A few new surprises were in store for runners at the Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service’s (BURCS) Free to Run Trail Races this year.
The event still raises funds to support Free to Run, Inc., a nonprofit organization that seeks to enable women and girls in conflict regions to engage in physical and outdoor activities. That part of the event was unchanged.
Continue reading Runners Conquer Revamped Course at Free to Run Trail RacesNEEDHAM, Mass. – At its core, the format of the backyard ultra is rooted in simplicity: a set distance, a set time, repeated over and over again.
For runners at the second annual MetroWest Backyard Ultra, that simplicity may have been summed up best by the official race timepiece. There was no fancy digital clock next to a blow-up arch. Instead, there was a classic plastic circular clock with hands on it to track the hours, minutes and seconds.
Continue reading Kaplan Outlasts Everyone for Victory at MetroWest Backyard UltraThe Sept. 15-17 weekend was a busy one for ultrarunners in Massachusetts with ultra events in both the eastern and western parts of the Commonwealth (MetroWest Backyard Ultra in Needham and the Free to Run Trail Races in Pittsfield), but the racing didn’t stop there. Many New Englanders also gathered in New Hampshire for the classic Pisgah Mountain Trail Races, where Brian Rusiecki returned to a course he knows well and secured another victory. Others headed to New York for the Pawling 24 time-based event, while others headed south to Georgia and Tennessee or west to Arizona to compete. We have them all covered in this edition of the roundup.
Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: Pisgah, Pawling, Flagstaff to Grand Canyon, Georgia Jewel, and the Barkley Fall Classiche Needham Running Club played host to the second annual MetroWest Backyard Ultra on Sept. 16-17 at the Needham Town Forest in Needham, Mass. A full gallery by MassUltra Editor Chris Wristen can be viewed here. An additional photo gallery by Adam Hoffman can be viewed here.
Continue reading Photos: MetroWest Backyard UltraThe Needham Running Club played host to the second annual MetroWest Backyard Ultra – known in 2022 as the Needham Backyard Ultra – on Sept. 16-17 at the Needham Town Forest in Needham, Mass. Despite weather warnings due to a hurricane, race conditions were mild and comfortable as 30 runners took on a 4.17-mile loop course with a new loop starting on the hour, every hour, until one runner remained.
Continue reading Results: MetroWest Backyard UltraThe eighth edition of the Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service’s (BURCS) Free to Run Trail Races took place Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, at Pittsfield State Forest in Pittsfield, Mass. This year’s event included a redesigned course and new distances. The traditional 50-miler remained, but the marathon and half marathons were replaced with 50K, 25K and 15K distances.
Continue reading Results: BURCS Free to Run Trail RacesCARLISLE, Mass. – Thunderstorms and fallen branches forced a delayed start to the Trail Animals Running Club’s TARC Fall Classic as wind gusts littered the trail in debris and knocked down power lines that blocked roads to the trailhead.
Continue reading Storm Delay Doesn’t Dampen TARC Fall ClassicIt was the year of the Americans at the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc as US men and women swept the top spots of the endurance running festival’s signature event – the UTMB – for the first time ever. Additional Americans earned spots on the podium in some of the other events that are part of the week-long trail-running festival that offers five ultramarathon options (the 106-mile UTMB, the 100K CCC, the 145K TDS, the 55K OCC, and the 300K PTL) from Aug. 28-Sept. 3, 2023, in Chamonix, France.
Continue reading New Englanders Have Big Weekend at UTMB FestivalThe Trail Animals Running Club played host to the 11th edition of the TARC Fall Classic on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023, at Great Brook Farm State Park in Carlisle, Mass. The following are a small sample of photos from the day taken by MassUltra Editor Chris Wristen. A full gallery of 325 photos can be viewed here.
Continue reading Photos: TARC Fall ClassicFrom mid-September through early November is typically the busiest stretch of the ultrarunning season, and that trend did not let up during the Sept. 8-10 weekend as New Englanders tackled races locally and all across the country. Nearly 500 runners took part in the annual TARC Fall Classic in Carlisle, Mass. (separate recap to follow), but many runners branched out across the region – from Maine and Connecticut – to race. Several others scattered throughout the country to tackle 100-mile races, from New York to Utah, to Arizona, Oregon and Pennsylvania. And that’s just the ultras that have posted their results so far! Collectively, that makes for plenty of reading in this edition of the roundup.
Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: Megunticook, Macedonia, Virgil Crest, Wasatch, Mogollon Monster, Pine to Palm, and Pine Creek Challenge
