Looking back - 40, 35, and 30 years ago

 

40 years ago: December 1983

I missed three weeks after Cross-Country season ended with a badly sprained ankle.  No races in December as I slowly eased back into it with 250 miles.

 

35 years ago: December 1988

I only raced once during this month, I’m not sure why. I was healthy (354 miles for the month) but must not have found any races I wanted to do. My one race was the Mill Cities Relay where I ran the 2^nd leg which at the time was a 6.6 mile. I’m not sure of exactly where it went and I’m not even sure what team I ran for. I noted in my training log that my team took second place in 2:28:03 behind the Greater Lowell Road Runners who ran 2:25:27. I was racing for GLRR, so maybe I was on a “B” team? I ended up running 33:30 for 6.6 miles or 5:05 pace.

30 years ago: December 1993

I raced twice during this month mostly due to ankle woes (tendonitis). The first weekend in December found me out in Las Vegas at the USATF national convention. Lyndon Ellefson convinced me to go out there to help with the formation of a sub-committee for “Mountain running”. This would be the beginning of the Mountain Ultral Trail (MUT) council. We both ran in the delegate’s race 5km. I took 1^st in 16:04 and Lyndon finished in third place. I still have the deck of cards Lyndon gave me; on the Joker he wrote “Founding Member – Mountain council”. A week later I headed to Worcester MA for the CMS weekly 5km series. This was my 26^th time out to the series during 1993 which earned me a hooded sweatshirt. I ran 16:40 for first place that day. I was the only person in 1993 to not only win a series race (I won 17 of them) but I also finished dead last in one of them. Don Drewniak and I race-walked it on June 16^th taking next-to-last and last place respectively. I didn’t want to race that night as it was too close to the Mt Washington road race.