Looking back - August 2011

 15 Years ago (August 2011): This was a very busy month with 7 races (!!!) and a lot of peak bagging. I kicked off the month with a short race at the High Street mile.  I was hoping to break 5:10 and maybe even crack 5 if things went well.  I tried to stay reasonably close to Reno Stirrat as I knew he was aiming to break 5.  Reno was a few steps ahead when I hit the ¼ mile in 72.5. and the half mile in 2:28.8 (76.3). I hit ¾ mile in 3:46.0 (77.2) still a couple of steps behind Reno. I passed Reno in the last 200 meters with a 75 last quarter and was happy with a 5:02

 

1 4:05 Abyiot Endal 23 M BRONX NY

2 4:11 Harbart Okuti          25 M NEW YORK

3 4:11 Brian Harvey           23 M ALLSTON

19 5:02 Dave Dunham       47 M BRADFORD CMS 40+

 

The following weekend I chose Sandown because it was close to home and I like the 5 mile distance. Louie Saviano took it out hard and was out in front by at least 10 seconds at the mile. I was in 8th place on the tail end of the pack as I hit the mile in 5:34. The pack began to string out, and I found myself off the back.  I managed a quick final mile (5:27) and crossed the line in 6th place in 28:34 which topped the masters field.

 

1 Ryan Busby                    21M              DERRY NH    27:20 5:28

2 Louie Saviano                 20M              SANDOWN    27:45 5:33

6 Dave Dunham                47M    GCS    BRADFORD MA        28:34 5:43

7 Titus Mutinda                 46M    GDTC  LOWELL MA  28:39 5:44

8 Eric Williams                  46M    GSRT  CONCORD NH         29:17 5:52

9 Pat Connelly                   47M    GDTC  CHESTER NH 29:35 5:55

 

I thought that I had a shot at breaking 5:00 so I decided to go to the Derby Street Mile. I found myself out of the top 50 in the first 200 meters. I slowly moved through the crowd and hit the 1/4 mile in 71.8. Dave Quintal was 2 or 3 seconds ahead and I worked on closing the gap. I passed some more people and hit the half in 2:26.2. The third split was slow 3:44.4 (78.2). I held the same distance to DQ (3 or 4 seconds) but he then went into his kick and I'd get no closer. I crossed the line in 4:57.9 (73.5) for 13th place overall and 4th in the 40+.

 

1  4:27          Sean Dunan  M2029 1 GARDNER, MA

7  4:48          Jason Barnes M4049 1 SALEM, MA         

10 4:53         David Quintal M4049 2 SALEM, NH         

12 4:57         John Ayers    M4049 3 BEVERLY, MA     

13 4:58         Dave Dunham  M4049 4 Bradford, MA      

 

My sister put together teams again for the Moose on the loose 10 mile relay.  My hope was to run under 13:30. I was teamed up with my brother-in-law John who would be running legs 2 & 3. I'd run the first and last legs with about 42 minutes break. My plan was to run leg one all-out then run the anchor leg in about 6:00 pace. I was alone in front by 200m into the race. I was happy with the result, a 13:23 (5:21 pace). I handed off to John and headed for the car to change shoes.  John returned...running an excellent sub-42 five mile (in pants!). I went out reasonably hard and had a lot of fun as there were plenty of people to pass. I hit the line in 14:10 (5:40 pace) and was pretty spent. A couple of 12 year old twins were the only 2 person relay team that beat us.

 

2 RUNNER RELAY RESULTS

1 Ryan North           24 M Nashua NH DOUBLE TROUBLE       1:08:33 6:52

2 Dave Dunham                98 M Bradford         MA DAVE'S DEFENDERS          1:09:29 6:57

3 Francis Sullivan     85 C Nashua  NH TEAM SULLIVAN 1:22:21 8:15

 

Dan Verrington organized a CMS team to run at Lynn woods 10m relay and it turned out to be the same team we had three years ago when we set the masters course record of 55:12. We had a perfect night for racing with reasonable temperatures for late August (low 80’s) and the humidity wasn’t that bad. I ended up running 14:05, and our team ran 57:02.

