Breakneck Point Trail Runs 42k - Race Recap

     Introduction...

          So this was quite the unexpected race to be honest. Since I recently accepted a new job, I found myself unable to do the 50 miler I signed up for in Cayuga. Luckily, the same race organizers were hosting a race, close to my home and right before I start my new job! Actually this whole conversation started 4 days before the race on Wednesday night. Every Wednesday I participate in the "Run PB"  group run. This is a running club based out of Peekskill .We just do 5 easy miles and have great brew after. But... that's besides the point. Anyways after the run everyone was drinking and talking as we do after our runs. Tom and his wife Nikki heard about my new job and situation and they told me about this marathon in a few days.  It was called the "Breakneck Point Trail Runs 42k" which is a marathon. They were the ones that told me I should email the race director and see if I could get in on such short notice.
 

          This wasn't just any marathon though. It is said to be one of the toughest marathons you will ever complete. Consisting of crazy climbs and steep descents adding up to over 8000ft of elevation gain in such a short amount of mileage. I mean the first 5k of the course was a 3 mile climb up to 1600ft. Plus this isn't on dirt roads people. You climb, descend,& traverse up and down mountains, ridge-lines, on an extremely technical trail. This was by no means whatsoever an easy course. But the views say it all. It's always hard work to get to a great view, and there was plenty of those. 

          It sounded like the absolute perfect switch. There was just one problem, I missed the deadline to drop out of the 50, and registration was closed for the marathon. No worries though, it certainly was my fault and on me, but I thought like Tom and Nikki said I might as well just try. The worst that could happen is a no. So an email was sent out Thursday night explaining my situation. 9am the next morning, out grocery shopping, I receive an email from the Race Director saying that I was accepted into the race. I was astounded and bursting with excitement all day. I was so happy. I can finally race. I can run.  So there you have it. I'm in the Breakneck Point Trail Runs 42k on 20 hours notice. How bad can it be?

    Thoughts and training going into the race...

        As you can see, I didn't really have much time to think about the race. But I saw this as an opportunity to really challenge myself and see what I was capable of. I was very determined to do to the best of my ability. I wanted to show the race director and organizers that they let in a great runner and they won't regret it. But it certainly was more about the self challenge. I didn't approach it like most runners do, with a taper week or two, and a really regimented schedule leading up to race day. No. I had none of that because I just found out I was doing the race. This uncertainty fueled me and made me more excited and less nervous than any race I've participated in.

        Funny thing was, I definitely wasn't 100%. I had just come off my worst injury yet. I had just started running/hiking 4 weeks prior to the race. Before that, I was out straight for 4 weeks, no running at all. However the break seemed to work well with me. I focused more on mobility, strength, and recovery. It certainly shaped me into a better athlete. Once I was ready for running, it was straight to the trails and straight up the mountain. My training really ramped up the emphasis on vert. This certainly was good for the race that at the time I didn't know I'd be doing. 

        So in the 3 weeks leading up to race week, I had run 10/35/50 miles each of those weeks, with my elevation gain total being around 25.000ft. Training was going really well and I like the new style of training. My body and knee responded to it much better. So when race week came along for the marathon I had some decent training. But remember, I didn't know I was running the race until Friday(the day before) and hadn't thought about doing it until Wednesday. 

        Due to my schedule I always do my long and hard runs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I had done a gnarly 6 summit run in Bear Mountain State Park on Tuesday making it my biggest vert run to date around 5000ft of gain, 18 miles, just 5 days before the race. And another 13 miles the next day. Thinking about it now it was the absolute perfect training run for the Breakneck Marathon, the only thing was it was in 5 days, and most people taper at least two weeks in advance. I've never been much of a training plan guy though. So before race day I had already racked up 50+ miles with 10,000+ft of gain that week, and I was about to participate one of the hardest trail marathons around, adding 26 miles and 8,000+ more feet of gain to that week. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

     The race day...

        Two alarms were set the morning of race day. 3:45am and 4am. It was Saturday, May 6th, I woke up at 3:50am sharp. I felt immediately awake and not sluggish or anything. That's why I remember the specific time. But as rituals go I had my morning cup of coffee at 4am, read a book, and did my mobility routine as I always do. I woke up with a feeling of just straight excitement. It felt like today was my day and I was about to own it. A confidence I've never felt before, especially not on race day. As any race veteran knows, you have everything ready the night before so all you have to worry about is grabbing your things and heading to the race. That I did. No stresses in the morning as I had everything I needed. A quick run through to make sure everything was there and I was out the door by 5:15am.    

