Around 150 hearty New England trail- and ultrarunners gathered at Hale Reservation in Westwood, Mass., for the fifth edition of the Trail Animals Running Club’s TARCtic Frozen Yeti 30-Hour Ultra and 15-mile night race during the Feb. 3-4 weekend, but a handful of others branched beyond New England to race during the first weekend of February. From a soggy, splashy Rocky Raccoon in Texas, to the warmer confines of the Elephant Mountain Trail Race in Arizona and the Mt. Umunhum Trail Conquest in California, New Englanders made their presence felt at starting lines around the country. We have their results captured in this edition of the roundup.

The jam-packed Jan. 26-28 weekend saw New England ultrarunners taking on races from coast to coast. In part one of the week’s roundup we focused on the events in the West, including the AZT Oracle Rumble in Arizona, the Arches Ultra in Utah, and the Fort Ord 50K and Sean O’Brien Ultras in California. Here in part two we turn to the East, where New Englanders raced in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and New Jersey, and we lead it off with a pair of runners from the region who earned podium finishes at the Clearwater Running Festival 50K – a rare paved ultra – in sunny Florida.

After a quiet start to 2024, the Jan. 26-28 weekend saw a flurry of activity from New England ultrarunners as they scattered from coast to coast to take on a variety of trails. In fact, runners from the region were so busy racing that we have the first two-roundup week of the year. We start with races in the West, where several runners took on ultras in Arizona, Utah and California. Krystyna Oszkinis’s ultra debut leads us off with her podium finish at the AZT Oracle Rumble 50K.

One of the biggest early-season ultras in the United States – Bandera – welcomed hundreds of runners to Texas, including several ultrarunners from New England. One of them – Colleen Chase of Princeton, Mass. – came home with a victory while eight others from the region also earned finisher’s buckles in the 100K race. Beyond Bandera, New Englanders also conquered ultras in frigid Missouri and sunny St. Croix, USVI, during the Jan. 12-14 weekend. We have them all covered in this edition of the roundup.

The 2024 ultrarunning season officially opened on Saturday, Jan. 6, in traditional fashion with the 24th edition of the G.A.C. Fat Ass 50K in Topsfield, Mass. Around 250 runners took part in that classic event, and it will be featured in a separate recap. Still, a handful of New Englanders ventured outside the region to take on ultras during the Jan. 5-7 weekend, with some heading to nearby New York for the Frozen Flamingo 50K and Recover From the Holidays 50K, and others heading southwest to Arizona to race the San Tan Scramble 50K. We have them covered in this edition of the roundup.

The final miles of 2023 and first miles of 2024 were turned in by hundreds of runners on a 1.05-mile loop in Arizona at the 39th annual Across the Years endurance festival. A handful of New England residents were among those who logged last-minute ultras in 2023 or secured some of the first ultra finishes in the country of the new year. We have them covered in this edition of the roundup.

The 2023 ultrarunning season is quickly nearing its conclusion. Ultras are fewer to find throughout the United States, and especially in New England. Just a handful of runners from the region raced during the Dec. 9-10 weekend, but we have them covered. One runner you can always count on to be racing in early December is Jerry Turk. The Connecticut resident was back at the Hellgate 100K for the 21st straight year, and his consistent effort landed him in the lead-off position for this edition of the roundup.

The first weekend of December saw ultrarunners from New England go global, with two runners from Massachusetts taking on the IAU 24-Hour World Championships in Taiwan, while many others toed starting lines throughout the United States. We featured several of those events from the Dec. 1-2 weekend in a separate roundup, but this one catches up with the New England residents who tackled three separate courses in California. Welcome to the West Coast in this edition of the roundup.