Looking back - November 1995

30 years ago (November 1995): I covered 378 miles with no days off and raced four times over the month. I started the month with a win at the “Four in the Fall” 4 mile race put on by the Winner’s Circle. I ran as easy as possible to get the win as I was doing an XC race the next day. I stuck with the lead pack for the first 3 miles then took the lead to win in 20:46. The next day I was off to Nobles & Greenough for a rolling, twisting, 5km cross-country race. I took the lead in the early going but sort-of teammate (CMS/Sev) Bill Bland blew by at the end and held me off. We both broke the old CR of 15:33, set by Dave Vona in 1992.

 
1 15:18 William Bland 26 M Boston CMS/Sev’s
2 15:19 Dave Dunham 31 M Bradford CMS
3 15:33 Jamal Prince 25 M Woburn CMS/Sev’s
 
A week later it was back to Franklin Park for the USATF NE XC championship held under windy, wet, and cold conditions. Our CMS team lost to the Boston Running club by a total of 29 seconds. I had a pretty crappy race finishing 36th in 32:09 in a field of 169.
 
1 Terrance Mahon 29:55 REEBOK ENCLAVE
2 Gary Griffen 29:58 NEW BALANCE COASTAL
3 Seamus McElliot 30:04 NIKE FLEET FEET
23 Mike Nahom 31:28 5:05 28 CMS
24 Scott Bagley 31:29 5:05 32 CMS
27 Gary Gardner 31:40 5:06 24 CMS
36 Dave Dunham 32:09 5:11 31 CMS
37 Dan Verrington 32:12 5:12 33 CMS
38 Craig Fram 32:14 5:12 37 CMS
 
 
I closed out the month with a solid run at the Feaster Five on Thanksgiving Day. The race started late due to a big bump in race day entrants (8,000!). It was cold (30’s) and windy but the times were hot (they had some $$$ for top finishers back then). I went into the lead fairly early and battled with Joe Rocha. It looked like a 2-man race right up until the final hill when George Yiannelis went blowing by us. He stormed to a win tying the course record (24:07) and I finished less than a second back with Rocha two more ticks behind.
 
1 24:07 George Yiannelis 24M Medford, MA
2 24:08 Dave Dunham 31M Bradford, MA CMS
3 24:10 Joe Rocha 30M Peabody, MA
4 24:28 Ethan Crain 23M Boston, MA
5 24:43 Christopher Bianchi 27M Medford, MA
6 24:48 Byrne Decker 28M Londonderry, NH CMS
7 24:54 Dan Verrington 33M Bradford, MA CMS
8 25:05 Scott Clark 29M Gilmanton, NH CMS
9 25:19 Rod Viens 28M Claremont, NH CMS

USATF New England XC championships

 I was hoping I was ready to return to racing as I hadn’t toed the line since getting injured back in mid-August.  The USATF NE cross-country championships was on my calendar for a while and I was (sort of) looking forward to this.  I put in a couple of workouts leading up to the race but was feeling sluggish as I have for these last 3 months.  On race morning I hit the road early to try and loosen up with a 3 mile run.  It was much slower than I’d hoped for as the effort and time did not match.  I was hopeful I’d feel better at Franklin Park.

 

I got to the race site a little early and had plenty of time to walk around a bit and check out the new course.  Construction at White Stadium meant some of the course needed to be rerouted. It really wasn’t much different from previous versions except we’d be on a bit more pavement and would be taking on Bear Cage hill three times over the 8km (5m) course.

 

It was nice seeing so many familiar faces setting up team tents and catching up on goings on.  Teammate Ernst Linder joined me for a loop of the course and Scott Mindel fresh off a 2:27 marathon the day before (!) caught us at 1.5 miles and ran with us and Tim Van Orden for another loop.  The course was in decent shape despite the rain overnight.  There was some standing water and a bit of mud but most of it could be avoided.  I’d be extra cautious on the turns as they tended to be slick.  I struggled through the warm-up again feeling that it was much faster than the 9+ minutes per mile we were doing.  I switched into Inov-8 trail running shoes which I hoped would give me enough support and more importantly keep me from slipping.  My main goal was to not get hurt and I also hoped to be under 35 minutes as that seems to be what my training and workouts would indicate.  A far cry from the 31:39 I’d run for 5 miles back in August!

