Thanksgiving weekend always features a light ultrarunning calendar in the United States with just a handful of ultras scattered around the country. Two of those events included New England representation, however, and one of them saw a Massachusetts man finish on the podium. Woburn’s Roy Van Buren secured a third-place overall finish in the 12-hour race at Delirium in South Carolina to highlight the weekend, while Cambridge’s Matthew Smith raced to a top-10 finish at the Bosque Bigfoot 50K in New Mexico. Those races provided for some light reading in this week’s roundup.

Delirium Ultra

After seven years at other venues, the Delirium Ultra time-based races found a new home in Beaufort, S.C., for the 2019 race, which took place Nov. 30-Dec. 1 at Habersham Market. The event offered runners 24 hours, 12 hours or 6 hours to complete as many laps as possible on an approximately 1.5-mile trail loop. New England was represented by two runners in the 12-hour race, and one of them secured a podium finish.

Roy Van Buren, 57, of Woburn, Mass., finished third overall and was the second-place male with 53.34 miles for the half-day race. The overall win went to women’s champion Carlee James, 37, of Statesboro, Ga., who logged 62.484 miles, followed by 44-year-old Jerry Navarro of Beaufort, S.C., who was the winning male with 56.388 miles.

In addition to Van Buren, the region also was represented by 48-year-old Kerri Haskins of Danville, N.H., who was the sixth-place woman finisher with 36.576 miles.

Bosque Bigfoot 50K

Racing his first ultramarathon since the TARCtic Frozen Yeti all the way back in February, Matthew Smith showed off some fresh legs at the third annual Bosque Bigfoot 50K on Saturday, Nov. 30, at the Pueblo Montano Picnic Area in Albuquerque, N.M.

Smith, 31, of Cambridge, Mass., spent the entire day racing in the top 10 while tackling four loops of the course, and he ultimately was the fourth-place male and sixth overall finisher in 5:38:42.

The overall win went to 34-year-old Sarah Stark of Las Cruces, N.M., who set a new women’s course record with her time of 4:22:17. The top male finisher, 48-year-old Troy Allen, finished second overall in 4:31:19.

Twenty-four runners finished the race within the 10-hour time limit.

*Editor’s Note: Results are found on a variety of sites, including ultrasignup.com, UltraRunning Magazine, and official race websites. We do the best we can to find as many results as possible to report on and recognize the local ultrarunning community.