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