Friday, March 12, 2021

40 years ago (March 1981):  I closed out my junior year indoor track season with a tenth place finish (9:35.7) at the Eastern championships in Princeton NJ. Although it was a personal best I was disappointed and noted that I “felt awful” during the race. 


In between indoor and outdoor track season I hit the roads for only the second (and third) time. I set a personal best at 5 miles and at 10 km, which is easy to do when you are running the distance for the first time! I finished 15th at the Shamrock 5m in Boston running 25:17 which was only good enough for 3rd in the 18 and under category.  BMHS teammate John Dangora was one of the juniors ahead of me. Splits: 5:03/5:10/5:02/5:05/4:57. Two weeks later I ran the Lechmere 10km in Peabody ($3 pre entry & $4 day of) and took 12th place in 32:04. I out-leaned Steve Perkins (Danvers) for the junior category win and took home a GE AM/FM digital alarm clock that I still have. That is the oldest race prize that I still have. On the last day of the month I started the outdoor season with a PR of 4:31.6 for the mile in a dual meet against Haverhill. It was only good enough for 2nd place as the Hillies Tom hinds took the win in 4:28.

 

Peabody Lechmere 10km 03/28/81

1 Greg Meyer      NBTC     29:04

2 Dick Buerkle     NYAC     29:35

   Doug Sweazey GBTC     29:55

3 Tim Donovan    NBTC     30:50

4 Jim Stronach    CTC       31:02

5 Gary Wallace    GBTC     31:05

6 Dean Kimball    UNH      31:12

7 Keith Brown                  31:13

8 Brad Hurst                   31:22

9 Paul Swenson               31:35

10 Stu Penn        WSSAC   31:43

11 Don Thompson CTC     31:49

12 Dave Dunham BMHS    32:04

13 Steve Perkins DHS      32:04

14 Joe Catalano BAA       32:04

15 Mark Kimball   BU        32:14

20 Patti Catalano AW        33:19

 


Final week of March 1981 (junior year at BMHS)  
Mon 03/23 – track workout mile 4:58, 2-mile 9:57  
Tue 03/24 – 4 miles, B-ball, 4 miles back  
Wed 03/25 – 10 miles hard (6:10’s)  
Thur 03/26 – 5 miles plus a little hill work  
Fri 03/27 – 6 miles quick  
Sat 03/28 – 10km race 32:04  
Sun 03/29 – 3 miles easy (tired)  
Mon 03/30 – Pre-meet 3 miles just screwing around  
Tue 03/31 – First race of outdoor track 4:31.6 (2nd pl)    

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