After a jam-packed month of summer racing, the Aug. 25-27 weekend was relatively quiet for ultrarunners in New England – but not completely quiet. A few runners headed west to Oregon and tackled the tough Scenic Beach ultras, while several stayed close to home and gathered in Maine for the annual Firebird Trail Races. It was there that the biggest performance of the weekend was turned in by Lila Gaudrault as the rising star cranked out a course record effort while winning the 50-mile race outright. It’s that big performance that leads off this edition of the roundup.

For some runners, the idea sparked dreams and wonder. For others, it likely caused nightmares. For all who signed up, the moment of truth arrived during the Aug. 18-20 weekend with the inaugural running of the Jigger Johnson 100-miler in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and second edition of the 100K and 50-mile. One of the hardest 100-milers in the United States made its long awaited debut in New England, and it proved to be as brutal as advertised. There were several other ultras that attracted New England ultrarunners during the Aug. 18-20 weekend – including the annual TARC Summer Classic in Massachusetts (see separate recap story – but top billing in this edition of the roundup goes to the Jigger Johnson Ultras.

The August 11-13 weekend saw dozens of ultrarunners flock to western Massachusetts for the Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service’s popular Sweltering Summer Ultra, but it was also a big weekend for other ultras in New England and beyond as runners from the region took on a wide variety of races. Sweltering Summer will have its own separate recap, but in this edition of the roundup we look to Rhode Island and numerous big performances at the Anchor Down Ultra, as well as Vermont for the third edition of Lover’s Lane. We also turn to New York and the annual Beast of Burden Summer Edition, as well as to the West where runners from New England took on the Bigfoot 200 and Fat Dog 120.

Ultrarunners from across the country flocked to New England during the Aug. 4-6 weekend for the USATF 50K Trail National Championship as part of the Ragged 75 Stage Race event in New Hampshire, highlighting a big weekend for ultrarunners in the region. Both the men’s and women’s championships came home to Massachusetts thanks to Boston’s Philip Royer and Hannah Rowe who hammered the tough, rugged course. But Ragged wasn’t the lone race in the region during the weekend. Several other runners ventured to Maine for the inaugural Blue Hill Mountain Trail Fest. Additionally, many runners headed south to Virginia our West To Oregon, Washington and Hawaii for other races. We have them all covered in this edition of the roundup.