Looking back December of 2005 & 2010

15 years ago (December 2005): I was working my way back from a hamstring injury and only raced once during this month (at the very end).  I was only doing one run a day and managed 171 miles.  I’m not sure why I chose to do the Millennium mile but maybe because teammates Eric Morse and Kevin Tilton were racing. I managed a 4:45 for the downhill mile placing 56^th out of 674 finishers and was 7^th in the masters.  Kevin ran a 4:17 with Eric a step behind in 4:18.   

                                                                        

10 years ago (December 2010): I only raced twice during this month, I had been aiming toward the USATF XC national championships since CMS was fielding a master’s team and I hoped to score for the team.  We flew down to Charlotte and had a lot of fun catching up with teammates. Since the race wasn’t until the afternoon Eric Morse and I killed a little time in the morning bagging the Mecklenburg county high point (just a stroll in someone’s front yard). The first loop of the course was mostly dirt “trail”, probably more of a dirt road than trail. It was plenty wide and had no sharp turns to worry about. A form of that loop would be done three times and the only hill would be negotiated three times as well. It was a good 50’ climb over a short distance with the downhill in about 100m or less, rumor had it the course was about 6.3 miles.  The day was ideal with temps in the 40s, a little cloud cover, and no wind.

I saw Jason Cak, Francis, Byrne, and a slew of other fast guys that I knew. It was wild seeing so many fast people lining up.

Eric took the line and I got behind him, since everyone needed to line up behind the one runner allowed on the start line. 

I got out well and hit the mile in 5:39 with Dave Quintal a couple of seconds ahead.  I passed about 10 guys on the first time down the hill and kept DQ in sight as my second mile was 5:45. I began to notice a lot of guys in front of me with 50-55 on their back (we had age group numbers on our backs).  I tried to pick off guys as the crowd seemed to thin as I hit 5km in 17:40. Soon after I saw teammate Greg Putnam standing on the side of the trail.  Greg jumped back in and followed me through a 5:44 mile that included the hill.  No one passed me in the next mile but the gap to DQ was now 15 seconds. I latched onto GLRR’s Mark Reeder and a guy in the 60-64 age group!  Greg went by and I couldn’t go with him.  I crossed the line in of 35:44 which is pretty close to my best 10km time as a master, so I was pleased.

The team did well, finishing 13th of 26 teams. I was the fifth man or the final scoring member of the team, but Scott Clark (35:53) and Rod Viens (36:01) were close behind.  We didn’t really stay much longer, just cleaned up a bit and headed for the airport. It was a quick trip but a lot of fun.                                                                      

USATF XC National Championships - Charlotte, NC December 11, 2010 - Individual results (389 finishers)

Pl          Time     Name                Age Team                      Category Cat Place

1           32:36.0 Peter Magill        49 Compex Racing           M45-49              1

2           32:47.8 Chris Cushing      43 Compex Racing           M40-44              1

3           32:52.2 Mike Livingston   45 Asics Aggie RC            M45-49              2

7           33:16.5 Francis Burdett    45 GSH *                        M45-49              3 *Sometimes runs for CMS

37         34:26.8 Eric Morse          45 CMS                          M45-49              12

67         35:09.3 George Adams    40 CMS                          M40-44              39

82         35:38.7 David Quintal      47 CMS                          M45-49              25

85         35:42.0 Greg Putnam      41 CMS                          M40-44              46

86         35:44.5 Dave Dunham     46 CMS                          M45-49              26

93         35:53.9 Scott Clark          44 CMS                          M40-44              49

100       36:01.8 Rod Viens           43 CMS                          M40-44              54

 

Teams:

1 Compex Racing 50

2 Atlanta TC        57

3 Dirigo              147

13 CMS              281

 

The final full week of December had me traveling out to Woodford Vermont for the “I Love Woodford” 3.5 mile snowshoe race.  This was the 7th time I’d made the trek to Woodford.  I drove the three hours to the race site a bit early so that I’d have plenty of time to mark the course prior to the race.  Double-J (Jim Johnson) joined me and we were surprised to find the snow well packed and the course super-fast.  The only problem we had was the icy layer under the snow which made for fast running but made it really difficult to put out flags.  After marking the course I changed into my race gear and headed out to try and loosen up.  I gave it my best and ended up running my fastest time at Woodford by over two minutes!  JJ won in a new course record, just crushing the course in a truly amazing 20:28.  Teammate Tim Van Orden (TiVO) took second running in 21:01 and I rolled in at 22:14 for third place.