Lars Sauvola knows the Wapack Trail extremely well. He made his Wapack and Back debut in 2009 when he finished third in the 21.5-mile race. He then raced the Wapack Fall Race 18-miler four times between 2009 and 2014, finishing in the top six each time. He returned to Wapack and Back in 2023 and raced to victory in the 43-mile race in 8:58:00.
Sauvola was back at Wapack and Back for its 16th edition on Saturday, May 11, in Ashburnham, Mass., and this time the 49-year-old from Rindge, N.H., set his sights on the 50-mile distance, the longest of the event’s three offerings. That meant completing an out-and-back run of the trail, along with seven additional miles resulting in nearly 11,000 feet of climbing – much of it on rocky, gnarly terrain.
While the Watuppa Trail Races and Wapack and Back brought many ultrarunners to the starting lines in Massachusetts during the May 10-12 weekend, there were also large gatherings in Maine and Vermont as runners took on 100 miles at Maine’s Androscoggin Riverlands State Park, or 100-mile, 50-mile and 50K distances in the Green Mountain foothills. We catch up on both of those events in this edition of the roundup.
The 16th edition of the Trail Animals Running Club’s Wapack and Back Trail Races took place on Saturday, May 11, 2024, in Ashburnham, Mass. Runners took on either a 43-mile out-and-back of the Wapack Trail, a 50-mile race that included the 43-mile out-and-back and an additional seven miles, or a 21.5-mile one-way journey through the course. Since its founding in 2007 by Bogie Dumitrescu, the event has been held annually with the exception of 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There was plenty of ultramarathon action throughout New England during the May 10-12 weekend, from the Watuppa Trail Races and Wapack and Back here in Massachusetts, to the Riverlands 100 in Maine and Blood Root Ultra in Vermont. Even with all of those opportunities close to home, several runners from the region scattered throughout the country to take on a variety of ultra challenges. You can read about Watuppa and Wapack in their own separate articles, and we’ll catch up on Riverlands and Blood Root in a separate roundup, but in this edition we catch up on those non-New England events in Arizona, Oregon, Alabama, Washington, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
FALL RIVER, Mass. – Sean Blythe crafted a masterpiece of a performance for four loops of the 50K at the 10th edition of the Watuppa Trail Races on Saturday, May 11, at Watuppa Reservation. But the race goes for five loops, and the final trip through the course was a doozy for Blythe that required him to dig deep, battle hard and rediscover his mojo in the most unlikely of ways.
Northeast Race Management played host to the 10th edition of the Watuppa Trail Races on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at Watuppa Reservation in Fall River, Mass. Runners took on 50K, 30K and 10K races on a 10K loop course. For more photos from the race, check out the MassUltra Facebook page.
The 10th running of the Watuppa Trail Races took place on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at Watuppa Reservation in Fall River, Mass. Runners took on a 10K loop course for 50K, 30K and 10K distances.
Although there was plenty of ultramarathon action in the New England region during the May 3-5 weekend, several runners also found success on the trails across the country. In Part 2 of this week’s roundup, we look outside of New England and catch up on ultras in Virginia, Tennessee, and California. But we start in Oregon, where Jonathan McInerney battled to victory at a West Coast classic.
The opening weekend of May was quiet on the Massachusetts ultrarunning scene, but it was busy in the rest of New England. Ultras were held in half of the region’s states, with the Big A 50K taking place in Maine, the White Lake Ultras in New Hampshire, and the Blue 2 Blue Challenge in Connecticut. Results from Blue 2 Blue were unavailable as of the time of publication, but we catch up on the outcomes at Big A and White Lake in Part 1 of this week’s roundup. In Part 2, we will catch up on ultras beyond the region.
The busy April 27-28 weekend merited a two-roundup recap to catch up on all the action of New England ultrarunners. After highlighting results from the greater Northeast in the first part, here in part two we have results from the rest of the country, highlighted by Connecticut resident Caitlin Rossi’s 101-mile effort in Georgia and Massachusetts resident Bill Wells’ top-10 showing at the Grind on the Grid Backyard Ultra in Indiana.
