Looking back - 2006 and 2011

 20 years ago (October 2006) – A tough month with injury issues (knee – Baker’s cyst and tendonitis and ankle - tendonitis).  On (10/15/2006) I joined my CMS teammates Dan Verrington and Ben Nephew at the USATF trail marathon championships in Dupont Forest (NC).  We picked up the team gold with Ben taking the overall victory.  Dan won gold in the masters and I picked up silver.  The course was a nice mix of single-track and dirt roads but was somewhat short of the official marathon distance (back then we didn’t have GPS devices).           

1 Ben Nephew                   31 Foxboro MA                  Central Mass Striders             2:39:17

2 Loic Laforet                    29 Hendersonville NC                                            2:40:33

3 Chad Newton                 36 Pisgah Forest NC                                            2:41:19

4 Dan Verrington     44 Bradford MA       Central Mass Striders         2:44:02

5 Alex Barth            34 Wayne PA                    Rosemont Racing                  2:48:44

6 David Workman    35 Hendersonville NC                                      2:53:41

7 Dave Dunham      42 Bradford MA       Central Mass Striders         2:56:05

8 Bob Nuggent                  45 Binghamton, NY NYAC                     3:20:12

 

Six days later I was back at it (as was Dan) at the Shawsheen Tech alumni & friends XC race, where I originally planned to just spectate but ended up racing.  Andy King and Dan Verrington ran together (17:45 & 17:46) and I took third place in 18:42. On 10/28/06 I finished out the month at the “Run for the trails” race in Hamilton MA.  Remnants of a hurricane were blowing through and winds were hitting 50 mph with pouring rain.  I ran alone from start to finish as Andy King beat me by over two minutes (31:12 to 33:21).

 

15 years ago (October 2011) – I started the month with a DNF (2^nd degree calf tear) and then spent the month working to get back.

Week Ending 10/11/26

 Another week of "low" mileage running and ramping up elliptiGo and bike. I think the lower mileage has helped my knee to heal. Feeling a bit better and looking forward to adding some more miles and dropping the biking. On vacation this coming week, so it should be interesting.

Biking this week = 278.6 miles over 17:54 (Spin bike & Road bike = 198.1 in 12:07, and ElliptGo = 80.5 miles in 5:45).

Running odometer:

Week - 35

Month - 50

Year - 3,143

Life - 170,143

Sunflower field - Sunflower trail Concord NH

Looking back - 1996

 

30 years ago (October 1996) I ran five races during this month. I started out the month running the Portland (Maine) marathon with Byrne Decker. The plan was for Byrne to win, but if anyone closed on us, I’d pick it up and go for the win. We ran in lock-step for the first 20 miles building up a pretty significant lead. The last 10k was a bit of a struggle but Byrne gutted it out and took the   win with me a second behind in 2:34:57. A week later I headed to New Castle for the Great Island 5k. I ended up getting outkicked in the last half mile, finishing 2^nd in 14:54 two seconds back. Dan was close behind after leading for the first 1.5 miles of the race. Nearly 700 finished, which is a crazy-big field on a course that turns on average once every 100 yards. The following weekend I thought I’d try for some cash running two races on the same morning (The IATC and Beth Brodie 5k’s). There was a ton of rain from Hurricane Lilli which caused some flooding, and the day was tough for running with 20-50 mph winds. I ran the Brodie race in West Newbury over a 1km loop that was thrown together due to the flooding. Wouldn’t you know it, the field was stacked, and I ended up in fourth (15:06) one place out of the money. George Yiannelis was 1^st in 14:50, Dan Verrington took 2^nd in 14:56, and Jose Moreira took the final money spot. I quickly packed up and headed to Medford for the Irish-American 5k where I was able to muster a 15:24, which was only good enough for 3^rd place and zero money. I was exactly 1 second out of first, Phil Healey and Tesfay Bekele just a step ahead. Needless  to say, it was a lost weekend. The final weekend of the month found me racing at the Cape Cod marathon. Craig Fram and I were locked in a battle for top spot in the USATF New England Grand Prix. We’d each beaten the other a couple of times over the year in GP competition and had some close finishes. Craig had a one point lead on me going into the marathon, so I’d need to beat him to at least tie with him in the series. We went out in a pack of five through the first half of the race, and then it was just me and Craig from 20 miles on. He put in a surge at 24, and I just couldn’t cover and he pulled away to win the race about 14 seconds up on me. I ran 2:24:05 running a negative split (1:12:25 / 1:11:40) which wasn’t quite fast enough. It was a lot of fun battling back and forth.

