as our final race before the mountain running world championships.  I ended up with a win covering the 3.76 miles with 2,800’ of climb in 33:07. 

 1 Dunham 33:07 USA   2 Low 33:45 USA    3 Green 33:55 AUS    6 Verrington 34:34 USA

The following week I missed my goal of a top 10 finish at the World Mountain Running Championships (Bergen, Germany) taking 12^th over the 7.3 mile course with a brutal climb of just under 5,000’ in 51:33.  Thirty countries were represented in the men’s race with 140 finishers.  The day started with an open race which included Dan Verrington (who traveled as the ‘alternate’).  He ended up in third place running 54:43. Eric Morse noted (somewhat tongue in cheek) “I’d rather be last in the championship race than first in the open race”.

1 47:29 Jonathan Wyatt NZL

2 49:48 Hans Kogler AUT

3 50:16 Alexis Gex-Fabry SUI

4 50:31 Thomas Gregor GER

5 50:39 Sergio Chiesa ITA

6 50:47 Raymond Fontaine FRA

7 50:50 Billy Burns           ENG

8 50:59 Martin Cox           ENG

9 51:18 Helmut Schmuck AUG (former world champ)

10 51:25 Massimo Galliano ITA

11 51:30 Uli Steidl           GER

12 51:33 Dave Dunham    USA

15 51:44 Antonio Molinari ITA (former world champ)

17 52:05 Marco De Gasperi ITA (former world champ)

30 53:27 Richard Shelley   USA

37 53:59 Eric Morse         USA

63 55:57 Matt Carpenter   USA

81 57:54 Paul Low           USA

94 59:21 Scott Gall          USA

 

Next up was a trail race with Steve Peterson at Pisgah Mountain.  Keith Schmitt hung with us until late in the race at which point I told Petey “I’m going to make sure one of us wins”.  Soon thereafter I got nervous that Schmitt might be able to outkick both of us so I pushed the pace and dropped both of them.  I won over the 25k distance (15.5 miles) in 1:37:52 and Petey took second in 1:38:38 and Keith took third in 1:38:56. 

 

The following weekend I won the Clarence Demar Marathon in Keene NH with a 2:29:10. My goal was to run as “slowly” as possible to get the win.  I was starting a three week stretch of racing a marathon, marathon, and 100k and the marathons were more of a tune-up for the big race. 

1   2:29:11 Dave Dunham 36M Bradford, MA

2   2:37:09 Alden Hall       30M Washington, DC

3   2:39:27 Jeff Day          30M Olmstead, OH

4   2:40;21 Eric Beauchesne 30M Chelmsford, MA

5   2:24:02 George Adams 30M Keene, NH

 

I followed that up with my second marathon win in six days taking first at the hilly NH Marathon with a 2:43:10.  I won despite three bathroom stops, which really freaked out the lead police vehicle as he had no idea why I left the course and went into the woods.  I think he figured it out by the third time.  This was my final preparation for the Chancellor 100k and it also earned me a bunch of “rat points” in the Hockomock Swamp Rat series.