The Midstate Massive Ultra Trail Races began with picture-perfect fall leaf-peeping conditions when runners in the event’s 100-mile race departed the Windblown Ski Area in New Ipswich, N.H., on Saturday morning, Oct. 10. The 100-mile, 50-mile and 50K races concluded a day later with participants attempting to outrun the approaching rain as they made their way to the finish line at Douglas State Forest in Douglas, Mass.
For some, it was a mix of the most ideal and most challenging conditions that runners have encountered during the event’s eight years of testing runners as they traversed Massachusetts from north to south. For all, it was a scenic and punishing run, regardless of the distance chosen.
The eighth annual Midstate Massive Ultra Trail took place Oct. 10-11, 2026, offering 100-mile, 50-mile and 50K distances on a point-to-point course along the Midstate Trail. Runners in the 100-miler started at the Windblown Cross Country Ski Area in New Ipswich, N.H., and crossed Massachusetts from north to south before finishing at Douglas State Forest on the state’s southern border in Douglas, Mass. The 50-mile race began in Rutland, and the 50K started in Spencer.
Ryan Hunter couldn’t have asked for better conditions to make his 100-mile debut. The Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100 is difficult under the best of conditions, with the bulk of its climbing and technicality in the burly front half. The mountains of southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts end many a runner’s day early, before they ever make it to the more friendly footing of roads and trails in the back half of the race to Massachusetts’ southern border.
The seventh annual Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-mile, 50-mile and 50K ultramarathons took place Oct. 11-12, 2025, beginning at the Windblown Cross Country Ski Area in New Ipswich, N.H., and finishing at Douglas State Forest in Massachusetts.
There were a few things you could always count on during the first five years of the Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-mile, 50-mile and 30-mile ultramarathons. The course would be challenging, the fall foliage would be spectacular, and both Dane LeBlanc and Joe Loureiro would be on the starting line for the 100-miler.
The sixth annual Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-mile, 50-mile and 30-mile ultramarathons took place Oct. 12-13, 2024, beginning at the Windblown Cross Country Ski Area in New Ipswich, N.H., and finishing at Douglas State Forest in Massachusetts.
The Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-mile race course is daunting during the best of conditions. It is front-loaded with climbing, the majority of it on rugged, technical singletrack trails where the footing is tricky and progress is often slow. The back half has several miles of road, so runners who’ve made it that far can try to pick up the pace, only to then be smacked with even more technical trails during the late miles in Douglas State Forest.
The event earned its reputation during mostly dry conditions through its first four years. The fifth edition of the race – which took place Oct. 7-8 – took course conditions to a diabolical new level as rain drenched the course, making rocks extra slippery and turning portions of the trail into rivers.
The fifth annual Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-mile, 50-mile and 30-mile trail races took place Oct. 7-8, 2023, on point-to-point courses starting in New Ipswich, N.H., as well as Rutland and Spencer, Mass., with all three distances finishing at Douglas State Forest in Douglas, Mass.
NEW IPSWICH, N.H. – Corin Kwasnik and Dan Grip hadn’t met prior to the Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-miler, nor had they shared a race course, but they weren’t exactly strangers. In fact, they’d done battle before.
The fourth annual Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail 100-mile, 50-mile and 30-mile ultramarathons took place Oct. 8-9, taking runners on a journey from New Ipswich, N.H., to Douglas, Mass., or shorter variations along the Midstate Trail that crossed Massachusetts from north to south.
