Articles by Amy Rusiecki

The Fellowship of the Ring

Just 90 minutes outside of Washington, DC, hides a gem of a trail in the George Washington Forest – a perfect ring of mountains just begging to be run. The Massanutten Mountain Trail circumnavigates this 71-mile mountain...

Engineer by Day, Ultrarunner by Night

For 40-50 hours per week, I work as an environmental engineer organizing the logistics and operations of a municipal public works department. My entire involvement with running, including training, coaching and race dire...

Ice And Mud Seasons

Somewhere between winter and spring, lies the frustration of ice and mud season in the Northeast. This time of treacherous running can last anywhere from a week to a month, but the most challenging conditions are when bo...

Snowshoe Running

Years ago, someone once told me that “snowshoeing made the winter bearable.” I would go farther than that and say snowshoeing makes the winter fun. I actually think it’s the secret training weapon of those ultrarunners w...

Athletes with Disabilities

Over the past few years, runners like Kyle Robidoux have made the ultrarunning news for their participation in races. Kyle is a well-known fixture in the New England running scene, having completed races such as the Verm...

How We Identify as Ultrarunners

There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding the wide categorization of gender in ultrarunning. Conversations, policies and debates have centered around male versus female topics including where transgender athl...

Adventures in Race Directing

Anyone who’s directed a race likely has some crazy stories of the unexpected, humorous and stressful things that can happen behind the scenes. And anyone who’s directed an ultra has many more stories – as things only get...

Backyard Adventures

Like many in the ultrarunning community, I crave adventure. This has pushed me to enter 100-mile races and run a few epic routes “just because.” However, I don’t always have time to travel to a race, or even carve out a...

Engineering a 100-Mile Success

I’m an engineer with a Type A personality. If there was such a thing as being Type A+ that would be me. I like organization and anyone who has done one of my races has received race announcements that include bullet poin...

Presidential Traverse

While most of us will never hold an FKT, simply perusing the list of FKT routes will fill up any ultrarunner’s bucket list. The Beast Coast offers plenty of such routes – one of the most popular being the Presidential Tr...

Vegan-Powered Running

A small ultrarunning community in Western Massachusetts has been doing amazing things under the radar. Their name says it all – the BURCS (Berkshire Ultra Running Community for Service). These awesome ultrarunners focus...

Even Coaches Need a Coach

Over the past 20 years, I have coached numerous high school and college teams. For the past five years, I have provided personal coaching for ultrarunners working towards their next races. While I am embarrassed to admit...

Pleasure or Pain?

When I first started running ultras I remember reading about the Hellgate 100K, and was immediately intrigued. The race is in mid-December, starts one minute past midnight, and is a challenging mountain race (it’s also a...

The Best Beast Coast Season

I don’t think I am alone in favoring the fall as my favorite season for running. The temperature drops, the humidity decreases and the foliage pops. Each year, my passion for running is renewed as I simply enjoy the weat...

Bucket List Run – Pemi Loop

While most of us will never hold an FKT, simply perusing the list of FKT routes will fill up any ultrarunner’s bucket list. The Beast Coast offers plenty of such routes – one of my personal favorites is the Pemi Loop. Th...