Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Looking back - August 2012

10 years ago: August 2012: I race 13 times this month! Kicked off the month with my first ever masters Track Championships. I made the most of the trip tripling up with the 5,000, 800, and 1,500. It was a cool trip as teammates Dan Verrington, Tim Van Orden, and (sometimes CMS) Francis  Burdett were participating. 

M45 5000 Meter Run
1 Duncan, Andrew        M45 Unattached           16:01.27           
2 Burdett, Francis         M47 Greater Spri           16:27.31           
3 Dunham, Dave           M48 Central Mass          16:53.82           
4 Sepulveda, Rene        M46 Asics Aggie            17:24.48           

M45 800 Meter Run
1 Summay, Landen        M46 RunningSpt 2:06.15Q 
2 Forde, Kevin              M48 Greater Phil 2:11.35Q 
3 Scholtz, Michael         M46 Atlanta TC   2:07.02Q 
7 Brown, Darin              M45 Mass Velocit 2:11.93q 
14 Dunham, Dave            M48 Central Mass 2:25.19 

M45 1500 Meter Run
1 Duncan, Andrew        M45 Unattached 4:14.56 
2 Summay, Landen       M46 Running Spt 4:16.58 
5 Burdett, Francis         M47 Greater Spri 4:22.99 
2 Dunham, Dave           M48 Central Mass 4:40.98 
13 Brown, Darin            M45 Mass Velocit 4:42.98 


Next up was the River Rivals track meet, I decided that it was time to drop down to some shorter races and see if I could break some of my master’s personal bests (PR). My plan was to run (in order) the 800 meters, 400 meters, and the mile. I won the 800 in 2:22.7 for a new masters PR. I hadn’t raced a 400 since High School and my masters PR (from a track workout) was 1:11. I almost caught one guy as I hit the finish in 68.1 to PR by nearly 3 seconds. Next up was the mile and if I ran over 5:10 I’d be disappointed. After a slow start I increased the pace and I managed a 74.1 for the last lap and crossed the line in 5:09.3 1st pl.


A few days later I decided that the Epsom Old Home days four mile was the   best option.  The course was an out & back with a little parking lot loop at the turn which made the turn better than doing a 180 around a cone. I felt sluggish warming up and I was drenched from the near 100% humidity.  I took the lead at 2 miles and went on to a 45 second victory (and a course record).


Dave Dunham   M 48 Bradford MA         GCS      22:16
Jason Bender    M 18 Amherst NH          GCS      23:01
Joe Morasse      M 32 Nashua NH           GCS      23:08
Justin Soucy     M 31 Hudson NH           GCS      23:19
Geoff Dunbar    M 41 Hanover NH          UVRC   23:42
Mike Giberti      M 20 Bridgewater MA     GDTC 23:58
Michael Fraysse M 40 Derry NH             GDTC  24:00




Dan Verrington and I headed to Newburyport for the final track meet in the River Rivals series. I convinced Dan that we'd have fun trying the 100 meters and he agreed, so we signed up for that along with the 2m and 800. A bunch of kids from St John’s prep were at the meet so we had company.  Dan and I did our thing in the 2 mile switching off ever 800.  Dan took off at the mile but reeled him back in to take a 4 second win.  He had revenge putting a beating on me in the 800 (by 1 big second).  We were the only ones in the 100 not using blocks and I got a good start but Dan flew by about 50m in and both of us laughed out loud as he put a lot of ground on me. I ended up 5th in a field of 5 running a life-time Personal Best of 16.9.  Dan and I may be the only guys around who have raced both 100 meters and 100 KM. 


2 Mile
Dave Dunham 10:40
Dan Verrington 10:44
Jake Smith 11:11


Dan signed on at the last minute to do the opening leg of the Moose on the loose relay which freed me up from doing two legs.   My hope was to take a few seconds off my time from last year (I ran 13:23 in the first leg in 2011). Running the anchor leg was fun as there were plenty of people to catch. I hit the finish in 13:23. The same time as last year! Our team took the victory in the four man relay.


140 M Bradford MA       DRC ACES                                 1:02:27 6:15
152 M Bedford   NH       RICHMONDS                             1:07:52 6:48
52 F Amherst    NH       GRANITE STATE FLASH I           1:08:50 6:53
37 M Amherst   NH       GRANITE STATE FLASH IV         1:08:54 6:54
47 M Chelmsford MA     TEAM MURPHY                         1:09:13 6:56


Three days later and I was back at it for the Lynn Woods Relay.  I was the anchor leg again.  I got the baton from Dan and we were over 1:30 down, so I knew the win was out of the question but ran for all I was worth.  I pushed right to the finish and was very disappointed to run a 14:24 for my leg. That was 19 seconds slower than last year, which is a big chunk of change over such a short distance (although all times seemed way off this year).


CMS Masters: Greg Putnam (13:41) Joe Shairs (14:27) Dan Verrington (15:10) Dave Dunham (14:24)


1 GREATER BOSTON TRAIL CLUB          56:05
2 CMS MASTERS                                   57:42
3 NEC ALL STARS                                  59:19
4 WICKED SALEM                                  1:00:04
94 Teams




I headed down to North Carolina for the third consecutive year to compete in the U.S. 10km trail championships. Todd Callaghan (Gate City Striders) joined me for the trip and we had fun on Thursday and Friday checking out the highest point in the state among other cool stuff. In the race I was pleased to hold  onto the top spot in the 45-49 and very surprised with the top ten finish. I ended up running 46:19 which was 24 seconds faster than I’d run last year! 


1 41:20 David Roche     24 NC Bull City TC
2 42:41 Bobby Mack      27 NC
3 44:07 Duncan Hoge   24 NC Bull City TC
6 44:50 Jason Bryant    40 NC Appalachian Mtn Goats
7 45:29 Chad Newton    42 NC Atlanta TC
8 45:42 Todd Callaghan 42 MA Gate City Striders
9 46:19 Dave Dunham  48 MA Central MA Striders


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