October opened with a bang for New England ultrarunners. With cooler temperatures starting to settle in and a still jam-packed race calendar, the Oct. 1-3 weekend had to be broken into two roundups to capture everything. This first one starts with the eye-popping battle between Ed Clifford and Brian Burke at Bubba’s Backyard Ultra as the duo raced for nearly 48 hours before only one was left standing.

In yet another sign that some semblance of normalcy is returning to New England – and the ultrarunning community more specifically, September came to a close with the running of the Vermont 50. Yes, the 2020 race was canceled due to the pandemic, but the popular event and New England classic returned on Sept. 26. More than 250 runners finished either the 50-mile or 50K distance, with winners and podium finishers coming from some of the local runners, so the Vermont 50 leads off this edition of the roundup.

A jam-packed final weekend of summer racing took place in New England during the Sept. 17-19 weekend. While a few runners headed out of the region to race the Grindstone 100 in Virginia and Run Rabbit Run 100 in Colorado (see separate roundup), many stayed closer to home and took on ultras in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maine. All of those races are included in this edition of the roundup.

The final weekend of summer racing was a busy one for ultrarunners from Massachusetts and greater New England, with runners tackling races throughout the region and beyond during the Sept. 17-19 weekend. Five out-of-state ultras took place throughout New England; we’ll highlight all of those in the second of two roundups from the weekend. But in this first one, we recap the accomplishments of a pack of New England residents who tackled the 101.85-mile Grindstone 100 in Virginia, as well as a few others who conquered the mountains of Colorado at the Run Rabbit Run 100-miler.