    As I stated earlier the race was local. Only a 25min drive from my house and I was there. Check in was at 5:55 am so I made a quick stop at the gas station for some coconut water, my post race treat. I arrived at check in and nothing was out of the ordinary. Picked up my shirt, bib, and back to the car I went to mentally prepare. My start time was 6:45. I was in wave 3 of 3, which meant I was behind everyone that had already started. This was to ensure that "slower runners" would finish in cutoff time. This was slightly bothersome because I have heard there was bottlenecks in the race previous years and I was all the way in the back, meaning I would have to make frequent passes through lots of single track technical steep terrain. Not the easiest course to pass people on. At the same time though its nice to have people to chase down. Bottom line was I was there to run and really none of that mattered.

        It was almost time for me to start the race so I headed over to the start line with everything I needed, just my pack, no drop bag or anything. Another local runner I know that was running the race, Byron, approached me during this time and we talked a bit before the race. He had run the half marathon years before and done really well. Second place I think. First time speaking in person actually! Besides flybys during local runs in town. It was nice to see a familiar face because I definitely was alone. We were called to the start line. I stuck out like a sore thumb with my sandals, baggie shorts, and a flannel. I know a ton of runners were eyeing my footwear. I just closed my eyes for the next minute or so blocking out the noise, telling myself this is the day, this is what you love, just run, have fun, and run your race, dont run anybody else's race. 

        BOOM! We were off and I was certain I'd be running for at least the next 6 hours or so. The key in the beginning was really to go easy and enjoy myself, feel the course out, warm up, and really see what happens the second half.  Remember I was in the "faster" group(I put quotations around these so called labels because I don't like being defined as fast or slow, we're all runners.) So when we started several people went super hard out the gate. I'm not sure if I actually was or not, but it seemed like I was at the absolute back of the pack, at least for the first climb.  The first 5k was a 1500ft climb for 3 miles. I was saying to myself what are these people doing? It seemed as if they were sprinting up this mountain and we had just started.

        At the top of the climb I felt fine, was greeted by some bells and supporters which was nice! Things were pretty thinned out by that point. I was still cruising finding my rhythm and staying very relaxed. I opened up on the downhill leading to the breakneck climb. Right before I reached the road crossing, around mile 6-7, there was a patch of smooth downhill so I opened up a lot here and something crazy happened. My sandal strap had just popped out, and I thought I had just broke it. I ripped it off to inspect and sat on my ass in the middle of the trail. Luckily what had happened was I was just using excessive force by slamming the down hill and my toe bock got caught on a rock forcing the strap to pop out. It was a quick 1-2 minute fix though and I was back ready to start the steepest climb of the day, breakneck. 

        We had a quarter mile road section leading to the next aid station before the biggest climb of the day. I blazed past it. By that point everything was good, hydration, nutrition, and the running just felt great and smooth. I made my way up breakneck and was a bit broken by what I saw. No, I was not intimidated by the climb, it was still early and I had plenty of energy. I saw what looked like a re-creation of 2019 viral Mt. Everest photo on the Hilary Step. What I saw was at least 50 people in front of me trying to climb this thing. It was absolutely ridiculous. This is when I caught up to a lot of the people that started before me.  It was the hardest section of the day and I was trying my hardest to make passes wen i could, closing harder but faster climbable routes(not of course or anything) that others were neglecting. I must've passed at least 30 people on that climb. I avoided the single file and just channeled my inner mountain goat. Racers couldn't believe my speed in the sandals. I think the climb is less than a mile but covers 1200ft. But at the top, because I was slowed down for a lot of it, I still had immense energy.

        Racers couldn't believe my speed in the sandals. At the top of the climb we were greeted by the lovely race director who asked how my sandals were holding up. Smiling as always after crushing that climb I responded, "just getting warmed up my man." Nothing quite eventful happened the remainder of the first half. There were some more ups and downs but nothing significant, at least for this type of race. I found my way back to the start line covering the first half of the course in 2hrs and 50mins. Refilled my bottle and I was off for the next half of the race. I had eyes on some other races leaving aid as I was heading in. I knew I played it smart by conserving a lot of energy. I had a feeling a lot of racers didn't do the same, and I was gaining on them, and they knew it too.

        The next half of the course I was told is easier. Maybe it was the 13 miles we already did, or the 4000ft we already climbed, but that second loop certainly did not feel easier. The climbs just felt so brutally long and the trails were so technical.  Not to mention it had been drizzling since the start and it started becoming heavier and the course was extremely sloppy by the second half. Not ideal conditions for sandals but we can't pick and choose the weather on race day. Nothing I haven't done before.

