All was quiet on the ultrarunning scene in New England during the post-Thanksgiving weekend, save for personal ambitions to log big miles after enjoying a feast. Two runners from the region ventured outside New England to toe the starting line of ultramarathons, though, with one on each coast. Those efforts make for some light reading in the Nov. 29-Dec. 1 weekend roundup.

Squatchy Leftovers 50K

If it’s a weekend and there is a race, there’s a good chance Heidi Mendoza is there. Be it road or trail, ultra or sub-ultra distance, Mendoza is a relentless runner. The 50-year-old from Watertown, Mass., didn’t take off Thanksgiving weekend. Instead, she raced the seventh annual Squatchy Leftovers 50K on Saturday, Nov. 30, in West Orange, N.J.

The event used a 5K loop course on the trails of South Mountain Reservation, and ultrarunners had to complete the loop 10 times.

Mendoza was one of 74 runners who finished the 50K within 8 1/2 hours. She placed 61st overall in 7:16:30.

Cory Fleming, 33, of New York, N.Y., led the men’s field in 3:57:51 while Lauren Longfield, 33, of Newton, N.J., topped the women’s field and placed sixth overall in 4:40:00. Fleming posted the second-fastest men’s time in course history while Longfield broke her own women’s course record by 8 minutes.

Squatchy Leftovers wasn’t Mendoza’s final ultra of the year. She will close out 2024 at the Run Undead Ultra Trail Party 100-miler on December 31 in Alabama.

Quad Dipsea 28.4

New Hampshire may now be home for Heather Finn, but her trail-running heart remains in California where she lived previously and has logged plenty of miles. Finn, now living in Amherst, N.H., returned to the West Coast for her first ultra since completing the 2016 North Face Endurance Challenge 50K in San Francisco. This time, she took on the California classic Quad Dipsea 28.4-miler on Saturday, Nov. 30, in Mill Valley, Calif. The 40th running of the event once again challenged runners with 9,000 feet of climbing on a mix of hills and stairs.

Of the 265 finishers within 9 1/2 hours, Finn placed 176th overall in 6:56:56.

The front-runners had big performances. In the men’s field, 32-year-old Nick Handel of San Francisco, Calif., dominated the race and won with a 28-minute cushion in 3:47:09. He logged the second-fastest time in course history and missed the men’s course record by 6 minutes. In the women’s field, 33-year-old Sylvie Abel of Los Gatos, Calif., topped the women’s field and placed sixth overall in 4:38:36. Abel posted the third-fastest women’s time in course history and was just 6 minutes off the women’s record that has stood since 1987 when Kathy D’Onofrio ran 4:32:16.

*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.