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.
The 15th season of the TARC Trail Series concluded with the annual TARC Winter Classic on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, at the Middlesex Fells Reservation in Stoneham, Mass. It was the 16th running of the event overall, 14th edition under the TARC umbrella, and third year with the new Winter Classic format that offered an 8-mile single-loop race on the Skyline Trail alongside a 32-mile, four-loop race. Additionally, after two years without it, the event’s other traditional ultra distance – the five-loop 40-miler – returned to the lineup.
WINCHESTER, Mass. – Two weeks before Thanksgiving, the Trail Animals Running Club kicked off the holiday season with the ninth running of the TARCkey Trot 6-Hour Ultra on Saturday, Nov. 15, at Wright-Locke Farm. Nobody savored the trail-running feast more than Donal Reynolds.
Running 100 miles is nothing new to Anthony Bauer. He has two hard-earned belt buckles as proof of his ability to go the distance, one from the 2023 Indiana Trail 100 and another from the 2024 Idaho Mountain Trail Ultra Festival 100, better known as IMTUF.
MassUltra 