The Trail Monster Running Series has returned to Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal, and it’s proving as popular as ever. With the so-called Bradbury Scuffle already out of the way, Sunday, Aug. 14 saw the nine-mile Bradbury Breaker unfold for a packed field.

“These races are filled to capacity every single time,” said Ryan Triffitt, race co-director. “We fill them easily, and we have more demand.”

Kevin Tilton, 34, of Conway, N.H. won the race in a time of 1:11:13. Andy Kiburis, 32, of Cumberland, followed him at 1:12:14. John Beliveau, 34, of Portland finished third at 1:12:59.

Jennifer van Dongen, 38, of Bar Harbor, won on the women’s side, crossing the finish line at 1:20:45. Van Dongen’s closest competition trailed her by more than 15 minutes: Emily Rose, 28, of Portland took second among women at 1:35:58. Emily McDevitt, 51, of Camden) finished third, in 1:36:24.

The first event in the Series, the Scuffle – a six-mile race described online as “a mixture of single- and double-track trails with a few rolling hills” and “a great introduction to trail running” – took place on July 10. The final event, the Bradbury Bruiser (“a crazy, twisting, turning 12-mile loop of single-track trails filled with rocks, roots, bumps and hills”) is slated for Sept. 11. Beyond the Bruiser, believe it or not, lie even more intimidating challenges.

Triffitt explained: “In the fall, we do the Big Brad Ultras – we do a 50K, which is 31 miles, and a 50-mile race. And that’s all based right here in the Park. All day, on foot. The terrain here is tricky; it’s rooty, it’s rocky, it’s Maine. It’s what everybody would expect. But it’s a really good first-time ultra-marathon for people, because of the support we have. There’s an aid station every five miles.”

“And we’re all runners,” Triffitt said of Trail Monster. “And we all either have done and/or currently are training to do ultra-marathons, so we know really how to support that … The fun thing about ultra-running is sometimes you don’t have run all that fast, you just have to be able to go all day.”

The 50-mile Big Brad comes with an official 12-hour cutoff.

While the Series takes place in Pownal, Trail Monster is a sizable organization encompassing most of Southern Maine. “And then we have people come to these races from pretty much all over,” Triffitt said. “Definitely people from New Hampshire and Mass, and actually – every now and then – we’ve had people come from Washington State. They’re on vacation, looking for something to do, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I hear you guys put on a good trail race.’”

Each event in the Series is capped around 160 runners, for good reasons.

“That’s both a mix of, we want to keep the field small, because of the experience out on the trails – we want people to have a good run and a good time out there,” said Triffitt, “but we also want to be good stewards of the Park. We want to take care of this place, because we love it. We run here all the time. We want to introduce people to it, we want them to come out and enjoy it, but we don’t want to overdo it.”

Because Trail Monster specifically aims to minimally impact the park environment, the group gets on with park authorities quite well. “We have a great relationship with the park,” Triffitt said.

In the end, the goal of the series is simply to spread the love of running in nature. “We want these races to be accessible,” said Triffitt. “We want people to come out and do them and enjoy them and just to have fun. It’s not about going fast – certainly, yeah, we give prizes to winners and have age-groups and things, but I’m more impressed when people come up to me beforehand or after and say, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ or ‘I didn’t think I could do this’ – and then they come out of it and they’re hooked. That’s generally what we get.”

Trail Monster Running is online at www.trailmonsterrunning.com. The outfit is also easily searchable on Facebook.

42-year-old Craig Beers of Scarborough (716) finished the nine-mile Breaker in 1:52:59.

Pete Slovinsky, 43, of Scarborough, finished the Breaker in 1:55:53.

Runners, including Clark Heijbroek (781) and Andy Kiburis (798), dash away after the signal to “Go!” is given at Sunday, Aug. 14’s Bradbury Breaker.