This is a 4 miler on a Friday evening in Salem, MA. On Fridays I work in the town next to Salem, MA so it is a super convenient race … MORE
This is a 4 miler on a Friday evening in Salem, MA. On Fridays I work in the town next to Salem, MA so it is a super convenient race for me. I did this race last year and it was awful because it is on open roads and was dangerous as it was pitch black and there were huge thunderstorms. I said never again unless the race started earlier and there was no thunder in the forecast. While the race director and weather gods listened to me and the race was moved from 8pm to 7:30pm and there was no thunder in the forecast so I decided to do it again. It still wasn’t my favorite race due to the open roads but it was a much better experience. One issue pre-race is I didn’t get a pre-race email but the website was updated. However I didn’t see parking information anywhere. I didn’t really look that hard since I did it last year and easily found street parking about 1/2 mile away in the right direction for going back to NH after. You could get your packet before the during the race before the week or race day. I got it race day and it included bib and a pretty standard polyblend shirt that was a nice color. Race was pretty well organized. It is chip timed. There were no waves but they told people to line up by pace. I started in the back 1/4 of the pack. It was really hot but for some reason I was really fast today and had one of my fastest pace. The 7:30 start time was nice as it was starting to get dark but was never pitch black. There are some things I like about the course such as it goes by some landmarks and scenic area and has a nice elevation profile which is relatively flat with a few smaller uphill parts. I don’t like that it is on open roads. Some are very busy and while it was much safer at 7:30 than 8pm I still had to watch out for traffic, sometimes stop at side walks and at one point a course marshal stopped us to let traffic through which is frustrating especially when you are having a fast race. I also think the course could be better marked. It actually wasn’t really marked. There were just volunteers pointing where to go. There were a lot of volunteers but I saw a few people go the wrong way and cut the course on accident. There was an aid station in the middle but the water was warm and not very refreshing. The finishing area was cheerful and you get popsicles at the end. While the popsicles are refreshing for an evening race I’d always like something a bit more substantial since I am always starving by the end. Overall I this is a convenient race with nice elevation profile and scenery but still some flaws in production. It is between 3-4 sneakers I rounded up since they listened to feedback and moved the race up. I would continue to do this race as long as it starts at 7:30pm
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They Listen to Feedback
This is a 4 miler on a Friday evening in Salem, MA. On Fridays I work in the town next to Salem, MA so it is a super convenient race … MORE
This is a 4 miler on a Friday evening in Salem, MA. On Fridays I work in the town next to Salem, MA so it is a super convenient race for me. I did this race last year and it was awful because it is on open roads and was dangerous as it was pitch black and there were huge thunderstorms. I said never again unless the race started earlier and there was no thunder in the forecast. While the race director and weather gods listened to me and the race was moved from 8pm to 7:30pm and there was no thunder in the forecast so I decided to do it again. It still wasn’t my favorite race due to the open roads but it was a much better experience. One issue pre-race is I didn’t get a pre-race email but the website was updated. However I didn’t see parking information anywhere. I didn’t really look that hard since I did it last year and easily found street parking about 1/2 mile away in the right direction for going back to NH after. You could get your packet before the during the race before the week or race day. I got it race day and it included bib and a pretty standard polyblend shirt that was a nice color. Race was pretty well organized. It is chip timed. There were no waves but they told people to line up by pace. I started in the back 1/4 of the pack. It was really hot but for some reason I was really fast today and had one of my fastest pace. The 7:30 start time was nice as it was starting to get dark but was never pitch black. There are some things I like about the course such as it goes by some landmarks and scenic area and has a nice elevation profile which is relatively flat with a few smaller uphill parts. I don’t like that it is on open roads. Some are very busy and while it was much safer at 7:30 than 8pm I still had to watch out for traffic, sometimes stop at side walks and at one point a course marshal stopped us to let traffic through which is frustrating especially when you are having a fast race. I also think the course could be better marked. It actually wasn’t really marked. There were just volunteers pointing where to go. There were a lot of volunteers but I saw a few people go the wrong way and cut the course on accident. There was an aid station in the middle but the water was warm and not very refreshing. The finishing area was cheerful and you get popsicles at the end. While the popsicles are refreshing for an evening race I’d always like something a bit more substantial since I am always starving by the end. Overall I this is a convenient race with nice elevation profile and scenery but still some flaws in production. It is between 3-4 sneakers I rounded up since they listened to feedback and moved the race up. I would continue to do this race as long as it starts at 7:30pm