 

Teams with leg splits:

1 GBTC    56:46 A Greenspan 14:11  A Gomes 13:34       M Weissinger 15:12 C Evanter 13:49

2 SRR 56:49 C Smith 14:08         R Cipriano 14:12     J May 14:54            G Picklesimer 13:35

3 CMS40   57:02  

Joe Shairs 14:12      Dave Quintal 14:15  Dan Verrington 14:30 Dave Dunham 14:05

 

I headed down to North Carolina for the third consecutive year to act as the USATF liaison for the 10km trail championships. I flew down very early on Friday and meandered around the Northwest part of NC bagging five County High points. On race day, Tim VanOrden and I jogged around a bit waiting for the start and listened to the introductions of the big guns who were running. I found myself around 30th place at the end of the first downhill and started to move up during the climb back up to the start area. During the nearly 400’ of uphill I moved up into the top 20. The 200’ climb from 4 miles to 4.5 took a lot of concentration. I passed Tim on this climb and closed on a couple of other guys. I rolled into the finish line in 14th place running 2:15 faster than last year. The big surprise was taking first in the 45-49 getting a gold medal for my efforts and also taking second place in the master’s category (40-49) to earn $200.

1 41:37 Joe Moore                      27                                   

2 41:46 Ryan Woods                   32      Appalachian Mtn Goat       

3 42:05 Bobby Mack                    26                                   

14 46:44 Dave Dunham               47      Central MA Striders 

19 47:52 Tim Van Orden             43      Central MA Striders 

 

 

 

Looking back - August 2006

 20 Years ago (August 2006): I raced four times during this month and logged a solid 383 miles.  I kicked off the month (08/05/06) with my first ever triathlon.  The Race to the Face was a unique tri that featured a 6.5 mile bike (with a mile of rough trail), then a ½ mile swim across Echo Lake, and finally a 2.5 mile run up Cannon Mountain (2,280’ of climb!).  I got smoked on the first part of the bike ride but once the climb started, I made some headway.  I ended up with the 42^nd fastest ride of the day, then on to the swim where I struggled mightily.  My 16 minute zig-zag through the lake was the 138^th fastest (ouch).  I made up a LOT of ground on the climb taking 30:35 to run up Cannon and in the process passed about 100 people to take an overall 23^rd place.  

A week later (08/12/06) I ran the Dam trail race (Oxford, MA).  The 10.5 mile trail race had many turns, and one poorly marked one cost the lead pack of 5 a few minutes as they went the wrong way (and eventually came back and moved back into the lead).  I ended up 7^th and tops in the 40+.

 

1 1:08:26      Greg Hammett

2 1:08:43      Aaron price

3 1:09:58      Bryan Johnson

6 1:10:36      Rob Smith (outkicked me)

7 1:10:41      Dave Dunham

11 1:16:00    James Pawlicki (off course)

 

The following week (08/17/06) I did a rare weeknight race at the Westford Academy Series (3.6 miles).  Eric Beauchesne took the win in 19:20 with me a full minute behind.  I finished out the month at the USA 50km trail championships (Headlands, CA).  I ran the first 20 miles with the top three women and then ran out of gas.  The course turned out to be well over 31.1 miles with only the winner breaking 4 hours.  Ben Nephew (2^nd – 4:00:32), Dan Verrington (5^th – 4:14:59) and I teamed up to take home the team title.  Dan and I were also 1^st and 2^nd in the 40-45 age group.  We also did a run across the Grand Canyon a few days before the race!

 

Looking back August 1996

30 Years ago (August 1996) - I raced three times, twice in Europe on the “Mountain Circuit”. I started the month with a 2nd place finish at the Bridge of Flowers 10 KM which also served as the USATF NE championships. I was the New England Champion missing the old course record by 2 seconds but was 32 seconds behind Moroccan Houssine Siba. CMS had a very strong team taking 2nd-7th place!

