A very snowy February came to a close with a relatively quiet weekend of racing for New England ultrarunners. None raced regionally, and just a handful scattered to other areas to race during the Feb. 27-March 1 weekend. For those who did, they found success on the trails of Utah, Maryland and California. Nobody had a better weekend than Shane Skiff as the 23-year-old from Vermont raced to a podium finish at the Moab Red Hot Ultra 55K. His strong effort leads off this edition of the roundup.

Moab Red Hot Ultra

Shane Skiff closed out his 2025 season with a victory at the Kilkenny Ridge 25-mile race in New Hampshire last September. The 23-year-old from Williston, Vt., opened 2026 with another sizzling run, this time at the Moab Red Hot Ultra on Saturday, Feb. 28, in Moab, Utah.

The event, which took place on Moab’s technical slickrock trails near Arches National Park, offered a 50-mile race for the third time while also playing host to its 20th edition of a 55K. Skiff opted for the traditional 55K distance, and he ran among the frontrunners throughout. Bryan Kerl, 34, of Salida, Colo., pulled away early and won in 4:03:41, followed by 31-year-old Spencer Shellberg of Grand Junction, Colo., in 4:13:48. Kerl rounded out the male podium in third place overall in 4:32:47. Top female Hannah Allgood, 34, of Colorado Springs, Colo., followed seconds behind in fourth overall in 4:32:56.

Skiff was joined in the top 10 by fellow Vermont resident John Lackey. The 22-year-old Stowe resident placed 10th overall and eighth in the male field in 5:12:55. Hailey McDowell, 21, of Bennington, Vt., was 24th overall and fifth in the female field in 6:26:43. The Vermont trio delivered a dominant collective effort, with all three placing in the top 25 out of the 175 overall finishers.

An additional 45 runners completed the 50-mile race, including 52-year-old Joe O’Brien of Hudson, Mass., who finished 35th in 12:38:37. Tyler Kivelson, 22, of Boulder, Colo., led all runners in 9:49:19, while runner-up Gina Myers, 31, of Truckee, Calif., set a new female course record with her 9:56:27 performance.

Hashawa Hills

Blake Haden made his ultrarunning debut a year ago with a victory at the Dogwood Ultra Marathons 12-Hour Night Race in Virginia. For his second ultra, he returned to the Mid-Atlantic Region and turned in another solid performance. Haden, 23, of Ridgefield, Conn., earned a top-10 finish at the 16th edition of the Hashawa Hills 50K on Saturday, Feb. 28, in Westminster, Md.

Haden and his fellow runners took on  a course consisting of two approximately 16-mile loops on singletrack trails and a few gravel roads with plenty of rolling hills and a few stream crossings along the way. Ninety-nine runners finished the race within nine hours. Patrick Blair, 44, of Catonsville, Md., led all runners in 4:02:18, while 39-year-old Emily Driscoll, also of Catonsville, topped the female field and was 12th overall in 5:07:54. Haden placed ninth in 4:58:52 and was the final sub-5-hour finisher.

SoCalUltraTrail at Tejon Ranch

The inaugural SoCalUltraTrail at Tejon Ranch took place on Saturday, Feb. 28, in Lebec, Calif. The event took place north of Los Angeles on the historic Tejon Ranch, the largest private working ranch in California, and runners roamed the property on fire roads, amassing plenty of elevation change along the way in pursuit of 100K and 50K ultra finishes.

No New Englanders were among the 41 finishers of the 100K race, but the region was represented by one runner in the 50K, which required runners to overcome 5,600 feet of climbing on their way to the finish line. Rob Bayliss, 42, of Hadley, Mass., finished in the top half of the field, placing 59th out of 132 finishers in 7:52:04. Bayless is building up to the Kessel Run Ultra 50-miler in Colorado in November. Dylan Marx, 34, of San Diego, Calif., and Halle Gill, 26, of Washington, D.C., were the male and female winners in 4:17:28 and 5:43:37, respectively.

*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.