30 years ago: I ran 6 races during this month in 1993 but three of those were CMS series that I either used as a workout or ran very easy due to other race commitments. I was doing a bunch of the series races in hopes of picking up a sweatshirt if I completed 26 of them. I started the month with a win over a field of 27 runners at the CMS series with a 16:56 on a snowy sleety day. The next day (03/07/93) I topped 565 runners at the NEAC 30km championships in 1:40:14 on a windy and 45 degree day. Teammate Dan Verrington pushed the pace from 10-12 miles, but I was able to gap him after that and crossed the line 35 seconds in front (1:40:14).
A week later it was back to Worcester for an easy jog through of the series race finishing mid-pack in 19:47. A week later I ran 20:41 as a warm-up to the New Bedford ½ marathon which would be the following day (03/21). I opened the race with a hard first mile to see who was interested in going with me. A small pack formed as we covered the rolling first 4 miles in a bit under 5 minute pace. The race heated up from there with Mike Slinskey, Ed Sheehan, Rachid Tbhai, Dan Verrington and Dennis Simonaitis all joining in the fun.
Between 6-8 it was down to Danny V, Dennis and me. Dan was happily chuckling every mile split as he kept setting PR’s. Although there was a little snow and rain the conditions were quite good as there was little wind.
Dan fell off after 10 miles and I tried to drop Dennis on the hill at 12 miles but he stuck like glue. We were stride for stride until about 50 meters to go when I got a step on him and was able to finish 2 strides ahead for the win.
The race had previously been a big money race but had ZERO money this time which meant a lot of big names didn’t race. The news hadn’t reached USADA who showed up to conduct testing. It took FOREVER to produce a sample.
I closed out the month the following weekend with another win at the CMS series. I topped the field of 63 finishers with a sub-15 effort (14:54).
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