Runners Crank Out the Miles, Turn Up the Fun as Chesterfield Gorge Ultra Returns

WEST CHESTERFIELD, Mass. — Amy Rusiecki knew the soundtrack to the Chesterfield Gorge Ultra would be the sound of water. Rusiecki, the race director and a resident of nearby South Deerfield, runs regularly at the Trustees of Reservations’ Chesterfield Gorge Reservation, so she’s deeply familiar with the burbling of the Westfield River as it flows alongside the rock and dirt jeep road that serves as Rusiecki’s race course.

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MassUltra Roundup: Burning River, Speedgoat, and MCW Westfield

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.

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MassUltra Roundup: Badwater, Hardrock, Yeti-Washington, Tahoe, and Big Chief

July has been heating up in the West in terms of both temperature and ultramarathon racing, and several New England ultrarunners were right in the middle of it from July 16-21. They turned in gutsy performances at ultra classics like the Badwater 135 and Hardrock 100, as well as new soon-to-be classics like the West Coast edition of the Yeti 100. We have all of them – and a few more – covered in this belated roundup.

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MassUltra Roundup: Angevine Farm, Bigfoot, Mt. Hood, and Silver Rush

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.

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Photos: Chesterfield Gorge Ultra

The third running of the Chesterfield Gorge Ultra took place July 10-11, 2021, at the Chesterfield Gorge Reservation in West Chesterfield, Mass. The following are a small sample of photos from the event. A full photo gallery can be viewed on the MassUltra FaceBook page at this link.

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MassUltra Roundup: Finger Lakes 50s and Hell Hath No Hurry

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.

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MassUltra Roundup: Manitou’s Revenge, Forbidden Forest, Catamount, Black Hills, Strawberry Fields, and 6 Days in the Dome

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.

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Going beyond the marathon in Massachusetts