July came to a close with lots of racing by New England ultrarunners at events in the Northeast and beyond. Several races haven’t posted their final results, but among those that did there were a few big-time performances by runners from the region. Perhaps none were bigger than Britta Clark’s smashing performance at the Moosalamoo Ultra 36-miler in Vermont. Her record-setting effort leads off this edition of the roundup.

Moosalamoo

It’s fair to say that no ultrarunner knows the trails of the Moosalamoo Ultra better than Britta Clark. Her family runs the Blueberry Hill Inn in Goshen, Vt., where the race makes its home base, and Clark has spent many years logging hundreds of miles on the same trails that compose the Moosalamoo course.

Knowing that background, it should come as no surprise that Clark threw down a big-time performance at the 11th annual Moosalamoo Ultra 36-mile race. Clark, 28, hammered the course and its 5,300 feet of climbing with a women’s course-record time of 5:42:44. Only men’s champion Justin Neuman finished faster, and not by much. Neuman, 45, of New Haven, Conn., logged the third-fastest men’s time in course history to win in 5:30:41.

For Clark, she now owns three of the four fastest women’s times ever on the course, and she will head to Europe later this summer to race the CCC 101K through the Alps of Italy, Switzerland and France with plenty of momentum.

Neuman’s dominant victory in the men’s field was followed by a close race for the runner-up spot on the men’s podium. Pavel Zhelnin, 21, of Goshen, Vt., edged 16-year-old Thomas Wolfe of Grantham, N.H., by 10 seconds for second place among the men. Zhelnin and Wolfe finished in 6:13:11 and 6:13:21, respectively. Brian Rusiecki, 43, of South Deerfield, Mass., finished fourth among the men and fifth overall in 6:21:56.

Tara Chaplin, 41, of Lynn, Mass., was the women’s runner-up and eighth overall finisher in 6:33:02, followed by Kathryn Buchan, 31, of Burlington, Vt., who finished 10th overall and third among the women in 6:53:28.

Sixty-four runners finished the 36-miler within 12 ½ hours.

Wakely Dam Ultra

Matt Marsh has become something of a regular at the Wakely Dam Ultra. The resident of Tyringham, Mass., first took part in the 55K race in 2019. The event was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when it returned in 2021 Marsh was there again at the starting line.

Marsh, 36, raced the Wakely Dam Ultra for the third time on Saturday, July 30, in Piseco, N.Y., and he logged his third straight top-10 finish, placing 10th overall and ninth among the men’s field in 6:29:46.

Daniel Kraft, 33, of Alma, Colo., won the race in 4:56:18, followed by 51-year-old Eddie Kraftchisin of Pittston Township, Pa., in 5:15:29.

Sixty-four runners finished the race. Other New England residents among the finishers were 63-year-old Ted Cowles of West Granby, Conn., who placed 28th overall in 8:07:06, and 25-year-old Aidan Curtain of New Britain, Conn., who finished 40th overall in 8:59:47.

Tushars Mountain Runs

Alex Braverman may call Sudbury, Mass., home, but the 26-year-old has done the bulk of her ultramarathon racing in the Utah. 

Braverman made her ultra debut in 2019 at the Dead Horse 50K in Utah, and then returned to the state in 2020 to race the 70K distance at the Tushar Mountain Runs where she placed 16th overall and seventh among the women’s field. She kicked off 2022 with another Utah race, the 20-mile Logan Peak Ultra in June.

Braverman once again toed the line in Utah for the fifth running of the Tushars Mountain Runs 100K and 70K ultramarathons on July 30-31 in Beaver, Utah. Unlike her first time at the event, she made the jump up to the 100K distance. The course started and finished at the Eagle Point Resort and ascended to the summit of Delano Peak which, at 12,174 feet, is the highest in the Tushar Range. Racing alongside 108 other starters,Braverman had a solid race, placing 53rd among the 78 finishers within 24 hours and 12th in the women’s field in 19:28:13. Elizabeth Butler, 40, of Salt Lake City, Utah, finished ninth overall and led the women’s field in 14:56:50. Richard Lockwood, 35, of Seattle, Wash., led the men in 12:43:57 and beat his closest competitor by 65 minutes.

An additional 101 runners completed the Tushars 70K race; none were New England residents.

*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.