 

1 Houssine Siba                 23M Kingston, NY              1/77            31:10 5:02

2 Dave Dunham                32M Bradford, MA    CMS    1/156            31:42 5:07

3 Mike Nahom                   28M New Milford, CT         CMS    2/77   32:09 5:11

4 Craig Fram                     37M Plaistow, NH    CMS    2/156            32:18 5:13

5 Eric Morse                      31M Barre, VT                   CMS    3/156 32:22 5:13

6 Dan Verrington               34M Bradford, MA    CMS    4/156            32:46 5:17

7 Gary Gardner                  25M Keene, NH                 CMS    3/77   32:46 5:17

18 Richard Bolt                 25M Lunenburg, MA CMS    6/77              34:17 5:32

The last two races were European Mountain races leading up to the World championship. I was sick during the trip and never felt ready to race. I managed a 5th place finish at the Challenge Stellina in Susa Italy (5,000’ of climb) and a third at the Kitzbuhlerhorn race in Kitzbuhel Austria (4,000’ of climb). Kitzbuhel is an unusual race as the race gets steeper as you progress. The last 500 meters is marked out in 100 meter increments. My last 100m took 37 seconds!

Week Ending 08/09/26

 I struggled with the heat this week, but summer rolls on. Foot was not terrible this week and knee held up okay (I guess). So glad to not have a race in this brutal weather.

Week - 85

Month - 105

Year - 2,544

Life - 169,544

Ate an apple straight from the tree at the Londonderry rail trail

Looking back - August 1991

 35 Years ago (August 1991) - I was busy this month, running five races. I started the month with a handicapped race in Windham NH. The director had everyone estimate their finishing time and the slowest runner started first and everyone else following based on predicted finish time. Theoretically everyone would reach the finish at the same time. I was the last to start in the field of 30 and I ended up with the fastest time of the day over 10 KM (31:05), I’m not sure what place I got. A couple of days later (08/07/91) I hit the track in Worcester. I’m not sure why I did this race, but Bob Hodge went so maybe we decided to head into CMS country and test ourselves. I ended up taking first in the 2 mile, running 9:10.1. Hodgie finished in second just 1/10th of a second behind me and Rich Marion took 3^rd in 9:19.2. Next (08/17/91) I was back on the road running the Londonderry Old Home days 5 KM. This was a tough race with a very fast first mile (over the Millennium Mile course), then a flat middle mile and a tough final mile coming back up the first mile of the course. I managed 14:44 for first place. My time was the course record until the race was moved.

Four days later (08/21/91) I hit the woods of Lynn for the Lynn woods relay. Our “Sully’s Ice Cream” team set the still standing course record and I set the still standing standard for the 2.5 mile course (12:05) over the anchor leg. 

My final race of the month (08/28/91) was the USATF (then called NEAC) 5 KM road championships in Goddard State Park (Greenwich, RI). A hurricane had come through the day before and due to downed trees, they had to modify the course which turned out to be about 30 seconds long. I took third place in 15:07 as CMS put 8 in the top 10.

 

1 14:56 Eric Morse  CMS    2 15:06 Scott Bagley         CMS    3 15:07 Dave Dunham GLRR

4 15:08 Rod Ellsworth       CMS    5 15:20 Geoff Smith CMS    6 15:26 Mike Platt   CMS

7 15:29 Buddy Bostick       CMS    8 15:30 Scott Clark  CMS    9 15:34 Brent Coon   GSH   

10 15:37 Keiron Tumbleton          CMS

 

Looking back - August 1986

 40 Years ago (August 1986) - I only raced twice this month as I was training hard preparing for my final Cross-Country season at U-Lowell and used the races to check my fitness. At the Lowell Firefighters race (5 mile) I took second place in 24:32. Larry Olsen was the winner in 24:24, Larry always showed up to race and this was one of the first times I’d gone up against him. We’d race many times over the next couple of decades. The other race I did was also in Lowell, the very popular Dubliner race. Over 1,200 turned out for this run on a perfect day for racing. I didn’t really “have it” on this day running 24:34 to take 2^nd place 31 seconds behind Doug Sweazey.

July

 July was my third biggest mileage month this year with 385. It was my best average per run with 5.27 miles. Both were a bit of a surprise as I struggled this month with the ongoing arthritis in my ankle/foot and multiple migraines during the month. Onward!