15 Years ago – December 2007: I was busy during this month, racing seven times but accumulating less than 17 miles of “fast” stuff. I started the month with a 5k race at the USATF convention in Honolulu. It was hot and humid despite starting at 7 am and we got caught in a downpour during the race. I was in a pack with the top four but fell off at 2 miles and ended up in fifth place in 17:21. A week later I hit the “Assault on Mt Hood” XC race, which is one of my favorites. I’ve run it a few times and it seems like every time I go there, they have a new, interesting, difficult course. This year there was 2-4” of snow on the ground which made it especially tricky. I tried to keep Dan Verrington and Jim Pawlicki in sight and ended up taking 10th place in 18:04. I was 11 seconds behind Dan and 2 back from Jim. Next up was the B.U. mini meet the following week. This 3-week series is popular and attracts all levels of ability. I took 10th of 16 in the slow heat of the 3,000. The action was intense, and I battled back and forth with Craig Fram’s son (who ended up out-kicking me). I was pleased with a masters PR 9:34.3. The next week I was back at it again, this time taking 19th of 20 in my heat of the 3,000. I took five seconds off my time from the week before. I stuck around for the mile, which is the last event, and set another masters PR with a 4:59.2. The final week of the series had me back in the 3,000 in the slow heat where I dropped another 3 seconds running a 9:26.4 which remains my masters PR. I took 6th place in a field of 13. The next day I closed out the month with a 24:36 at the Woodford snowshoe race placing second behind Josh Ferenc (who was out of sight right from the start).
10 Years ago - December 2012: I started the month with a trip to Daytona for the USATF Convention.
The Convention hosts had a 5km race on the beach. I hadn’t been there since Spring Break in college and only vaguely recall a lot of drinking and a lot of long hot runs. I felt pretty good and was hoping to run a fast time. The tide was coming in so we were losing the best packed sand as time went on. Just over 100 lined up and we took off into the wind for the first half-mile. I took it out and found myself in the lead at the ½ mile (2:43). At the turn two guys went by and Jason Bryant and I tucked in. Both guys looked strong and were chatting the entire time, obviously this wasn’t a fast pace for them. I kept them close through 2 miles (10:36) but right at the two-mile mark they took off. Just after two miles I had a spasm in my calf. That was the first time it had done that in over a year. I immediately backed off the pace and tried to not “toe-off”. I was still hoping to break 17:00 but the combination of the calf and the strong head-wind worked against me. Little did I know Richard Bolt was reeling me in as the leaders put 30 seconds on me. Richard passed Jason around two miles and nearly got me at the line. The two leaders ran in together and later I found that respectively they had run 13:25 for 5k and 2:13 for the marathon earlier this year. I wonder if they even broke a sweat running 5:20 pace? The top woman was also an elite runner, 51 year-old Doreen McCoubrie ran a 2:50 marathon last year and had qualified for the Olympic trials at age 48.
Pl Time Name City/St Age Gend AG Pl
1 16:39 Patrick Rizzo Boulder CO 29 M 1
2 16:40 Brandon Bethke Lake Forest CA 25 M 2
3 17:10 Dave Dunham Bradford MA 48 M 1
4 17:12 Richard Bolt Mtn View CA 42 M 2
5 17:23 Jason Bryant Elkin NC 40 M 3
9 18:37 Jim Garcia Westford MA 54 M 2
10 18:46 Doreen McCoubrie Malvern PA 51 F 1
17 20:04 Paul Kirsch Madison NH 46 M 6
29 21:24 Stephen Peckiconis Roslindale MA 53 M 9
I closed out the month running the “I survived the end of the world 4 mile” in Concord NH (Now known as Perry’s Birthday race – results above). Some other fun during the month included an 18 mile training run with CMS teammates on the Topsfield Rail trail and a trip to Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi with Eric Morse.
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