 

81 runners made up the masters field (40+ age groups) and I found myself well back in the first 100 meters heading out into the Wilderness section of the course.  I kind of found my rhythm and passed a few people.  After ½ mile I would only pass another 3 people and that was before the mile.  After that, I ran the race alone with no one within 30 seconds of me. It was a little tough with the wind gusting to 30 mph, but mostly it was not terrible.  It just felt more like a run on my own than a race.  The XC championships tends to just draw the most serious of the serious runners so after a certain time there just aren’t many runners out there.  I figured I’d be running mostly alone so it was not a surprise.  One guy flew by me at 4 miles but other than that there was no passing one way or the other.  I only looked at my watch once (at the mile) as I felt like I was running as hard as I could and the time really wouldn’t make a difference.  I chugged into the finish in 35:18, well over my goal and way back in my age group.  I never felt good during the race and struggled to just keep going.  It was nice getting encouragement along the way and I gave what I had on that day.  I limped through a 1 mile warm-down and called it a day.

 

Our team had a solid race taking 4^th, but only 7 points out of first.  With three scoring and a small field the team scores were pretty low.  Teammate Erik Vandendries had a solid race taking 2^nd in the 60+ trailing only my college teammate Jason Cakorous.

 

60+ Team results

1 HFC           20

2 GSH           22

3 GLRR         24

4 CMS           27

5 BAA           36

 

60+ Individual results

1        31:12  Jason Cakorous      HFC

2        31:36 Erik Vandendries     CMS

3        31:54  Mark Hixson            GSH

4        32:10  Constantino Rago    BAA

5        32:50  Alejandro Heuck      GSH

6        33:41  David Westenberg   GLRR

7        33:44  Robert McCormack   HFC

8        33:58  John Barbour          GLRR (70+)

9        35:18  Dave Dunham         CMS

10      35:35  Barry Sussman        Notch

16      39:03  Ernst Linder            CMS

 

 

 

Looking back - November 1990

 

35 years ago: November 1990 - I covered 372 miles with no days off and only raced once during this month. I made it worthwhile with a 26th place finish at the Columbus Marathon. Columbus was the fall marathon to do this year as it was the National Championship and it was the same course that the Olympic trials would be conducted on in 1992. It was also the first date to qualify for the trials, which I did with my sub-2:20 time. I ran a fairly evenly split race slowing only a bit in the final 10k. 10km splits: 32:20 / 32:26 / 32:54 / 34:18

Week Ending 11/16/25

Not the week I was looking for.  I dropped down to "normal" mileage and hoped I'd start feeling better.  I ended up feeling WORSE.  I did have a decent workout mid-week that gave me hope for the NE XC champs but felt absolutely out of gas before I even started the race.  I took advantage of the time off from work (furlough ended but I still had vacation time AND will still need to take nearly 3 weeks before the end of the year!) and ran some interesting locations picking up a bunch of town high points.  I guess if I can say I had fun then it was a good week!

Week - 84

Month - 196

Year - 3,666

Life - 166,442

nice location for an XC workout (although my knee and ankles paid for the uneven surface)

New England XC championships - my history

 

Although I've done over 200 cross country races (202) I've only run the USATF NE championships 11 times.  My best finish was 1987 when I placed 3rd.  This weekend will be my second foray as a 60+ runner.  That field is MUCH deeper than it was last year...and I'm a lot slower.  Still, looking forward to racing!

Date	Location	St	Dist.	Time	PL	Fin	Info	Type	40+	50+	60+
11/15/87	Marlborough	MA	6.21	29:57	3	300	NEAC Championships	XC
11/13/88	Smithfield	RI	6.21	32:19	12	200	NEAC Championships	XC
11/12/89	Smithfield	RI	6.21	32:15	17	154	NEAC Championships	XC
11/15/92	Smithfield	RI	6.21	30:55	4	95	NEAC Championships	XC
11/12/95	Boston	MA	6.21	32:08	36	159	USATF NE  XC	XC
11/18/12	Westfield	MA	4.96	27:54	13	84	USATF NE  XC	XC	13
11/09/14	Boston	MA	4.96	29:06	30	119	USATF NE  XC	XC		6
11/05/17	Boston	MA	4.96	29:47	45	106	USATF NE  XC	XC		15
11/06/22	Boston	MA	4.96	31:29	33	93	USATF NE  XC	XC		13
11/05/23	Boston	MA	4.96	32:31	65	108	USATF NE  XC	XC		24
11/17/24	Attleboro	MA	5.02	33:48	50	88	USATF NE  XC	XC			2

Looks like I'm leading but there are at least 10 in front of me.  1988 New England XC champs