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.

October arrived with cooler temperatures and a less crowded ultramarathon racing schedule for the Oct. 1-2 weekend, but plenty of New Englanders found opportunities to run long. In New Hampshire, runners ran from dusk to dark at the Joe English Twilight Challenge. In Virginia, several New Englanders ran through the night and into the next day on their way to 100-mile finishes at the Yeti 100-Mile Endurance Run. And in New Hampshire, runners ran all day, all night, all day and well into a second night for far beyond 100 miles at Bubba’s Backyard Ultra. It was once again a showdown between Ed Clifford and Brian Burke at Bubba’s, and that race leads off this edition of the roundup.

Midstate Massive and Ghost Train are on the horizon for hundreds of ultrarunners in New England, meaning the final weekend of September was either the last big preparatory race or the start of taper time. For some, the final tune-up came at a New England classic – the Vermont 50 – where hundreds of ultrarunners took on the hilly dirt roads and scenic foliage of the Vermont countryside. Others made the weekend their focal race of the fall, including a trio who headed west to Utah for the rugged Bear 100. Still others like Marshfield’s Mari Engelhardt used the weekend as a measuring stick for progress – she improved on her eighth-place finish at the 2021 Water Gap 50K by bringing home the victory this year. Those races and more are featured in this edition of the roundup.

From New Hampshire to Virginia, all the way out to Colorado, Part 2 of our roundup from the Sept. 16-18 weekend focuses on big, burly courses. We start in New Hampshire with the brutal Kilkenny Ridge 50-miler that took runners over two of the state’s 4,000-foot peaks twice. From there, we head south to Virginia to the Beast Coast classic Grindstone 100-miler before closing out at the high-altitude Run Rabbit Run 100-miler in Colorado.

The jam-packed September racing calendar rolled on during the Sept. 16-18 weekend, and that means another two-part roundup is necessary to capture the action of the New England crew. We’ll catch up on the Kilkenny Ridge 50-miler, Grindstone and Run Rabbit Run in Part 2, but here in Part 1 we’ll catch up on Daniel Grip’s pursuit of the course record at the Forgotten Forest 9-Hour Ultra in Connecticut, and then head to Colorado for the Red Feather Trail Jamboree before closing out with the Barkley Fall Classic in Tennessee and the Pawling 24-Hour Trail Festival in New York. There’s plenty to read – and that’s just Part 1!