North Shore 10K

September 7, 2025

9AM

Salem, MA

After rustbusters at Run 4 Kerri and Bobby Doyle, the plan was to get in a few weeks of good training then race the New Haven Road Race September 1st. That didn't quite go to plan, I struggled in my workouts in August then sprained my ankle twice including just before New Haven. I was frustrated and had to pull the plug on racing New Haven and initially thought I'd do the same for North Shore 10K 6 days later but it recovered well enough that it didn't seem like a risky decision to race the 10K. The one good thing about this is that instead of going into the race fatigued with a 20K race 6 days prior, I'd be fresh. 

This was the USATF-NE 10K for the year. I had been racing for Notch for 2 years with this being my first full year as I'd race 4 grand prix races (would be 5 if the Super Sunday 4 Mile wasn't cancelled). This was a home race for Notch as it started in Salem right next to Notch and all members except me were probably quite familiar with the course. I thought the first half was pretty good, but the second had many turns and some rollers that would slow things down. 

I went for a warm-up solo as I feel the group has been starting their warmups very late and I have to rush to get ready when I go with them. Pouring rain for the race. My goal was somewhere in the low to mid-32s. Probably try to get a PR (32:40) worse case scenario. It sounded like some other Notch guys had similar goals, so I'd probably just look for them. 

Unlike many USATF-NE with terrible or crowded this one wasn't too bad on a wider road. However, the first turn, there was a deep puddle which was completely unavoidable if you were on the right which I was so I got my feet wet quickly. I tried to stay relaxed and careful for half a mile or so both trying to avoid any cracks with my ankle and the super slippery potholes. It was crowded for half mile then the road got wider and I was able to run comfortably. Near some CMS guys and Willy and Steve from Notch. I hit the first mile in 5:07 with a good pack feeling relaxed. This really felt like the 32 flat pack and a good spot to me. 

However after another few minutes, I found myself at the back at the pack and slowly getting gapped. I wasn't suddenly tying up or feeling bad, but running the same effort I just was slipping. Literally slipping too as I had zero traction on the wet roads and it felt like I was working a bit harder just to run that pace. After half a mile, that pack was gone and I was getting passed by some other people. Going back into downtown, the group ahead of me had to run wide left and pivot due to a truck coming out of a driveway quickly. I guess the one advantage of me slowing was not having to deal with that. I managed a slower than I'd like but still decent 5:17-5:20 next two miles and was still on sub-33 through the 5K. It started absolutely pouring at that moment. 

Mile 4 was on a wider road with some rollers and the rain was coming down so hard it was hard to see. This was my chance to get back in the race, but I just continued to slow and was losing motivation. I didn't feel unusually tired or tight and at this point traction was no longer a problem. But I simply could not run much faster than 5:25 pace. Turning off that road, we went into a park with some tight turns and puddles. The turns being wet felt really sketchy to me and I was slowing down even more. 

I got passed frequently in the final 1.5 miles and with 7 turns in the final mile, I mostly packed it in. I turned around to see who I thought was Adrian Massie and I didn't want to lose to him so I picked it up. I tried to kick hard in the final 400m, but now found my legs were fried and I couldn't run faster than 5:20 pace. I crossed the line in a shockingly slow 33:40 for 50th place, 7th for Notch. Turns out it wasn't Adrian, although Dan Donato was only about 10-15 seconds behind me. 

This was a really pathetic result. Last 3 miles were 5:29, 5:30, 5:27- that'd be a disappointing close to a half marathon, let alone a 10K. 5:25 average pace here despite being 5:15 at Kerri and 5:19 at Doyle with significantly less fitness. Normally I can easily pinpoint what went wrong- felt terrible early, breathing off, low energy, felt super hard to maintain pace but none of those applied here. The effort felt appropriate but I simply could not run fast. It does seem like the course and conditions were not ideal for running fast, and my shoes had horrible traction plus ankle concern and slippery turns didn't help. That said- I was a minute or so off where I should have been. This is slower than my half marathon pace. Everyone else had to deal with the same conditions and they were maybe 15-20 seconds off, not a minute. I also had the perfect race in front of me- people in that early pack ran in the 32:10-32:50 range. I let them go and just steadily faded from there. 

I was pretty upset after this one- I'm generally consistent and when I do run bad usually something specific is off- for example my early half marathon in 2024 my legs were clearly quite fatigued from training. Here I was fresh, ready to go and wasn't even close to a decent day. I think everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt with a rough race once a season. It happens, but I definitely wanted to make sure the next one was pretty solid. 

As for the event itself, I thought it was fine. Some of the roads could have benefitted from more police presence as multiple cars pulled out ahead of me or other people. The last 1.5 miles had way too many turns. Good start and finish, and easy parking or public transit. Personally I'd much rather try Lone Gull and would be hesistant to run this one again. I also was and still am confused on the certification here- all USATF-NE grand prix races are supposed to be certified, but it doesn't show up in the certified races database. Unless I'm missing something or it was mislabeled, it seems like the race didn't get certified. Overall takeaway from this race was treat it as one off, forget it and move on to the next.