The summertime ultramarathon calendar was hot during the Aug. 16-18 weekend as New Englanders took on trails from coast to coast. The main event in New England was the TARC Summer Classic where more than 100 runners took on 40-mile and 50K ultras or a 10-mile race on the trails of Noon Hill Reservation in Medfield, Mass. The Summer Classic has its own separate story, but so many runners scattered the country to race that we have all the rest captured in a two-part roundup. Part II will take us out West, but here in Part I we stay in the East, where runners took on the Fabulous Fahnestock 50K in New York and the MD Heat Trail Race 50K in Maryland.

Severe weather forced the cancellation of the Lover’s Lane Ultra in Vermont, but the running was undeterred in Rhode Island and Massachusetts during the August 9-11 weekend with the annual Anchor Down Ultra and the BURCS Sweltering Summer 8-Hour Ultra. We’ll have Sweltering Summer covered in a separate story, but Anchor Down leads off this edition of the roundup, and we also catch up on runners from the region who had successes at several other ultras across the country.

New Hampshire and Maine were where the action was as the New England ultrarunning season rolled into August. Both states offered tough ultra challenges during the Aug. 2-4 weekend, with dozens of runners taking on one hard day of racing – or opting for all three – at the Ragged 75 Stage Race and 50K in New Hampshire. In Maine, Blue Hill took center stage with its second annual trail festival. Additionally, a few runners from the region headed to New Jersey and Louisiana to race. We have them all in this edition of the roundup.

A jam-packed July of ultrarunning came to a close during the July 26-28 weekend as New Englanders took on tough ultras from coast to coast and experienced a bit of everything – smooth singletrack, mud, technical rocks and roots, big climbs, heat, humidity, and high altitude. We begin in Vermont, where Samantha Stimac delivered her latest dominant performance at the Moosalamoo Ultra. Then we head to Ohio, where John Sherback earned 100-mile redemption at the Burning River 100. From there, we head to Colorado, where Patrick Boyle earned a podium finish at Grand Mesa, Tom Flummerfelt and Jeff Miner had big days at the Pikes Peak Ultra, and a handful of New Englanders raced at the Never Summer Ultras. Then we finish up further West where New Englanders finished the Crazy Mountain 100 in Montana and the Lost Sierra Ultras in California. Additionally, New Englanders took on the Magnificent Bastards Challenge in Vermont and the Wakely Dam Ultra in New York; results from those events were not available at the time of publication, but there’s still plenty to read in this edition of the roundup.

Hundreds of ultrarunners were busy racing locally in New England during the July 19-21 weekend, including at the Vermont 100, Jigger Johnson Ultras, and Spaulding Woods 50K. We had those events covered in Part I of this week’s roundup, along with Many on the Genny in New York. Here in Part II, we turn to the West where New Englanders tackled at least a half-dozen additional ultras. Most were mountain races, such as the Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Runs in California, the Cascade Crest 100 in Washington, and the Ouray and High Lonesome 100s in Colorado, but runners also raced in Idaho and Arizona. We have them all covered here in Part II, beginning with a podium finish at Tahoe for South Deerfield’s Greg Tew.