Ok, as promise....and after consulting with my biography book writer who has worked so hard with me to go thru archival scrapbooks and other sources.....this is what I can come up with on what I did when I was a junior in high school and age 16 (what Alberto Salazar did back then I will leave up to him or others...but I think it down to the 2 of us):
1) May 26, 1972 Won 2-mile/1-mile in Illinois State T & F State Championships in 8:51.9 and 4:09.2 at Charleston, IL on a tartan track.
This completed my "Illinois triple crown of distance running" after winning the state X-C the prior fall. First time the meet was ever held at Eastern Illinois where it is held annually now. Very hot/humid during afternoon as is most Illinois Memorial Day Weekends. Was coming off an illness and knew I could go faster yet as I regained strength.
2) June 11th, 1972 Won 3-mile in Central AAU Champs at U. of Chicago in 13:49.2....basically raced solo. I found out this was a national 16 year old and H.S. Junior Class record at the time. The meet was an "open" champs and not a "junior champs" and meet was directed by Ted Hayden who was the famous coach of University of Chicago T.C.
I had never competed in a 3-mile track race before and I was intending to compete at that distance in the first ever upcoming AAU Junior National T & F Champs in Lakewood, CO (Denver area) to try to qualify for the first ever U.S. Junior T & F Team that would compete against the Soviet Junior Team in Sacramento in July. I had run 13:59 for 3-mile X-C State Champs in the fall but this was first time I ever did 12 laps in a race on the track. The record status was just a bonus to me as not many H.S. runners did 3-mile races on the track.
3) June 24, 1972 Placed 2nd in National AAU Junior T & F Champs 3-mile in 14:10.8 at mile high altitude in Lakewood, CO (Denver area) on a cinder track. Tony Sandoval from Stanford was 1st and Paul Geis from Rice/U. of Oregon was 3rd.
I had never run at altitude before but I assumed lead of the race immediately as was my style back then.... Sandoval (who grew up at altitude in NM) went by me at 2-miles but I held off the talented Geis over the final 2 laps on guts to make my first USA national team. I suffered terribly from altitude sickness after the race.
4) July 8, 1972 I won the 5000 m. of the Ozark Assoc. AAU T & F Champs held at Florissant Valley Community College (in St. Louis suburb) in 14:12.3.
I was used to racing 1-2X weekly in high school and was desperate to compete somewhere in July before racing against the Russians later that month. This was an afternoon race on a tartan track on top of a hill and very hot....and a completely solo effort against the clock. But, it showed me that I had recovered from the physically demanding race in Colorado. I found out later in the day that it was both a national 16 year old and Junior Class record which was an added bonus. Went back to work on the farm later that day as was my life back then.
5) ?, 1972 We have a newspaper clipping that indicates that I ran and won another track 3-mile race somewhere in 13:44.6 which would have made sense as I would not have wanted to go 3 weeks without a race until the Dual Meet against the Soviets at the end of the month. I didn't have much money so it had to be within a 2-6 hour drive.... but no time to research this in last 24 hours. Probably on one of the next 2 weekends after the STL race but before going to CA for the Soviet Junior Dual Meet. Again it showed that I was continuing to hold fitness despite it being July for a HS runner whose track season had started back in December.
6) July 29, 1972 I placed 3rd in the 5000 m. in the US vs. USSR Junior Dual T & F Champs held in Sacramento, CA in 14:14.6. The two Soviet runners beat me in the final 200 and Tony Sandoval was back in 4th. This mark fell just a bit short of the time/records set at STL earlier that month.
This race was run on a clay track and in the middle of the afternoon since it was being broadcast live on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Temps at noon were at or over 100 degree... but it backed off a bit by the time we got to the 5K at the end of the meet. I led the whole way but got passed by both Soviets just past 220 and they effectively boxed me in for the next 150 when I could not get past them. I learned a lot about team racing tactics from this event. I started out with a moderate pace and just kept picking it up every 2 laps due to the severe (but low humidity) heat. Had it been run at night under the lights... or on a tartan track... I would have run faster. This ended my Junior year of H.S. T & F season and I drove back to Illinois with my family in their pick up truck/camper... but not before going north to see Eugene, OR first hand and jog around the track that had just hosted the Olympic Trials earlier that month and where my hero reigned supreme.
BTW, Alberto's birthday is August 7th and mine is August 2nd and Mary Decker Slaney is somewhere in between. And, the world of T & F/cross country/road racing was different back then as I relied totally on T & F News for any competitive results nationally or world wide. I had to wait a month for the magazine to come out and then scour the results and event yearly listings to see how I stacked up against my national competition. I owe a debt of gratitude to T & F News Jack Shepherd for his dedication to keeping up with the H.S. competitive results and also the local Metro East Journal sports writer, Bob Emig, for his weekly communication with Jack. Bob is now gone and I don't know how we will survive without Jack when his time comes. Young people today do not know what it was like back in the pre-internet/website days.... the only consolation was that our sport was not just an "internet sport" back then... it was covered regularly by most national newspapers and there was a lot of it also on the 3 national TV networks at the time. There was more general sports fan interest back then but, almost "instant" national results was only a distant pipe dream back then.