   1 2:23:52       Craig Fram         Plaistow NH        CMS

    2 2:24:06       Dave Dunham    Bradford MA       CMS
    3 2:30:24       Gary Dennis       Montague NJ 
    4 2:32:12       Peter Pazik         Wallingford CT

In synch with Byrne Decker

Looking back - 1991

 35 Years ago (October 1991) I started the month with a win at Chelmsford High School running the U-Lowell alumni race. I “felt lousy” and was out in 10^th place in the early going (4:44 at the mile) before pulling away running 15:09 over the 5k cross-country course.

The following week I was locked in a tight battle with Rich Dorion (CMS) at the Applefest Half-marathon. Sometime after the big uphill at 10 miles Rich and I decided that it just wasn’t worth it to fight right to the finish. We ended up in a tie running 1:08:30. Three months later Rich and I would become teammates as I jumped ship from GLRR to CMS.

Next up was pacing Petey at the Baystate marathon. Mark Behan also ran with us for the first 15 before pulling ahead as Petey slowed. I stayed with Petey until he called it a day, then I upped the pace hoping to get back down to 6:00 pace for the total time. I ended up running 2:38:23 to take 4^th place. The last 10k was run much faster than “tempo run” pace. Seven days later I closed out the month with a win at the Canton (MA) Gravy race.

1 Dave Dunham 30:12

2 Steve Warren 31:24
3 Washburn 31:47
4 Mike Woodman 32:04
5 Steinbrecher 33:25
7 Brad Hurst 33:56

Looking back - October 1986

 40 Years ago (October 1986) I only raced twice in my final season of cross-country at U-Lowell. I picked up my first win of the season at the URI invitational. Our squad was very strong, losing only to D1 powerhouse Providence College (23-37). I took the lead at 3.5 miles, crossing the line in 24:36 for the 8km course. Two weeks later I picked up another win in a tri-meet versus Northeastern and U-mass over 5.2 miles at Franklin Park (25:44).

Looking back - October 1981

 45 years ago (October 1981) I raced four times in my final cross-country season at Billerica High (BMHS). I started the month a home victory running 14:52 as we beat Tewksbury 21-37. The following week I “took it easy” running 15:50 to win at Dracut where I missed the course record by 1 second – so I was told after the race. I didn’t really care as we won 18-37 and I wanted to save something for the Catholic Memorial meet four days later. At the CM I had my worst finish of the season (including the state meet) finishing in fourth place in 14:22 over the 2.85 mile course. Steve Perkins (Danvers) led the way running 14:03, followed by Chris Gorman (S. Weymouth), and Dan Foley (St Johns), not a bad group to finish behind! The next weekend I took 2^nd place 12 seconds behind Steve Perkins at the Northern Area Championships in Topsfield. I ran 15:22 over the 3 mile course and noted it was “rainy & muddy”, Cross-Country as it should be.

Week Ending 10/04/26

 Week Ending 10/04/26 - Started my two weeks of limited running (just 3 miles at lunch). Hoping that'll get me over the hump and on the road to recovery. So, 27 miles for the week but also got in Bike 236.2 miles in 13:16 and Go 38.5 miles in 2:45 (a total of 16 hours).

The outside biking was the best part of the week.

 

Week – 27

Month (Oct) – 15

Year – 3,108

Life – 170,108