After a very rainy week, runners saw clouds lifting and blue skies for the 6th edition of the HARRC’s Conococheague 50K Trail Run. The event is held on rock-covered single track and forest service roads in the wilds of western Perry County, Pennsylvania, in the Tuscarora State Forest. The course has five major climbs totaling more than 6,100 feet of ascent.

Meander along babbling brooks, by waterfalls, through rhododendron tunnels and into the highest points in Virginia where ponies roam.

On May 5, 2018 Rockhopper Races launched its first race in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Although White Lake Ultras was not held on the rugged terrain that the White Mountains are known for, it did provide a variety of trails that went around White Lake. There were beautiful mountain views from parts of the 2.9-mile race course as well as snowmobile trails and technical single track.

When I first turned to ultras in 2017, I needed the solitude of the trails and long hours to work through some demons. Within that, I discovered an amazing community. This year, I secretly hoped for a podium place and set my sights on Earth Day 50K.

With almost perfect weather, we had a record number of participants (231), a record number doing 100 or more miles (nine), a record number doing 50 or more miles (154), and set six new state age group records.

In 1999, Suzi Cope created the Grasslands Trail Run not long after moving to north Texas from California. As a pioneer in women’s ultrarunning – she was the first woman to complete the Grand Slam – it was important to build a stronger trail running community in her new home state.

You don’t often see the words “Iowa” and “ultrarunning” in the same sentence. The Hawkeye State has no mountains and little gnarly single track to attract hardcore masochists. But, there are a few ultras scattered around the state, and they have their charms. The Hawkeye 50K is one example.

The Napa Valley 50K takes runners from downtown Calistoga, California to the top of Mount St. Helena, running along the Palisades Trail. Runners consistently praise the course for its remoteness, technical challenge, almost 8k of vertical, and stunning views of the Napa Valley.

Every May the Born to Run Ultra Marathons draw over 1,000 people from a world-wide pool of misfit athletes, creating a legendary running journey through the creative mind of shotgun-toting Race Director Luis Escobar. 

The course, as the race name indicates, goes along the Chubb Trail, a seven-ish mile route that offers some technical rocky/rooty Midwest single track and a nice flat section along the Meramec River.

Somewhere around mile 45 two more runners caught up to me. They weren’t the first to catch me in this section. A few miles earlier I had gotten it into my head that my legs just couldn’t run anymore. I was slowed to a walk, or was “Miwalking”.

Race founders Stacy and Phil Sheridan greeted each runner with a smile and a hug.

I wanted an Ice Age belt buckle. At 72-years-young, now wouldn’t be too soon. I expected to be on the edge, chasing the cutoff most of the day… if most things went right.

I didn’t intend to run my first ultra in a blizzard.

It was a perfect day for a race in the shadow of WWII heroes. Hosted by the Military Museum of Northern Florida, the race is held on a former WWII airbase and loops through magnificent cypress swamps around the perimeter of the old base. Remains of crashed aircraft and old bunkers are still visible.

A 90-minute drive from Los Angeles, Leona Divide is run mostly on the scenic Pacific Crest Trail among undulating green mountains and views of distant Lake Hughes.

This is the last text from the Sahara, my friends, after three days of cruel intensity. Magdalena Boulet won the race easy. She still looks amazing. Most of us survived it, struggling.

The sandstorm happened last night at midnight and was awful. But it also gave birth to the best day we’ve had so far. The Sahara… go figure. 

Gaël Couturier, five-time Marathon Des Sables finisher, reports while running the 2018 Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara desert in Morocco.

By Laurie Staton Snowflakes swirled and wind whipped around us at the Friday noon start of the 2018 Antelope Island…

The sky was dark and the ground was dry when we arrived at the shore of Lake Superior for the ninth annual Wild Duluth 100K on October 21, 2017. There were 74 of us with our crews, gathered at Bayfront Park, only half of whom would finish.

This year’s race was small and intimate. Due to a variety of reasons (not the least being flu or car problems) 12 runners took the start at the Ghost Town 50K, held outside of Hillsboro, New Mexico.

In the heart of winter, the Arrowhead 135, from International Falls to Tower, Minnesota offers many choices to participants: bike, ski, or foot division; supported or unsupported.

Hellgate 100K is actually 66.6 miles starting at 12:01 a.m. on the second Saturday in December at the northern terminus of the Glenwood Horse Trail at the Big Hellgate Parking lot next to Big Hellgate Creek in Central Virginia.

While most people were bundled up in their cozy beds on this cold and windy Saturday morning, a few intrepid men and women laced up their running shoes to participate in the 40th annual Avalon 50K/50M Benefit Run on Catalina Island, California.

The fifth annual Snowdrop Foundation ULTRA 55-Hour Race and Relay was one for the record books. Featuring a new course and a larger and deeper field, we knew big things could happen, and they did.

What better way for two runners to celebrate New Year’s Eve than by throwing a 6-Hour Ultra celebration with 30 of their best and brand-new running friends?

What sets El Camino de Lavaca apart from other ultra stage races is its cultural objective, specifically the “Painted Churches” around which the pilgrimage was planned. The point, according to John T. Sharp, its creator and director, is “existential discovery, historical appreciation, religious reflection and self-actualization.”

The story of Tunnel Hill 2017 will be Camille Herron and rightly so. This is the story of those of us who squeaked in just under 24 hours for that special buckle, those of us who just made the 30-hour cutoff and those of us running our first 100-miler.