Looking back - December 1978

 

45 years ago: December 1978

I started running in during my freshman year at Billerica High school. The first two races were indoor track meets, and I ran the mile in both races. I travelled with the team to Falmouth for the Falmouth Invitational on December 10 and ended up running my first “indoor track” race on the OUTDOOR track. I guess they wanted the meet to go faster so they held the mile and two-mile outside. I got third place in my heat of the mile running 5:24. Two weeks later I took four seconds off my PR running a 5:20 in a dual meet against Central at the Methuen field house.

Training log from my first day of running – Dec. 6, 1978

Oddly, I’d actually RACED before my first “official” day of running.  The  Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1978 was a day that was life changing.  I had done well in the President's Physical Fitness Test, but only in one thing...the 600 yard run.  Mike Granfield (the Billerica High School track coach) put on a "Pie race".  On a whim I entered the race which was approximately a mile of cross-country running behind the Middle School with a finish on the track.  It was mid-30's with a steady 15 mph wind.  I wore tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirt, and winter jacket since I didn't own anything more appropriate for the conditions.  I finished in fourth place running 5:24.  I was bitterly disappointed since the top 3 each won a pie.  Coach Granfield approached me after race and said, "I'll see you at practice".  I was surprised as I'd never considered running and asked, "what practice?" to which he replied, "You are running indoor track".  I agreed despite having no clear idea of what that meant.  So, 45 years later I'm still competing and thankful to Mike for convincing me to run.  I've even won a couple of pies along the way!  On that first day of practice he handed out photocopies of a training log and explained how important it was to keep track of mileage.  I took that advice to heart logging every day over the last 16,436 days.  The total of 158,501 miles works out to 9.62 miles per day.  Unfortunately I’ve also missed 2,032 days, which is about 44 days per year, or less than 1 day per week.