Event History

In progress. Please send corrections or additions to Howie.

The "Trail Animals Don't Run Boston 50K", or "DRB" as it is now referred to, grew out of the desire to add more trail ultras to the New England schedule in the 1990's. At that time Howie Breinan was a graduate student at MIT and one of the early members of the Trail Animal Running Club started by Chris Haley. There were just a handful of true ultras in the area... primarily the VT 50 miler in the Fall and VT 100 miler in July. The Nipmuck Trail marathon was well established, but only 26.4 miles. The Pisgah Mtn marathon in New Hampshire also claimed baby ultra status at 27.7 miles before stepping up to 50K in later years. DRB may have beat out Don Allison's Bay Circuit Trail 50 by two months as perhaps the first true Massachusetts trail ultra.

The Blue Hills was already in use for the Skyline Trail Run, about 7 miles, organized by Jeff Saeger. With the large expanse of trails, it was a logical location for a longer event. Howie envisioned an alternative to the Boston Marathon for those who weren't into the big crowds and pounding pavement at high speed, hence the race's moniker. (editorial note... Howie loves the Boston Marathon as an event and means no disrespect. There have been a couple of ultratough runners who have completed both races in the same weekend, as described in "doubling" down below.)

Sidelined with a groin injury and not able to explore on foot, Howie laid out the course only using the Blue Hills map, calculating mileage with dental floss and approximate adjustments for vertical based on the elevation change off the topo map. These measurements have proven to be about as accurate as you could hope given GPS results from runners over the years. As a resident tutor at an MIT dorm he envisioned a marked course with pie plates on sticks and an army of MIT undergraduate volunteers. In fact the layout was designed to get out across Rte 28 and back quickly to minimize the expected need for a police detail. However, when his request for a permit was denied, the idea of an unpermitted run staying under the stated need for a permit for "parties of 25 or more" was born. Sometime prior to the first running Howie hiked the whole course and developed the first edition of the course description (which to this day remains very similar to the original version.) Many of the sketchier trails such as early climbs over Buck Hill and Hawk Hill have become more clearly defined, presumably in part due to DRB use. The first major course change came with the closing of Hemlock Bound trail circa 2011. If the trail ever reopens it will be added back to the run. For many years the maps were xerox copies that Howie personally highlighted according to the color scheme he developed for the first year... hence the "pink", "blue", "yellow", "green", and "orange" sections. These colors once better coordinated with DCR (at that time MDC) markings. In 2014 the manned aid station was removed and the start was changed, eliminating the out and back to the end of the pond, in order to allow runners to access their cars at mile 16 for aid. With the first permit obtained in 2016 officially allowing use of the aid station across from park HQ, the route reverted to the original version.

Doubling: See stats page for runners running both DRB and the Boston Marathon.