20 years ago – April 2004: Nothing much of note from this month, I
ran 340 miles with no days off and raced twice. I was working my way back
to “racing shape” and started the month with the Bow Lake 15k. My goal
was to run 6 minute miles (56:00). The course was quite hilly, but I
managed a fourth place finish in 56:19. Two weeks later I took on the Muddy
Moose 14 mile trail race. My Achilles was bothering me, and I never felt
good. I ended up taking 6th place in 1:40:27.
15 years ago – April 2009: I was feeling pretty good, finally
getting on a roll and I hit 343 miles for the month with no days off and four
races. I headed down to Brockton for the rarely run 3.75 mile distance.
In an unusual turn I had a good battle at the front of the pack. I ran
with another guy until 3 miles but couldn’t cover his final move. From my
blog: I led the race for the first 1/2 mile
then heard footsteps. The guy trailing me blew by me on the long downhill after
the tower. I kept close and pulled back even with him about 3/4 mile into the
race. It was good to have someone to work with. We hit the mile in 5:16, which
I knew could not be correct (with the hill and wind there was no way I went out
in 5:16). We stayed side by side for the next mile and hit 2 in 10:42 (5:26),
still short of 2 miles but maybe the second mile was about a mile long? We had
a slight tail wind for the third mile and hit that in 15:55 (5:13), which again
seemed too fast (short). Just as we hit 3 miles the guy took off and I
just couldn't respond. I kept him close over the last .75 but ended up in 2nd
place about 4 seconds back. I heard a few other people mention that the miles
were not right but that the distance was "close". The course is used
for a summer series as well (although they start further up and a few people
mentioned 3.8 as the correct distance for the loop we did). A week
later I made a rare appearance on the track at the George Davis
Invitational. I almost missed the start as they combined the men and
women moving our start up by 30 minutes. I ran a very even
(5:18/5:20/5:18) race finishing 6th in the field of 10 in 16:35. A week after
that I hit the road and struggled to another 16:35 (at the Chase the Gorilla
down Argilla). I closed out the month with yet another 5k this time in
Greenwich RI. From my blog: I was
hoping for sub 1630 and tried to head out strong. Stephanie Reilly led for the
first 400 then I moved into the lead with Eric Lonergan (who won last year in
1555). We ran side-by-side through 3km then I got a stride on Eric. It was
short lived as he blew by me at 2 miles. He had about 3-4 seconds on me by 4km
but I slowly reeled him back in. I figured my only shot was to get ahead of him
before the final 400 or I'd get out-kicked. Unfortunately (for me) I couldn't
get a lead and only just barely caught him as we hit the 3 mile mark. He
put the hammer down at that point and beat me by 4 seconds in the last .109,
even with me hitting 31.8 for that last part. I was pleased with the effort but
not so much with the time. I guess the breeziness and the warmth (70s) were
part of it, or maybe it just wasn't my day. Either way I took some solace in
getting $150.
1 16:39 5:22 ERIC LONERGAN
23 M N KINGSTOWN RI
2 16:43 5:23 DAVE DUNHAM
45 M WARD HILL MA
3 17:18 5:35 STEPHANIE
REILLY 31 F WHITINSVILLE MA
10 years ago: April 2014 – I struggled all month seemingly stuck
in some sort of training rut. I finally went to the doctor after a
terrible run at the James Joyce Ramble 10k and found out that I had walking pneumonia. That explained a lot!
1 David
Long 1/45 M4049 40 M
Beverly MA
17:03 5:29
2 Dave Dunham
1/38 M5059 50 M Bradford
MA 17:23 5:36
3 Nathan Hausman
1/36 M3039 35 M Wenham MA 17:36
5:40
4 Matthew
Curran 2/38 M5059 56 M Gloucester MA
17:50 5:45
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