October 1980 - 40 years ago

 

40 Years ago (Oct 1980):  I raced six times during this month which was the meat of my junior year of cross-country racing at Billerica Memorial High School.  I only ran 169 miles during the month with six days off early in the month.  I kicked off the month with a win at home versus Austin Prep.  With splits of 5:00, 5:13, and 5:20 I took first in 15:33.  A week later I tied with teammate John Dangora in a dual meet at Wilmington, both of us running 15:33 over the 3 mile course.  Four days later I noted that I “felt tired” as I went out with the leaders in the first mile (4:46) of the Catholic Memorial race at Franklin Park.  I sputtered to a sixth place finish over the 2.9 mile course in 15:21.  Three days later I went to a fight and a cross-country meet broke out.  Billerica versus Tewksbury dual meet at Tewksbury high school.  John Dangora and I were in the lead pack with a couple of Tewksbury runners.  Elbows were thrown and there was some pushing and shoving.  We got behind the school and John said something like “are we going to race or fight”.  It turned out we’d do both.  I took off and won the race (2.7 miles in 13:10), John took fourth.  When Tewksbury runner Nick Romano crossed the line John threw a punch and the brawl ensued.  I remember Coach Mike Granfield ending up on top of both of them and eventually separated them.  What a wild dual meet!  Four days later I took 5th place at the Northern Area Championship XC race at Bradley Palmer State park (3m in 15:54) on a cold and windy day.  The weird part was during the race people kept yelling “Go Dave” which was surprising since Billerica didn’t race often in that area. I was excited that so many people knew me, right up until the finish when I found that everyone was actually yelling for Dave Quintal.  The final meet of the month was another tie, this time with teammate Mike Bushnach.  The top 4 runners from Methuen did not run the dual meet as it was only a few days before the next big meet at Franklin Park.  Snatch and I tied in 15:30 over the three mile course.