For most of the past 11 years, the Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service has kicked off its BURCS Trail Series with the Vegan Power Trail Races at Pittsfield State Forest. For 2025, the BURCS decided to shake things up. They shelved Vegan Power, but maintained the event’s beneficiary and added a few more for a brand new event at Pittsfield State Forest: the Tails & Trails State Forest Run.
Continue reading Uzzel Cruises to Victory at Inaugural Tails & Trails State Forest RunMassUltra Roundup: Run Ragged, Mayapple, Massanutten, Cruel Jewel, and Adrenaline Night Runs
The May 16-18 weekend was busy in Massachusetts with a pair of ultras on the calendar: the Free Spirit 50K in Leyden and the inaugural BURCS Tails & Trails State Forest Run in Pittsfield. We’ll have both covered in separate recaps, but there was plenty more action in the northeast and nationwide for New England ultrarunners. In New England, that included the Run Ragged Last Person Standing race in Connecticut, which was won by Andreas Mucchietto of Cambridge, Mass. Additionally, Jack Mantell of Newton, Mass., earned a podium finish in the 50-miler at Mayapple in New Jersey. We also catch up on tough 100-milers in Virginia and Georgia, before closing out in Arizona. There’s plenty of action to read about in this edition of the roundup.
Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: Run Ragged, Mayapple, Massanutten, Cruel Jewel, and Adrenaline Night RunsResults: BURCS Tails & Trails State Forest Run
The Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service played host to the inaugural Tails & Trails State Forest Run on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at Pittsfield State Forest. The event replaced Vegan Power in the BURCS Badass Trail Series, but it kept the same venue and offered 50K, 25K and 5-mile trail races.
Continue reading Results: BURCS Tails & Trails State Forest RunResults: Free Spirit 50K
The third annual Free Spirit 50K took place on Saturday, May 17, in Leyden, Mass. The course consisted of dirt country roads in Massachusetts and Vermont with around 4,200 feet of climbing.
Continue reading Results: Free Spirit 50K
Muhonen Stuns with Record-Setting Run at Wet and Wild Wapack and Back
Tension was high among the 41 runners gathered around Wapack and Back co-race director Lisa Chaput as she called out final instructions. Their faces bore a mix of intensity, acceptance and determination as they waited to begin the most physically demanding event in the Trail Animals Running Club’s TARC Trail Series.
Continue reading Muhonen Stuns with Record-Setting Run at Wet and Wild Wapack and Back
MassUltra Roundup: Riverlands, Blood Root, and Spring Fling
We close out the May 10-11 weekend ultrarunning roundups here at home in New England for Part III with three events that were daunting in their own unique ways. In Connecticut, runners took on a loop course for 10 hours of endurance fun at the Spring Fling 600. In Vermont, the Blood Root Ultras are always tough, with big climbs, mud and more at the multi-distance festival. But we begin in Maine with the Riverlands 100. Riverlands has thrown all sorts of challenging conditions at runners through the years, including extreme heat in 2022. But this year … this was the year that put the “river” in Riverlands.
Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: Riverlands, Blood Root, and Spring Fling
Tokarsky Rolls to Victory at Watuppa 50K
The Watuppa Trail Races have seen their share of speedy performances throughout the event’s first decade. The second decade kicked off with a familiar feel as 23-year-old Nathaniel Tokarsky delivered the finest performance of his young ultrarunning career at the 11th annual event on Saturday, May 10, at Watuppa Reservation in Fall River, Mass.
Continue reading Tokarsky Rolls to Victory at Watuppa 50KMassUltra Roundup: Hellbender, Mind the Ducks, West Virginia Trail Fest, Running with My Gnomies, and Dirty German
Our journey through New Englanders’ ultrarunning exploits from the May 10-11 weekend continues in Part II of this week’s roundup as we work our way closer to home. After starting in the West, this edition highlights several events in the East, from North Carolina, New York and West Virginia, to Ohio and Pennsylvania, leading off with Massachusetts resident Samuel Cohen’s podium finish at the Hellbender 100.
Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: Hellbender, Mind the Ducks, West Virginia Trail Fest, Running with My Gnomies, and Dirty GermanMassUltra Roundup: Jemez Mountain and Tillamook Burn
The May 10-11 weekend saw a handful of ultras across New England as runners endured sloppy, soggy conditions from Massachusetts to Maine. Even with all of the local action, several runners from the region scattered throughout the country to race, and we’re catching up on their results with a few region-based roundups. We start in the West, where New Englanders secured hard-earned finishes at the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs in New Mexico and Tillamook Burn in Oregon.
Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: Jemez Mountain and Tillamook BurnResults: TARC Wapack and Back Trail Races
The 17th edition of the Trail Animals Running Club’s Wapack and Back Trail Races took place Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Ashburnham, Mass. Runners took on either a 43-mile out-and-back of the Wapack Trail, a 50-mile race that included the 43-mile out-and-back plus an additional 7 miles, or a 21.5-mile one-way journey through the course. Since its founding in 2007 by Bogie Dumitrescu, the event has been held annually with the exception of 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s event was quite possibly the wettest Wapack and Back on record.
Continue reading Results: TARC Wapack and Back Trail Races
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