Fresh off of a busy weekend of ultramarathon racing in the Bay State that saw runners cross the state from north to south at the Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail, the Oct. 17-18 weekend was relatively quiet for ultrarunners in Massachusetts. Two runners headed out-of-state to race, one across the country in Oregon and another in nearby Pennsylvania, and we have them covered in this week’s roundup.

After several weeks with trail ultramarathons in the New England region, the opening weekend of October was relatively quiet as many runners tapered for the upcoming Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-mile, 50-mile and 30-mile races. Still, a few dozen runners gathered in New Hampshire for the second running of Bubba’s Backyard Ultra, and that event gets this week’s roundup all to itself.

A quiet, pandemic-ravaged ultramarathon season continued to come back online with a handful of races in the final weekend of September, and some of them attracted New England residents to the starting lines. Two of them took place in Connecticut, while the biggest local performance happened in Virginia where Somerville resident Lance Doherty turned in another big effort, smashing his winning time from a year ago on the way to a second-place finish at the Yeti 100. His effort leads off this week’s roundup.