Not Safe - Do Not Recommend
This is an evening race in Salem, MA that starts at 8pm on a Friday evening. This was a convenient location for me as Fridays I worked in a town … MORE
This is an evening race in Salem, MA that starts at 8pm on a Friday evening. This was a convenient location for me as Fridays I worked in a town right by Salem, MA so I decided to do this race. There was adequate pre-race info. You could get your packet the day or the race or Wednesday or Thursday at a local running store. I got it Wednesday. Packet included shirt which was supposed to be glow in the dark and was supposed to also be the bib (there was also the option of a physical bib if you didn’t want to wear the shirt) but they said there was an issue with the numbers so you had to wear your physical bib even with the shirt. Anyways that was kind of a red flag that this was not gonna be a great event and was a sign of things to come. For $5 you could also get a glow in the dark accessories pack. It was only $5 but the stuff in it was pretty cheap. One thing I thought was odd in the pre-race communication was they did not recommend or require headlamps which I thought was odd for how late the race was so I brought one but literally no other runners had them on and it was 100% necessary. The race started at a school and there was very limited parking at the school but lots of street parking nearby. The start of the race was fine. The sun hadn’t set so there was adequate light and weather was good although there were reports of thunderstorms that evening. The race is a figure 8 and a lot of it is by the water and some is through town. It is not closed to traffic. It was a fairly big race and there were lots of slower runners. I’ve been having issues with my lungs from all the air pollution from the smoke so I was extra slow. However after about 20 minutes the sun set and it became pitch dark. At this point it did not seem very safe on open roads. While the roads weren’t super, super busy some were fairly busy. Also these are pretty tight New England roads with not a lot of room for runners. I often retreated to the sidewalk but the sidewalks had a lot of cracks and were hard to run on without tripping. I normally hate running at night because I worry about getting hit by a car who can’t see me or tripping on the sidewalk and this whole race was like that. It already felt unsafe to hold a night race without closed roads. Then as I was finish the first loop I saw a lightening strike in the distance. I thought about just going back to the finish line and not completing the race as I didn’t want to get stuck in a thunderstorm but they did not divert runners so I assumed that meant they were tracking the weather and it was going the other direction but that was a wrong assumption. I went on to continue the other loop of the figure 8 and the weather kept getting worse. At one point we were in the middle of the storm with the lightening so close it lit up the sky and I realized we would be running along water at the end. I was not comfortable running in this weather and I asked a volunteer if I could be pulled from the course because I didn’t feel safe but there didn’t seem to be any contingency plans to evacuate runners or get them off course so I had to finish in the middle of a thunder and lightening storm right next to water which is the most dangerous place to be. I walked a lot due to my lungs and not wanted to get injured and also was careful around traffic so it was a slow race. There was a water stop in the middle. There were course marshals but no signage. I heard someone say a runner went the wrong way and I hope they got back safe. The course was pretty flat and I think fairly scenic but I was not paying attention to the scenery. I was so happy I made it to the finish. At the finish line they were just giving out ice pops. I have no idea if there was anything else as I just wanted to get to my car and of of the storm. Overall this was not a safe event. It is not safe to hold a race in the dark that is open to traffic unless the traffic is really light and/or they are wide streets with coned off running lanes. The race got dark 20 minutes in so everyone but the absolutely fastest runners was running in the dark. The race should have started at 7 or 7:30. You also can NOT require runners to run by water in the middle of a thunder and lightening storm. I would not recommend this race. While it is a very convenient race for me I would absolutely never do it again unless they start the race earlier and there is absolutely no thunder in the forecast.