Club History Retold by Member Jim Peters - Installment #6

John McGarry
Dec 21, 2025
4 min read

Jim Peters receiving an award for serving as President of GDTC

Jim Peters grew up in Wilmington and his wife Dottie grew up in Andover MA. Both were working at Market Basket at different stores and met when Jim got transferred to the Andover location. 3 years later they got married.

They moved to and lived in Methuen for 8 years. Jim started working in Derry and they both wanted to move to a better place to raise their kids, Jeffrey and Valerie, so they moved to Derry. Jim worked at Vermillion in Derry for 22 years and spent his last 8 years working at Polaris Direct in Hooksett. Dottie has been an elementary teacher in the Derry School system for over 25 years. She has also been a Jazzercise, Uplift, and SHINE instructor for many years.

Jim was aware of the GDTC because of taking his kids to the Kids Summer Fun Runs when they were little. Running was the furthest thing from his mind at the time. Jim was a hockey player and played hockey every Sunday. Hockey players don’t run!!

Running came to Jim out of necessity. When he went from a “stand up” job to a “sit down” job, he quickly went up a pant size. Something had to be done.

Jim started his running very gradually. Jim was very green in his running knowledge. His first pair of running shoes was canvas “Chuck Taylor” Converse hightops! His first race was the Turkey Trot in 1996. He caught the bug and was hooked.

He did some races in 97 including the Applefest Half Marathon. He joined the GDTC in November of 1997. The first event he volunteered for was the Boston Prep in January of 1998 where he experienced watching the runners deal with black ice.

Jim befriended a fellow club member named Gary Mooers. He and Gary trained hard for the Vermont Marathon and Jim crushed it, running a 3:17:08. Not a bad progression after starting out less than two years earlier!

A Man of statistics:

Jim is a self-proclaimed numbers guy. His 380 races are all in spreadsheets that he manually created. They have the race name, distance, finish time, pace per mile and some notes. Ask him about a time he did 20 years ago and he can easily pull up the result.

Streak races:

Jim’s streak races include 24 Mill Cities, and 26 Sandown races. He also did Reach The Beach 10 times despite saying “Never Again” after the first one. His favorite club race was Mack’s Apples race, which he ran 20 times. He loved the race because of being able to go through the orchard, the hometown feel of the race including hot dogs and fresh squeezed lemonade at the end. Mack’s ended in 2020 due to Covid.

Sunday long runs:

Jim has been a fixture at our Sunday morning runs since they started. The Sunday runs started at a club members house with 4-5 people before it was moved to the Coffee Factory. The club had one route, the East Derry Route for a while, until 4 more were added. Each long run has a name and it goes in the order of BREWS. Jim really enjoys these long runs and has been the one leaving Gatorade and water for our members for many years.

Jim has been a loyal volunteer at our events including as the KSFR timer, BP setup and break down person, setting up the Turkey Trot finish chute, and Run for Freedom set up and break down

A Man who became President:

When Jim became a club member, he used to go to the meetings before he was part of the BOD. The VP position became available, and a very “bossy” member named Rosa TOLD Jim he was going to be VP. He said OK! He was VP from 2007-2009. In 2009, when the President of the club stepped down, the same bossy Rosa told Jim he was going to be President. Again, he said OK!

Jim was President from 2010-2018. He guided the club through a lot of change and growth during that time.

GDTC’s membership grew steadily during his tenure. We finally got over the hump and won our first NH Grand Prix championship in 2010. We won 4 more during his Presidency.

The Run for Freedom race was formed under his Presidency, as well as the Couch to 5k training program. Jim always empowered our race directors to run their own ship and was always open to new ideas. As someone who served under Jim in the BOD, I can attest to his leadership and unflappable dedication to the Greater Derry Track Club. If the GDTC ever had a “Mount Rushmore” of members, he would be the first person to get my vote. Thank you Jim for carrying the torch for our club for so long.

What does he like about the club?