The Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, nearly moved into the fourth night on Tuesday and had to be included in this week’s What’s Up in Ultra. Harvey Lewis outlasted the competition for a new world record in the last person standing world championship at 85 hours or 354.16 miles.
Regardless, it’s a busy race weekend across the country as fall weather starts to roll in. Get your loopy, pre-Halloween running fix on at The Endless Mile, a 6/12/24/48-hour timed event on a 1.00203-mile USATF-certified and sanctioned loop at Veteran’s Park in Alabaster, Alabama, just south of Birmingham kicking off at 9 a.m. on Friday, October 22.
Also taking place in the South is the Big Buffalo 50 in Memphis, Tennessee, with an impressive fundraising approach: for every mile completed by each runner, the event will donate $1 to the Kids Kickin’ Cancer Soccer Club. The event starts on Saturday, October 23, and there’s still time to register for this race to support a great cause if it’s in your neck of the woods.
A second year event in San Antonio, Texas, El Taco Loco, is offering a 50k (one loop) and 100k (two loops) course that is relatively flat and a good option for first-timers at either distance in the Lone Star State on Saturday. We can only assume that there will be tacos at the finish? Someone, please confirm.
The Hanging Flume 50k in Uravan, Colorado, a brand new single-loop ultra starts at 8 a.m. on Saturday, October 23, and runs along abandoned mining double-track and “dreamy desert single-track,” exploring the stunning desert landscape of southwestern Colorado. Coming off a successful weekend at Broken Arrow earlier this month, Kelly Wolf is registered to compete.
In the Midwest, we’ve got the ever popular Surf the Murph 50k/50m races on Saturday morning in the aptly named ultrarunner town of Savage, Minnesota. Although the races are expected to be hotly contested, the main competition of the day, according to the event organizers, “will be for costumes to go along with the Halloween theme.” Prices and awards to follow suit for those who are best dressed. The Savage 100k/100m will also be taking place over the course of the weekend in the same location.
About 30 minutes outside of Ashland, Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest and a stone’s throw from URM headquarters in Bend, Oregon, we’ve got the Twin Peaks 50k in Jacksonville with spots still available. For newer runners, there’s some shorter, sub-ultra distances, too.
There are a plethora of other events happening this weekend – check out our UltraRunning Calendar to find one near you, but also, please let us know What’s Up in Ultra in your community this weekend that we should follow. Drop a note in the comments below, let us know what we missed, and what’s lighting your fall ultra fire.
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The MFAMTL 6-Hour in Rochester, NY is on Saturday. The course is a one-mile trail loop around a pond, immersed in Upstate NY’s peak fall foliage. It’s mostly flat and runners change direction after the 3-hour mark. This low-key race looks like it’ll be a lot of fun! https://trailsroc.org/mfamtl6/
Fort Worth TX area has featured a five-part series of 6-hours, #4 being Oct 24. The Hula Loop series is mostly local (but open to all), it’s low-key, and only a few achieve 50K or more, but I can’t praise it enough. We need these bread-and-butter events to get more people out there!
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