The new year of ultramarathon racing started strong for a current New England resident and a former one during the Jan. 10-11 weekend. Connecticut’s Lena Wirth raced to victory in her ultra debut at the No Hands Trail Run 50K in California, while former Boston resident Molly Seidel won the Bandera 50K in Texas outright in her inaugural ultra. We have both covered in this edition of the roundup.

No Hands Trail Run

Lena Wirth grew up in California and spent her youth running shorter distance trail races. As an adult, she hasn’t slowed down. The 27-year-old resident of New Haven, Conn., spent the past two years running trails in Connecticut and racing shorter distances, but she made the leap to the ultra world when she entered the No Hands Trail Run 50K. The sixth annual event took place on Saturday, Jan. 10, in Auburn, Calif. It took runners on part of the historic Western States trail, including across iconic “No Hands Bridge”, starting and finishing at American River Overlook Park with runners amassing more than 5,500 feet of climbing by the end.

Seventy-five runners finished the race within nine hours, including Wirth. Not only did she become an ultrarunner at the race, she also finished in first place in the female field and 16th overall in 6:27:33. Female runner-up Kristin Trapp, 43, of Rocklin, Calif., followed nearly 10 minutes later in 6:37:07. Davi Pillard, 38, of Santa Rosa, Calif., topped the male field and led all runners in 4:58:05.

Bandera

A former New England resident delivered a dynamite ultramarathon debut performance and a current resident of the region turned in a solid performance at the Bandera Ultras on Jan. 10-11 at the Hill Country State Natural Area in Bandera, Texas.

Former Boston resident Molly Seidel, now living in Flagstaff, Ariz., made her trail ultramarathon debut in the event’s 50K race and delivered a dominant effort. The 31-year-old bronze medalist at the 2020 Olympic Marathon won the race outright and set a new female course record with her 4:09:39 performance. Top male Benjamin Melisi, 30, of Live Oak, Texas, was second overall in 4:15:49.

Meanwhile, 54-year-old Jay Doubman of Winchester, Mass., was the lone runner from the region to tackle the two-loop 100K distance, and the veteran ultrarunner was up for the challenge. Of the 345 runners who started the race, 264 finished within the 25-hour time limit. Doberman placed 88th overall in 14:25:35. Jared Rothlauf, 39, of San Antonio, Texas, won the race outright by 65 minutes in 8:54:58. Top female Anneke Durkan, 39, also of San Antonio, placed 10th overall in 11:08:14.

*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.