The Fourth of July weekend was a light one for ultramarathon runners in New England. There were no local ultras, and just a handful of runners from the region traveled for races further away. In fact, they didn’t even have to travel too far — just to nearby New York for the Finger Lakes 50s and to Pennsylvania for the Hell Hath No Hurry Ultras. Both races make for some light reading in this week’s roundup.

The June 25-27 weekend was dominated by attention on the Western States Endurance Run (see separate recap for New England results), but ultrarunning’s original 100-mile trail run wasn’t the only event of the weekend — far from it. New England ultrarunners turned in strong showings at races in the Northeast, including Manitou’s Revenge in New York, the Forbidden Forest 30-Hour Ultra in Connecticut, and the Catamount 50K in Vermont, as well as farther away at races including the Black Hills 100 in South Dakota. All of that made for a jam-packed roundup.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced ultrarunners worldwide to put their plans on pause. For Tim Furtado of Rehoboth, Mass., that meant delaying his 100-mile debut by a year. For the organizers of the Gunstock TrailFest in New Hampshire and the hundreds of runners who signed up, that meant waiting a year for the inaugural event to take place. During the June 19-20 weekend, Furtado finally got his shot at 100 miles and Gunstock made its debut. Those long-awaited events — as well as several others — are included in this week’s roundup.

Ultra season has been hot in most New England states for at least a month now, but Rhode Island had yet to play host to a race in 2021. That was, until June 12. The Ocean State joined the fray with the long awaited first running of The 666 Trail Race, and it saw Newport local Ben Quatromoni deliver a dominant performance. Several other New England residents also ran beyond the marathon distance at that race, while a few others logged ultra finishes in the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest. There were likely more, though national reporting of results has been unusually slow this week, leading to some light reading in this week’s roundup.

The resurgent ultramarathon racing scene rolled into a new month with a solid start on June 5-6 as New England ultrarunners turned in strong performances at some challenging races throughout the East Coast. From impressive showings at the grueling Worlds End Ultras in Pennsylvania, to a crossing of Connecticut at the CUT, to the classic Old Dominion 100 and the Dam Yeti in Virginia, there were plenty of positive results for runners from the region.