The bright sun and clear, blue skies may have given the appearance of warmth as runners arrived for Seth’s Fat Ass 50K, but they knew better. They could see their breaths, after all, and the cold cut right through their tights, warm jackets and gloves.

It was a frigid 14 degrees on Saturday morning, Dec. 14, at Forest Park in Springfield, Mass. Though the sun stuck around all day and it ultimately warmed to 33 degrees by the time the finish line closed, the 14th edition of this end-of-the-year ultrarunning tradition was far from easy. In typical fat ass tradition, runners could run however many laps that they wanted to, up to 10 for a 50K finish. The 5K loop course is on roads, which pack extra punch on a winter morning, and there are rolling hills that add up to a sneaky 1,250 feet of climbing by the end of 10 loops.

Despite the cold, 32 of the 65 runners who started the day ultimately earned 50K finishes. Some did so extremely quickly.

A large pack at the front set a fast early pace. Dave Champoux, Jason Kaplan, Seth Cutler, Benjamin Niebla and Carson Cummins all rolled through the 5K mark in around 24 1/2 minutes. They group stuck together through 15K, but Kaplan and Cutler began to gain separation during the fourth loop. 

Kaplan and Cutler hit the 30K mark just four seconds apart, but Cutler started to gain some breathing room during the seventh loop and the 22-year-old from Lexington, Mass., ultimately broke free for the win in 3:47:57. It was just Cutler’s second ultramarathon finish and first since 2022 when he won the Eagleton Trail Challenge 50K in Pennsylvania.

Kaplan, 42, of Boston, Mass., finished second in 3:58:38. The performance capped an extremely busy racing season for Kaplan. He has raced constantly, with impressive performances including 100 miles at the TARCtic Frozen Yeti 30-Hour in February, the Traprock 50K/”Don’t Run Boston” 50K double in April, the Wapack and Back 43-miler, the Vermont 100K, the Leadville Trail 100, 121.9 miles at the Forbidden Forest 30-Hour Ultra, the Javelina 100K, and a top-100 finish at the historic JFK 50-Miler, just to name a few. Champoux, 60, of Florence, Mass., was a distant third in 4:16:37. It was his third straight year finishing Seth’s, and his fastest time yet. Niebla, 27, of Manchester, N.H., was the fourth-place male and fifth overall finisher in 4:24:18. Other sub-5-hour finishers were three-time champion Eric Ciocca, 47, of Northampton, Mass., in 4:52:29, and 60-year-old Eric Connor of Barre, Mass., in 4:57:12.

In the female field, Gabrielle Cook set the tone right from the start and amassed a 3-minute lead by the end of the first loop. She never looked back, and spent most of her remaining loops running with – or ahead of – some of the fastest men. Cook, 27, of South Hadley, Mass., ultimately closed out her race in 4:16:41, good for first place female honors and fourth overall. The race was Cook’s first ultramarathon, and she logged the third-fastest time by a female in event history, just 40 seconds behind the second-best time ever and less than 5 minutes behind the course record of 4:11:39 set by Christin Doneski in 2018.

Joining Cook on the female podium were two more Seth’s newcomers. Elena Musiak, 42, of Southwick, Mass., was second in her ultramarathon debut in 5:09:06, while 31-year-old Liz Burns of Groton, Conn., was third in 5:20:10. Jennifer Boydston, 48, of East Longmeadow, Mass., was fourth in 5:40:31, followed closely by 50-year-old Danielle Meunier of South Hadley, Mass., in 5:40:31.

Beyond the podium finishers, 13 runners added their names to the long list of New Englanders who’ve made their ultrarunning debut at Seth’s. That group included David Estabrook, 37, of Holyoke, Mass. (5:10:15); Vee Bunn, 50, of Ludlow, Mass. (5:18:37); Riley Eger, 29, of Boston, Mass. (5:5:40:53); Neal Jeup, 30, of Detroit, Mich. (5:40:55); Sarah Beaulieu, 49, of East Longmeadow, Mass. (5:47:50); Diana Howat, 29, of Boston, Mass. (6:00:15); Beth Picknally, 43, of Longmeadow, Mass. (6:03:43); Danielle Cyr, 41, of Laconia, N.H. (6:07:58); Jerrell Cox, 40, of Boston, Mass. (6:30:08); Julian Cutts, 17, of Longmeadow, Mass. (6:41:01); Amanda Fritz, 28, of Ludlow, Mass. (6:44:41); Kathy Kalaitzidis, 67, of Agawam, Mass. (6:51:51); and Nitin Bhatnagar, 49, of Westfield, Mass. (7:04:26).

Additionally, several runners got to share miles with Longmeadow native and race namesake Seth Roberts. The 73-year-old’s ultrarunning resume is impressive, including finishes at the 1995 Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, the Old Dominion 100 and Angeles Crest 100 in 1996, the Leadville Trail 100 in 1997, the Wasatch Front 100 in 1998, Arkansas Traveller 100 in 2001, Rocky Raccoon 100 in 2002, the historic JFK 50-miler in 2004, and five sub-24-hour finishes of the Vermont 100 (1993, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2011). Still, one of his greatest running feats was creating an event that still brings the community together so many years later. Roberts created Seth’s Fat Ass 50K with his son, Frank, in 2010 to give ultrarunners in the Springfield area an opportunity to gather for some miles in mid-December. Frank named the race after his father, and Roberts returns each year to run a few loops and reconnect with friends. Roberts completed five loops and 15.5 miles at this year’s run.