BARNSTABLE, Mass. – The sun was already shining high above Cape Cod Bay when the cars started trickling into the parking lot at Sandy Neck Beach. It wasn’t long before the lot was nearly full of cars, many adorned with bumper stickers boasting of the long distances the drivers had run, races they’d conquered, or mountains they’d climbed.
The 12th annual Cape Cod Frozen Fat Ass 50K took place on Saturday, Jan. 27, at Sandy Neck Beach in Barnstable, Mass. In addition to the 50K distance, runners also had the option of running a 25K. Seventy runners took part in the event. Continue reading Results: Cape Cod Frozen Fat Ass 50K→
While the Cape Cod Frozen Fatass 50K ushered in the 2018 ultramarathon season in Massachusetts (separate article coming soon), scenic trails at more running-friendly winter destinations lured runners away from the Bay State for the final weeks of January. They traveled to the slick rock of Moab, the singletrack of Alabama, and a ghost town in California, and fast times were turned in along the way – none moreso than at the Arches Ultra in Utah where former Massachusetts resident Kyle Pietari and current residents Sean Haggerty and Molly Karp threw down speedy runs. Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: Arches, Mountain Mist, and Calico Trail→
The 12th annual Cape Cod Frozen Fat Ass 50K took place on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, on Sandy Neck Beach in Barnstable, Mass. The Cape Cod Ultrarunning Society played host to 70 runners who took on either the 50K or 25K distance. The following are just a sample of the photos from the race. A full gallery with more than 130 photos can be found on the MassUltra facebook page. Continue reading Photos: Cape Cod Frozen Fat Ass 50K→
Acton’s Andrea Baum traveled to sunny Florida to run her first ultramarathon. Meanwhile, Waban’s Dima Feinhaus had a polar opposite experience in the United Kingdom – with an emphasis on polar. Baum’s race at the Clearwater Distance Classic and Feinhaus’ epic experience at The Montane Spine Race are this week’s featured races. Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: The Spine Race and the Clearwater Classic→
The 2018 Massachusetts ultrarunning season originally was set to begin bright and early on Jan. 3 with the G.A.C. Fat Ass 50K, but the 20thedition of that event was called off due to single-digit temperatures and a wind chill well below zero.
Due to that change of plans, the Bay State’s 2018 ultramarathon race calendar will officially kick off with the Cape Cod Frozen Fat Ass 50K at 8 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at Sandy Neck Beach in Barnstable, Mass. The 12thannual event is put on by the Cape Cod Ultrarunning Society, and it includes a 25K race for runners who would rather not make a second figure-eight loop of the sandy course.Continue reading Massachusetts Ultra Season Begins Saturday on Cape Cod→
A quiet second weekend of January on the ultramarathon racing scene meant Dan Kelley of Lynnfield, Mass., gets this week’s roundup all to himself – and he earned the spotlight with a victory in California. Continue reading MassUltra Roundup: San Diego 50→
The 2017 ultramarathon season closed out and 2018 was ushered in at the 34th annual Across the Years Ultrarunning Festival in Arizona where Mattapoisett resident Clifford Lange lodged perhaps the final ultra finish of the year for a Massachusetts resident, and then Cambridge’s Julien Klaudt-Moreau and Boylston’s Neil Feldman opened the 2018 season with strong showings in Arizona and Texas.
A steady downpour pelted Alex and me as we made our way through the streets of Chamonix, rounded the final turn and – with the thumping sound of spectators banging on signboards echoing off the walls of the surrounding buildings – ran the final steps of the CCC 101K hand-in-hand, crossed the finish line and immediately collapsed into each other’s arms in a long embrace.
It was late-morning on Sept. 2. Four years and one day earlier we’d shared a starting line in Whistler, B.C., to take on a mountain 50-miler just days after meeting for the first time. It was during that trip that we first talked about running the CCC. Now, after four years of waiting and more than 25 hours of running and hiking through the Alps, we were done. Continue reading From the Editor’s Desk: Personal and Community Engagement Made 2017 Special→
The competition simply to enter the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run grows steeper by the year with more than 4,900 runners vying for 261 spots in the field via the lottery process for 2018. Even with a 15-percent increase in lottery applicants from a year ago, two Massachusetts residents had their names drawn in the lottery for the second year in a row.
Forty-eight Massachusetts runners entered the lottery, but Winchester residents David Souza and Kim Vanyo were the only ones to have their names selected for the 45th running of the Western States 100, which will take place June 23-24. Runners will have 30 hours to complete the 100.2-mile journey from Squaw Valley to Auburn, Calif., in the latest edition of ultrarunning’s original 100-miler. Continue reading Winchester’s Souza, Vanyo Selected for Western States→
MassUltra 