The Eastern States 100 and Anchor Down Ultra were just two of the hundreds of ultramarathons nationwide that were forced to cancel in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to make strong returns in 2021. Both events welcomed back runners – including several New England residents – during the Aug. 13-14 weekend, and both saw runners from the region bring home impressive victories. Those races, as well as the 6-Hours on Lover’s Lane Ultra in Vermont, are featured in this week’s roundup.

With the return on in-person racing for the Trail Animals Running Club on Saturday, Aug. 7, the majority of Massachusetts ultrarunners who raced during the Aug. 6-8 weekend did so at the TARC Summer Classic. Several others headed north to New Hampshire, though, and joined a mix of New England and national runners to take part in the solo 50K or the three-day stage race at the Ragged 75. Additionally, a few more New Englanders headed West to Colorado for some high-altitude racing at the Silverton Ultra Dirty endurance races. The Summer Classic will be covered in a separate story, but the Ragged 75 and Silverton races are featured in this week’s roundup.

The final day of July and first day of August featured several big performances from New England ultrarunners as they tackled courses across the country. Some ventured to the Mountain West for high-altitude adventures such as the High Lonesome 100; others stayed closer to home, with several heading to the mountains of Vermont for the Moosalamoo 36-miler. Then there was Cambridge resident Jenny Hoffman who road-tripped to New York and delivered a sizzling performance in the 100-mile race at the Beast of Burden – Summer Edition. Hoffman’s victory highlighted a busy weekend of racing and leads off this week’s roundup.

A busy summer of ultramarathon racing rolled on for New England residents in the final full weekend of July, and that included performances in the Midwest, West, and East. The biggest day of all came from Cambridge resident Simon Guerard, whose quest for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning took a big step forward with his top-10 finish at the Burning River 100 in Ohio. Several other races haven’t yet posted results, so the busy weekend produced some light reading in this week’s roundup.

The summer racing season continued to heat up during the second weekend of July, with ultrarunners from New England scattering throughout the country to take on trail ultras. Results from many of those events have yet to be posted, but we have a few, including the second running of the 50K race at the Angevine Farm Trail Festival in Connecticut, the rugged Bigfoot Ultras in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, the scenic Mt. Hood 50 in Oregon, and the high-altitude Silver Rush 50-miler from Leadville, Colo. All of that combines for a jam-packed – yet incomplete – roundup.

The Fourth of July weekend was a light one for ultramarathon runners in New England. There were no local ultras, and just a handful of runners from the region traveled for races further away. In fact, they didn’t even have to travel too far — just to nearby New York for the Finger Lakes 50s and to Pennsylvania for the Hell Hath No Hurry Ultras. Both races make for some light reading in this week’s roundup.

The June 25-27 weekend was dominated by attention on the Western States Endurance Run (see separate recap for New England results), but ultrarunning’s original 100-mile trail run wasn’t the only event of the weekend — far from it. New England ultrarunners turned in strong showings at races in the Northeast, including Manitou’s Revenge in New York, the Forbidden Forest 30-Hour Ultra in Connecticut, and the Catamount 50K in Vermont, as well as farther away at races including the Black Hills 100 in South Dakota. All of that made for a jam-packed roundup.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced ultrarunners worldwide to put their plans on pause. For Tim Furtado of Rehoboth, Mass., that meant delaying his 100-mile debut by a year. For the organizers of the Gunstock TrailFest in New Hampshire and the hundreds of runners who signed up, that meant waiting a year for the inaugural event to take place. During the June 19-20 weekend, Furtado finally got his shot at 100 miles and Gunstock made its debut. Those long-awaited events — as well as several others — are included in this week’s roundup.

Ultra season has been hot in most New England states for at least a month now, but Rhode Island had yet to play host to a race in 2021. That was, until June 12. The Ocean State joined the fray with the long awaited first running of The 666 Trail Race, and it saw Newport local Ben Quatromoni deliver a dominant performance. Several other New England residents also ran beyond the marathon distance at that race, while a few others logged ultra finishes in the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest. There were likely more, though national reporting of results has been unusually slow this week, leading to some light reading in this week’s roundup.