The Trail Animals Running Club’s 2023 TARC Trail Series came to a close as it always does with runners tackling loops at the Middlesex Fells on Saturday, Dec. 2, in Stoneham, Mass., but this year’s event featured a few tweaks to the traditional format.

Though it has long been referred to as the Winter Classic by many runners, being that the Trail Series includes races officially named the Spring Classic, Summer Classic and Fall Classic, the club’s almost-winter event’s official name was the Fells Winter Ultra. The official rebranding this year was appropriate given another change: the event is no longer only an ultra. After many years of offering both 40-mile and 32-mile distances, the 2023 event kept the 32-miler and added a sub-ultra 8-mile race to the lineup that allowed many more runners to take part.

Beyond the updated name and modified distances, everything else remained the same. Runners still tackled the Skyline Trail loop, either once or four times, and got to choose which direction they wanted to run each time. The rocky, rooty course still doled out plenty of punishment, and Northeast Trail Crew still threw a party at the midpoint aid station.

This year’s event saw plenty of familiar faces, as well as several newcomers. Sixty runners started the four-loop 32-mile race; 50 of them ultimately finished within 9 1/2 hours.

It was a good day for racing with cool and overcast conditions. Though the trail was wet in spots, it wasn’t the sloppy mess that runners have encountered in some years due to rain or snowmelt. Runners still had to overcome around 5,500 feet of climbing to finish, but that did nothing to prevent some strong performances from taking place.

Nobody threw down a bigger performance than Keith Nadeau. Though Nadeau burst onto the local ultra scene in 2019 with his victory at the Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 50-miler and followed it up with a third-place finish in the event’s 100-mile race the next year, followed by a 2021 victory at the Infinitus 100-miler, and many other strong performances since then, Nadeau had run just one TARC event prior to this year’s Winter Classic. He was the runner-up at the TARCtic Frozen Yeti 15-mile race in 2022.

Nadeau was dominant in this TARC ultra debut performance. The 34-year-old from Fairhaven, Mass., had some close competition for the first eight miles of the race as he ran alongside Robert Burns, 39, of Concord, Mass., and 2022 40-mile champion Adam Ribeiro, 32, of Lowell, Mass., with 29-year-old Alex Lenail of Cambridge, Mass., just a minute off the pace. Nadeau pulled away from the pack during the second loop and amassed a five-minute advantage by the halfway point before steadily expanding his lead during the final two loops. By the time he was done, Nadeau had earned a winning time of 4:51:50 that ranked third all-time in the event’s 12-year history.

Nadeau outdistanced the field by 26 minutes, but a tight race played out in the battle for second. Ribeiro faded after the midpoint, but Burns and Lenail were neck-and-neck. Burns was second overall at the midpoint and Lenail was 10 minutes behind in sixth place. Though the gap between the two men was relatively unchanged during the third loop, Lenail passed Ribeiro, 23-year-old Carl Hill of Arlington, Mass., and 36-year-old Charles Miglietti, and surged all the way to third place with one lap to go. Burns had an eight-minute lead on Lenail at that point, but Lenail continued to charge throughout the final lap and ultimately edged ahead. Lenail finished second in 5:18:23 and Burns was third in 5:18:59.

Miglietti was fourth in 5:23:22, Ribeiro was fifth in 5:34:04, and Hill was sixth in 5:44:02. David Desnoyers, 35, of Nantucket, Mass., and Matt Carbone, 40, of Melrose, Mass., were the final sub-6-hour finishers in 5:48:30 and 5:52:40, respectively.

In the women’s race, 26-year-old Leah Williams made a strong TARC debut. The ultrarunner from Ventnor, U.K., led the race from wire to wire, establishing an 11-minute lead by the end of the first loop and never looking back. She maintained the same time gap at the halfway point before stretching her advantage to more than a half-hour by the time she was done. Her winning time of 6:01:48 was the second-fastest by a female in race history, trailing only Nora Weathers’ course-record time of 5:50:20 from 2018.

Williams’ closest competitor was a TARC veteran. Laura Ricci previously ran the 40-mile race at the 2021 Fells Winter Ultra, finishing third. She has enjoyed a huge two years of racing since then, including victories at the 2022 “Don’t Run Boston” 50K and Hamsterwheel 30-Hour, and wins at the 2023 Wapack and Back 50-Miler and Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-miler. Ricci, 40, of Boston, Mass., closed out her 2023 season with a runner-up finish in the 32-miler in her return to the Fells. She maintained her position in the field throughout, never getting caught up chasing Williams while still keeping competitors at bay. Her time of 6:32:10 was the 10th-best by a female in course history.

Allison Drain, 32, of Watertown, Mass., rounded out the women’s podium in 6:59:17. She was followed by Theodora Textor Murray, 42, of Brookline, Mass., who climbed from 11th place after the first lap all the way to a fourth-place finish in 7:25:46. Her rise was aided by running remarkably consistent splits with all four loops falling between 1:47 and 1:55. For Textor Murray, it was her first time running the 32-miler after completing the 40-mile race in 2021 and 2022. Tari Tan, 37, of Watertown, Mass., was fifth in 7:58:23, followed closely by 28-year-old Alexandra Blennerhassett of New Paltz, N.Y., in 8:00:48, and 18-year-old Hailey Desmaris of Assonet, Mass., in 8:06:06.

Caron Outpaces Ridley for Victory at Inaugural 8-Miler

It has been a few years since Patrick Caron last threw down a speedy run at the TARC Winter Classic. He last ran the Winter Classic in 2018, winning the 32-mile race and setting a massive course record of 4:09:53. Previously, he won the event’s 40-mile race in 2015 and 2016.

The 26-year-old from Needham, Mass., returned to the Winter Classic starting line this year for the first running of the event’s 8-mile race, meaning he needed to run just one lap of the course rather than five or four laps as he’d done on his prior efforts. Caron received a stiff challenge from 33-year-old Mat Ridley of Quincy, Mass., but ultimately finished where he always has at the Fells – at the top of the podium.

Caron blistered the loop in 55:53 and earned the overall win. Ridley – who has had a massive year of ultra racing himself, including victories this fall at the Stone Cat 100K and TARCkey Trot 6-Hour, was the only other runner to finish in less than one hour. Ridley was the runner-up in 58:58. West Traub, 31, of Brookline, Mass., rounded out the men’s podium in 1:06:17, followed by Martin Kulhanek, 40, of Woburn, Mass., in 1:14:27, and Sean McElhiney, 41, of Lowell, Mass., in 1:17:43.

In her TARC debut, 45-year-old Jennifer LaFleur earned the win in the women’s race in 1:32:17. Another TARC newcomer, 32-year-old Jacky Fontaine of Malden, Mass., was the runner-up in 1:39:22, followed closely by 25-year-old Brook LaMere of Rowley, Mass., in 1:40:41. Sarah Chapin, 50, of Providence, R.I., was fourth in 1:42:39, and 39-year-old Robyn Bratica of Milford, Mass., rounded out the top five in 1:48:08.

Hannah Young-Andry, 29, of Melrose, Mass., topped the nonbinary field in 1:47:02.

Thirty-seven runners completed the inaugural 8-mile race.