WEST CHESTERFIELD, Mass. – When it comes to celebrating National Trails Day, Amy Rusiecki does it up right. Good people, good scenery, good vibes and lots of miles on dirt.
Rusiecki and her crew of volunteers at Beast Coast Trail Running played host to their latest National Trails Day party at the Chesterfield Gorge Ultra on June 1-2 at the Chesterfield Gorge Reservation.
June opened with International Trails Day, and ultrarunners from New England celebrated by racing locally – at the Chesterfield Gorge Ultra in Massachusetts (separate recap article), the Last Human Standing event in Rhode Island (results unavailable at time of publication), and the seventh edition of the Connecticut Ultra Traverse, where Justin Kousky delivered his latest course-record performance. Additionally, some runners stayed in the Northeast to race the Cayuga Trails 50, while others ventured to Virginia for the Old Dominion 100 and Dam Yeti 50, Pennsylvania for the grueling Worlds End 100K and 50K, down to South Carolina for the Hell Hole Hundred, and out West to Alaska. We have it all covered in this jam-packed edition of the roundup.
The sixth edition of Beast Coast Trail Running’s Chesterfield Gorge Ultra took place June 1-2, 2024, at the Chesterfield Gorge Reservation in West Chesterfield, Mass. Runners took on a 7.75-mile out-and-back course on dirt roads and doubletrack trail, racing for up to 30 hours for 100-mile, 100K, 50-mile and 50K ultramarathon finishes, as well as 25K and 11K races.
Beast Coast Trail Running played host to the sixth running of the Chesterfield Gorge Ultra and 25K, and first edition of an 11K race, on June 1-2, 2024, at the Chesterfield Gorge Reservation in West Chesterfield, Mass. Nearly 250 runners took part in the event while running distances ranging from 11K to 100 miles. For additional photos from MassUltra Editor Chris Wristen, check out a photo gallery on the MassUltra Facebook page.
MILTON, Mass. — In the years since 2019 when he ran his first ultramarathon, Adam Hoffman was tempted many times to run the Trail Animals Running Club’s classic “Don’t Run Boston” 50K or 50-mile race at the Blue Hills Reservation. There was plenty that appealed to Hoffman, from the low-key, no-frills nature of the event, to the technical terrain that presented an enticing challenge.
Still there was one particular detail that kept Hoffman—and many others like him—away: the course is not marked.
Memorial Day weekend was relatively quiet on the ultrarunning scene nationwide with just a handful of events, including the final days of Infinitus in Vermont and the Trail Festival at Pineland Farms in Maine. Given the limited number of ultras available, Framingham resident Ryan Fecteau picked up the extra mileage for everyone as he closed out his 888K performance at Infinitus. That massive effort leads off this edition of the roundup.
In Part I of the May 17-19 weekend roundup we focused on results at ultras in the Northeast. Here in Part 2, we turn to the rest of the country. New Englanders had big performances from coast to coast, but nobody threw down harder than Rhode Island resident Ben Quatromoni who smashed the course record at the grueling Cruel Jewel 100-miler in Georgia. From there we turn to Virginia and the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100, and then stop off in North Carolina before heading West to Utah, Colorado, and California.
Mid-May stayed red hot for ultrarunning in New England. Here in Massachusetts, the second annual Free Spirit 50K welcomed runners to Leyden, and two more runners – 22-year-old Lukas Janulaitis of Manchester, N.H (12:11:46) and David Marsh, 21, of Marstons Mills, Mass. (19:07:00) – completed the Cape Cod Race Against the Tides unsanctioned solo run. Beyond the Bay State, runners took on the grueling Manchester 2 Monadnock 55-miler in New Hampshire and the Run Ragged Last Person Standing event in Connecticut, which saw Sarah Connor outlast everyone. We catch up on both of those events, as well as a pair of New Jersey ultras – Mayapple and 3 Days at the Fair – in Part I of the roundup from the May 17-19 weekend. In Part 2, we will venture outside of the Northeast, where runners from the region took on at least seven other ultras across the country.
The last time Ashley Hensel-Browning raced an ultramarathon in Massachusetts, it was back in 2021 when she went beyond the marathon distance for the first time and completed the 50K race at the Chesterfield Gorge Ultra.
The second annual Free Spirit 50K took place on Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Leyden, Mass. The race took place on dirt country roads in Massachusetts and Vermont, with around 4,200 feet of climbing on an overcast day with temperatures in the upper 50s to low 60s.