        I was playing cat and mouse with this one female runner. Unfortunately never got her name. She kept passing me on the downhills, but I'd always catch up on the climbs. She mentioned she ran the race before and was going for sub 6 hour finish so I knew it would be good to try to stay with her. After lots of back and fourth, climbing and descending. I caught up to her in a downhill, which she was much stronger at. By this point I knew she was starting to struggle. This was mile 20-21. After running with here a minute or so down hill, I realized I could be going much faster, and I feel much stronger than she does right now, so I flew past and never looked back. We both wished each other good luck on the remainder of the race. I had been back and forth with her almost half the race, and she definitely helped my lock into a rhythm that second half.

        By the time I passed her it felt to me at least, like the end was in sight. I had 5-6 miles to go and I  was feeling amazing, stronger than I ever had before with that amount of distance and vert. Something clicked too in those miles. It felt like something primal kicked in. I glanced at my watch, Knowing it would be close for a 6hour finish, and that was the last time I looked at it. From there, I was all alone, nobody in sight, determined to crush these last few miles and give it my all to reach this goal. It's like my mind shut off the pain and all of the highs and adrenaline kicked in. I felt like a true mountain goat. I was running everything, the ups, the downs, technical or slick it didn't matter. I was flying! In that last 6 miles I probably passed another 20 runners (not all marathoners, a lot of half marathoners were still out.)    

    The final descent was my absolute favorite part of the whole race. It was technical and super slick but very runnable. It wasn't incredibly steep either. It felt like a down hill 5k. So this was a true test to the quads. After 8000ft and 24 miles most people by this point can't use the downhill to their advantage because of all the lactic acid in the quads. It makes every downhill step excruciating. This happens if you're low on nutrition, fluids, or simply went too hard too early. But not me. I witnessed so many of these runners on my descent. They were really struggling but almost there. And here I was, what felt like a straight sprint to the finish 3 miles out, passing everyone at incredible speed, flying down that mountain with no regard to pain. I was yelling, screaming, having so much fun, and trying to rally these runners to finish this thing up! Nobody followed of course. They were all broken mentally and physically. But not this guy.

        As I made my way down the last descent. I was greeted by a volunteer telling me I had a mile to go. At this point I was just so happy. I knew that I accomplished what I wanted that day. Those last 3 miles reminded me of why I love this sport, why I love running I didn't need to look at my watch. I knew I was on pace. I earned that sub-6 and I was about to have it. That last mile felt like a celebration and so many emotions were experienced. I pushed my self so hard with just a days notice. I was just really proud of myself and quite frankly surprised. I crossed the finish line with a time of 5:43:49 securing 15th overall, and 1st in 20-29 age category! Absolutely smashing my goal of Sub-6.

    Post race...

        As I crossed the finish line there was a ton of people there. Everybody was cheering having a great time. It felt good to run that one in. Right when I stopped running thats when I heard "Hey Brian over here!" It was a buddy of mine from Run PB, Ken. The first words out of his mouth were, "want a beer?" I was so happy he was there with beers. Funny thing was that was the only thing I forgot! A cooler and beers! I mean how could I? Anyways it was celebration time and down the hatch the beer went. The post race atmosphere was just the best! It was so welcoming and friendly. I truly felt like it was an environment I belong to.

        It was so great to meet some awesome new people. It truly felt like a community event. But that's what ultra running is. I was finally able to sit down with Byron, the local legend and talk training and races with him. Along with generous Ken handing out the beers! I was finally able to meet the breakneck crew I always see crushing it west of the Hudson. There's so many new faces that I shared laughs and conversation with afterward. Truly an unforgettable experience.

       

         Several people came up to me and asked how the hell I did that in sandals. Most people thought I'd run the Half and every time they asked what distance I did, jaw drops all around. Honestly felt like a mini celebrity, people wanted my picture, and to talk! Several people were really impressed with my time too.  I wasn't sure how good it was because I did no research into the course, prior results, etc. All I knew was I accomplished what I wanted to do. Numbers don't mean anything to me. I set a goal and achieved it, that's what matters the most. Everyone out there was grinding. Everyone out there is a winner in my mind.

    Huge shoutout to my friends at Run PB because without them, none of this would have ever happened. Also to the amazing race organizers and directors for putting on probably the best race event I have ever been to. Not to mention letting me in on such short notice. This race was absolutely incredible and will live on in my memories forever! Congrats to all the finishers and a big thanks for sharing this amazing day with me :) it was one to be remembered.

    As always thanks for reading. I appreciate each and every single one of you :)

        sincerely,

    

        ya boi mottsy<3