December is upon us, and with it comes the final few weeks of the 2022 ultramarathon season. Races are becoming fewer across the country, but New England residents are still finding places to compete. Locally, the Trail Animals Running Club played host to its annual Fells Winter Ultra, which was the most popular attraction for regional ultrarunners. A handful headed elsewhere to race on Dec. 3-4, led by Rhode Island’s Ben Quatromoni who competed for a Salomon professional sponsorship in Arizona. A few others traveled to Georgia and Texas to take on new trails. All of those races are featured in this edition of the roundup.

Thanksgiving week was heavy on eating and light on ultramarathon racing throughout the United States. Still, for one Massachusetts man the holiday week included being thankful for finishing his first ultra. Milford’s Alex Kovner finished the Squatchy Leftovers 50K in New Jersey, and he gets this edition of the roundup all to himself.

After months of heavy racing, the Nov. 19-20 weekend was relatively light in anticipation of upcoming Thanksgiving feasts. The most notable ultra in the country was among the few that took place, with 50 New England residents earning finishes at the 60th edition of the JFK 50 in Maryland. Additionally, a handful of runners headed West to Moab to race the Dead Horse Ultras. Both of those races make for some light pre-holiday reading in this edition of the roundup.

Fall is finally asserting its grip on New England with overnight temperatures plummeting into the 20s. Even a bit of snow has dusted parts of the region, signaling that the 2022 ultrarunning season is nearing its conclusion. We’re not there yet, however. There are still a handful of ultras remaining here in Massachusetts and throughout the region before we close the book on 2022. There are even more ultras remaining across the country that continue to entice runners from the region. A couple of those regional and national races happened during the Nov. 12-13 weekend, including the Bold Coast Bash 50K in Maine. Additionally, we caught up on RutFest and the Cowboy 200 from a week earlier. Read on to learn more about them in this edition of the roundup.

November opened with a flurry of races for New England ultrarunners. Here in Massachusetts, the Stone Cat 50K in Ipswich was the major draw, but three other New England ultras (Hamsterwheel, RutFest and 8 Hours at the Farm) also lured plenty of runners to the starting line. And then there were the races outside New England. The Nov. 4-6 weekend was so busy that it merits two roundups to attempt to catch everything. In this one we focus on the non-New England ultras that attracted runners from the region. The biggest performance from that group came from Connecticut’s Johanna Ylanen who notched her latest 100-mile victory at the Pinhoti 100 in Alabama. Read on for more in this edition of the roundup.

A red-hot October for ultrarunners in New England came to a close with a somewhat quiet Oct. 29-30 weekend. Many runners were recovering from big races like Midstate Massive and Ghost Train while others were tapering before the upcoming Stone Cat 50K or the Hamsterwheel. Still, a few folks headed west to the Halloween party in Arizona known as the Javelina Jundred. Additionally, a few more traveled to Kansas to earn ultramarathon finishes at the Rails-to-Trails Extravaganza. Additionally, we caught up on the Bimblers Bluff 50K in Connecticut from the weekend before.

It has been a wild month for major local ultras with the Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail and Ghost Train Rail Trail Race taking top billing for largest events. Those events on back-to-back weekends were followed by an Oct. 22-23 weekend that featured two more Massachusetts ultras – the Womp Romp 50K and Mt. Tom Trail Race 50K. Still, there were a handful of events in New England and beyond that attracted runners from the region during the second-to-last weekend of October. Included among them were the inaugural running of the Rhode Island Trail Classic, as well as the return of Maine’s Farm to Farm Ultra – which saw 20-year-old Lila Gaudrault deliver a stunning 50-mile debut performance that ranks among the best performances in North America this year. Read all about it in this edition of the roundup.

The Midstate Massive Ultra-Trail was the biggest ultramarathon show in New England during the Oct. 8-10 weekend, but it was far from the only event that attracted runners from the region to a starting line. Several headed to Maine for the challenging Big Brad Ultras at Bradbury Mountain State Park. Another half-dozen runners ran for days on end in Utah at the Moab 240. One Massachusetts man earned his first ultra finish in Colorado, while two more runners from the region cranked out 100 miles in Ohio at Canal Corridor. Midstate Massive will have its own recap story, but we have the others featured in this edition of the roundup.