Global ultrarunning’s marquee event, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc festival, took place Aug. 21-28 in Chamonix, France, and in neighboring communities across the border in Italy and Switzerland. Thousands of runners once again convened in the Alps for a week of racing in the mountains, capped by the event’s namesake 171.5-kilometer UTMB. Many of the world’s elite runners took part, as did thousands of up-and-comers and everyday runners eager for the challenge.
Several current and former New England residents took part in the festivities, and a handful turned in major performances. Among them, former New England resident Katie Schide was victorious in the women’s UTMB race while Vermont’s Britta Clark had a big day in the CCC and Maine’s Jessica Marion delivered a top-10 performance in the TDS. Those performances and more are included below.
While much of the ultrarunning world was looking ahead a week to the UTMB races in Europe, the focus of several New England ultrarunners was directed stateside at tough races in Colorado and New York. Several New Englanders took part in the classic 100-mile “Race Across the Sky” in Leadville, Colo., while many more threw down on a challenging course in New York at the Twisted Branch 100K. Both races are featured in this edition of the roundup.
MEDFIELD, Mass. – The Trail Animals Running Club has a proud history of creative race-day treats. From the legendary Yeti Balls masterfully crafted by Alyssa Adreani, to the “Skeptical Jeff” – a quesadilla with peanut butter, banana, and chocolate from a 3-foot tall chocolate bunny first created at the 2017 TARC Spring Classic, to various other innovations in the TARC Test Kitchen, the Trail Animals have a knack for cooking up tasty snacks and inventing palatable new concoctions.
The 11th edition of the Trail Animals Running Club’s TARC Summer Classic trail races took place Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022, at Noon Hill Reservation in Medfield, Mass. Runners took on 40-mile and 50K ultramarathons or the inaugural edition of the Summer Classic 10-miler.
Durgesh Mankekar was still a relative newcomer to ultrarunning when he made his first appearance at the Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service’s Sweltering Summer 8-Hour Ultra in 2019.
The summer ultra racing season continues to heat up, and some of the hottest racing during the Aug. 12-14 weekend was turned in at the seventh edition of the Anchor Down Ultra in Rhode Island where hundreds of runners from the region gathered to race for 6, 12 or 24 hours on a loop course. A multi-time defending champion and an upstart challenger delivered a dandy of a race, and that battle leads off this edition of the roundup.
The Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service (BURCS) played host to the 10th edition of the Sweltering Summer 8-Hour Ultra and 5K on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022, at Clapp Park in Pittsfield, Mass.
Though the Trail Animals Running Club’s TARC Summer Classic attracted several local runners to the trails of Noon Hill Reservation in Medfield during the Aug. 5-7 weekend, it wasn’t the only draw for New England ultrarunners. Several gathered in New Hampshire for one or three days of tough racing at the Ragged Stage Race and 50K – and New Hampshire’s Leslie O’Dell highlighted the weekend with a course-record performance. Runners from the region also took part in other races such as the Volcanic 50 in Washington State and the Loopy Looper in New Jersey, but O’Dell’s effort leads off this edition of the roundup.
The Trail Animals Running Club played host to the 11th running of the TARC Summer Classic on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022, at Noon Hill Reservation in Medfield, Mass. Runners took part in 40-mile and 50K ultramarathons as well as the inaugural Summer Classic 10-miler. The following are a sample of photos from the day taken by MassUltra Editor Chris Wristen. A full photo gallery can be viewed on the MassUltra Facebook page at this link.
Race Director Benn Griffin sought creative solutions to keep the Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service’s Jug End Loop Ultra going during the COVID-19 disruption and continue raising funds for the causes the race supports.
MassUltra 