30 Years ago - I only ran three races in February of 1996 but I made the best of it with two wins and a second place. I got buried at the Cape Elizabeth Mid-Winter Classic 10 mile as Rob Pierce ran a course record 51:10. I was happy with my race noting “I was alone from 2m on and it was exactly zero degrees out there”. I ran 51:56 and teammate Byrne Decker took third in 53:20. The following weekend I ran the Bradford Valentines race. I started the morning with a 3 mile warm-up with Gary Gardner, Dan Verrington, Eric Beauchesne, and Steve Peterson. Little did any of us know that this would be the top five finishers in the race. Eric took it out for the first ½ mile then Gary, Dan, and I slowly pulled away with miles of 4:52 and 4:44. Dan fell back before the two mile mark and I was able to lose Gary on the uphill third mile (5:01). I closed with miles of 4:53 and 5:01 to take the win in 24:31. Gary (25:01) and Dan (25:10) took 2nd and 3rd with Eric (26:09) and Petey (27:14) rounding out the top five. Only 12 people have ever run under 26 minutes at the Bradford Valentine’s race. Although I lead the list, Dan has an impressive 4 times in the top 10 and three fast wins (he has a few other wins but not under 26 minutes). David Hinga also has 3 times in the top 14, all of which were winning times, and Craig Fram has the masters course record (25:50) and another sub 26 (25:54) which was done as a 10 mile workout (we ran the second loop in 26:30 including the time from the finish line back to the start!).
My final race of the month was the Dartmouth Invitational indoor track meet. Craig Fram and I heard that a bunch of fast guys would be there trying to qualify for Nationals. It turned out we were the only two people entered in the 5,000. We decided to alternate 800m each until 2 miles then it was ‘anybody’s race’. I took the lead at 2 and beat Craig running a 14:52. Definitely an unusual race.
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