WESTWOOD, Mass. – Seventy-five runners gathered inside Powissett Lodge as a light snow fell outside. Some topped off water bottles and soft flasks, while others rustled through their packs, double-checking to make sure they had everything they needed. Most listened intently as co-Race Director Surjeet Paintal gave the pre-race briefing.
They were wise to pay attention, because the seventh running of the Trail Animals Running Club’s TARCtic Frozen Yeti 30-Hour Ultra on Feb. 7-8 at Hale Education would be unlike any prior edition.
The Trail Animals Running Club (TARC) played host to the seventh running of the TARCtic Frozen Yeti 30-Hour Ultra and 15-mile night race on Feb. 7-8, 2026, at Hale Education in Westwood, Mass. Runners encountered challenging conditions with excessive snow that fell prior to, and during, the race, as well as temperatures well below freezing and wind chills as low as -15F.
The Trail Animals Running Club played host to the seventh running of the TARCtic Frozen Yeti 30-Hour Ultra and 15-mile night race on Feb. 7-8, 2026, at Hale Education in Westwood, Mass. The following are a small sample of photos taken by MassUltra Editor Chris Wristen. A full photo gallery can be viewed on the MassUltra Flickr page.
The G.A.C. Fat Ass 50K played a central role in Matt Veiga’s trail- and ultrarunning career. The event, hosted by Gil’s Athletic Club in Topsfield, introduced him to the sport in 2005 when he attended his first Fat Ass 50K. Veiga took part in the event at least 10 times, and like hundreds of runners in New England, always looked forward to the free fun run in early January that served as the unofficial kickoff to the new trail- and ultrarunning season.
When Veiga learned in November that the event would not return after a 25-year run, he wanted to do something about it.
After a 25-year run as the G.A.C. Fat Ass 50K, Gil’s Athletic Club handed off the reins for the classic New England ultrarunning kickoff event to the Trail Animals Running Club. The first offering of the annual fun run under its new name of the TARC Yeti Trail Trot took place on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, at Bradley Palmer State Park in Hamilton, Mass. Around 150 runners showed up on a cold morning to run or walk between one and five loops of snowy and icy trails. Thirty-one runners completed five loops and earned ultramarathon finishes, while another 11 runners completed four loops and an extra out-and-back for a marathon finish.
I’d lived in Massachusetts less than six months when I launched the MassUltra website in January 2016. I only knew a handful of people, a couple of local trails, and had yet to run a trail ultramarathon in the Commonwealth. I was the new guy in town and had so much to learn.
It would have been understandable if Wayne Ball turned his focus to next year the moment his name was selected in the Dec. 6 lottery for the 2026 Western States Endurance Run. After all, he waited eight years for his chance to participate in trail ultrarunning’s original 100-mile race from Olympic Valley to Auburn, Calif.
The 15th edition of Seth’s Fat Ass 50K took place on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Springfield, Mass. Runners took on a 5K paved loop course in Forest Park that had to be completed 10 times within seven hours. Seventy runners took part in the event, and 40 completed the 50K.
As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. To put that theory to the test, the Trail Animals Running Club brought back a popular distance at the TARC Winter Classic to close out the 15th edition of the TARC Trail Series on Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Middlesex Fells Reservation in Stoneham.
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