The first in-person trail of the year in Massachusetts took place Sunday, April 18, with the return of the Trail Animals Running Club’s “Don’t Run Boston” 50K at the Blue Hills Reservation, but plenty of out-of-state racing also went down during the April 17-18 weekend. No place was more active for New England ultrarunners than Connecticut where a trio of events were held, including some record-setting performances at the Traprock 50K and the Enchanted Forest 6-Hour Ultra. As an in-state race, DRB will be featured in a separate story, but the Connecticut races lead off this week’s busy roundup.

The combination of spring weather and the continued successful rollout of COVID-19 vaccines made the April 10-11 weekend enticing for several New England ultrarunners to head West to race. Two headed to Colorado to race the Rattler 50K, but Utah’s Zion National Park was by far the most popular destination as 19 New Englanders tackled ultra distances from 50K to 100 miles on desert trails. Both events are featured in this week’s roundup.

After a relatively slow and quiet start to the 2021 racing season, the final weekend of March was sizzling with several races across the country and some big performances by runners from New England. Most notably, two Massachusetts men — Scott Traer and Lance Doherty — finished in the top three overall at the Umstead 100-miler in North Carolina while Crystal Ross also had a big day and came within 2 minutes of finishing on the women’s podium. In addition to six races from the last weekend of March, we’ve also highlighted the big day that some local runners had a week earlier at the F.I.T. Challenge 50K in Rhode Island. The COVID-19 vaccination rate is rising and so are the number of in-person ultras taking place, making this a jam-packed roundup.