May 4, 2025
8:00 AM
Beacon, NY
Breakneck had been on my list for a while. Coming off Boston and wanting at least one race before the brutal Ultra Trail Snowdonia 50K - breakneck was perfect timing halfway between the two races, and a nice tune up and getting used to a lot of elevation and a lot of technicality. I actually signed up for this one pretty early in October, which was good as it ended up selling out. I had been interested in this race for years but with spring track ending in May and/or my spring road season going to May, this was the first year it made sense for me to do this race. But only having wrapped up my road season 13 days prior at the Boston Marathon, I'd be really unprepared for this.
Post-Boston, I took 4 days off alternating days on and off trying to get some recovery heading into a long trail season but also not trying to feel horrible when I come back. With less than 4 weeks to Snowdonia, I had limited time to train for that. My plan was to get in a few longer technical/hilly trails and Breakneck before a second taper to stay fresh for Snowdonia. Breakneck would be the big day as I'd get 4,000+ feet of elevation gain and 20 miles, the closest I'd come to matching Snowdonia's 35 miles and 11,000 feet of elevation. After two longer hard trail runs and the time off after Boston, I didn't feel great going into Breakneck. Not only was I not prepared to do well on a technical, hilly course, but I had a lot of fatigue coming off Boston going right into longer trail stuff. In particular, I was having issues with a super tight hip and hamstring even just the day before. Between the lack of course-specific fitness and these issues, I kept my expectations low for this one and treated it more as a training run. But at the end of the day, a race is a race and I still wanted to do my very best.
Magically, as these things usually occur, the hamstring and hip issue were just not a problem whatsoever on race day. Early May can mean great weather in the Northeast, this was not the case. At 63 starting temp at near 100% humidity, these would be warm conditions for me after spending much of the last month training in the 40s and 50s. Breakneck is a notoriously hard course with about 4,000' of elevation gain over 14 miles. The course was slightly different this year as it would not climb the full breakneck ridge due to construction, and would add the lost elevation in an extra climb on the adjacent Bull Hill. The race was comprised of 4 ascents and descent including 2 around 1,000'.
I did a 3 mile warm-up, mostly on the roads as the trail immediately ascended 1000 feet. The race setup was pretty good and never had to wait long for the bathrooms. There were a lot of tiny bugs flying in my face which was annoying.
Wanting to start conservative given my concerns about fatigue coming in and being underprepared, I lined up about in the 3rd or 4th row. But ended up being 2nd or 3rd row since no one really wanted to start fast. I'm used to shooting off the line in a lot of trail races, so going out at 7 minute pace felt very slow. And this wasn't a race where you'd be punished for not getting out quick- while there was only about 200 meters before beginning the climb, the entire first climb - about 2.3 miles was on a wide dirt/jeep road. By a third of a mile in, I had moved up to second matching the leaders pace. The effort felt ridiculously easy and I was starting to plan out how I would try to win the race. I thought just sitting and making a move somewhere in the second half would be ideal. I had to tell myself not to pass, as I've made that mistake before and it's come back to bite me. While the grade wasn't steep, the road was pretty rocky which was made for some difficulty as the trail was fairly wet. I felt like the climbing was no problem but was definitely was taking some awkward steps and was questioning my ability to run down this type of terrain later on. There was a bunch of people in our pack and since I wasn't feeling super comfortable on the wet rocks, I moved back to 4th or 5th by the mile. By the second mile, we had split into 2 packs and I was in 6th or 7th at this point but still very much in contact with the leaders. The last bit of the climb got a bit steeper and I could have passed a few guys who chose to powerhike, but given it was so early and we would very soon hit a downhill, I just opted to hike behind them. Pretty solid/pleased with that first climb, then instantly into a steeper and technical downhill singletrack.
We would now descend 2.3 miles and 1,000' - so similar average grade to the first climb but with harder terrain and some steeper -15% pitches. Within 30 seconds, the 2nd pack I was apart of on the climb was completely out of sight. I descended at a pace that felt decently quick without putting myself at risk of falling or spraining an ankle. This was my first technical race since spraining my ankle 6 months ago - and that ankle never quite returning to the normal size. After a mile of descending, my right (the one injured in November) ankle got caught on a rock and I hyperextended it backwards (plantar flexion). That part didn't hurt, just felt weird/wrong but somehow it pulled violently on a ligament to the side. I was in panic mode for a little bit as it felt like a bad sprain and hurt a bit, but after a minute of running, the discomfort subsided substantially. That said it subconsciously hurt my technical confidence and while the end of this descent was more runnable, I was still losing a lot of time as I could now hear the third pack - two guys coming for me. They passed me right at the end of the descent but we would now go into the second climb.
We were now at Breakneck Ridge itself, cutting across the side of the mountain to get to the famous rock scramble part. It was really no problem to hang with these guys here - they did a mix of power hiking and running whereas I felt I could have run it. It felt good to now have a "pack" to stay with. I had definitely shifted to a damage control mindset - instead of planning out any hard moves, just try to get passed as little as possible. Any early thoughts I had of getting top 3 or winning were completely unrealistic now. We then got to the ridge around 5 miles. There's steep scrambling here but it's such a short section and no one around me was trying to go fast, so it didn't feel bad. Another guy caught up and was right behind me, so I tried to keep pace with the guy ahead of me but I got too close and got some dirt kicked into my eye. It felt like I was holding the guy behind me back so on the top of the ridge when it got runnable, I just pulled to the side and walked so he could get ahead. Surprisingly, he just followed me and also walked. I asked if he wanted to pass which he declined, so I went ahead.
We were now back up to 1,000' elevation and would descend to around 100'. For a third of a mile, this was on a steeper and more technical trail with stone steps (and hikers coming up). The guys I was just behind dropped me quickly and I felt I was really holding up the guy behind me but it was on him to ask to pass at this point. This turned into a washed out dirt road and then a paved road. About a mile of pavement with a 400 foot drop, this would be a perfect time to get back in the race. But it just felt really bad for me, and my ankle also felt bad on this section. It seems like the shorter strides/steps were better for it. In a good race, I should probably be able to drop a 5:30 here. Instead I only managed a 6:45, as the guy went by me and the top woman also.
Hit the bottom of the climb and I refilled the half flask I had consumed up to this point at the aid station. We now had the second 1,000' climb of the day up Bull Hill. This got me back in the race somewhat as I passed one of the guys from earlier halfway up and once again, I felt like I was really holding back on the climb deferring to others. I caught the lead woman near the top and passed her. This was my favorite trail section of the race as there was some really nice singletrack here and it wasn't as consistently wet or technical as before. There were guys playing bagpipes at the midpoint of the hill which was really cool.
The next section of trail was super technical - just one of those trails with a ton of small rocks and you can't even really step on dirt. I felt super slow and clumsy here despite my ankle no longer bothering me. All the cumulative fatigue was starting to hit me really hard and I was also starting to overheat badly. The top woman repassed me here before we hit the final climb - at only 500', this was a lot shorter than the other but probably the most consistently technical climb. I repassed the woman, but also got passed by two more guys - including one guy clearly in his 90s. Up until this point, I felt I held my own or was really strong on uphills to those around me and I had nothing in the tank. After what felt like a really long time, I finally got back to the original trail and now had 2 miles of descending to go on the same as the first two miles ascent. I was out of water, feeling very hot, and just had no energy and drive. I didn't feel strong at all descending on the wet, rocky trail, which now had lots of marathoners going up for their second loop which meant I couldn't always take the optimal line. These probably should have been 6:30-7 minute miles and I was running 9 minute miles. I had nothing left. I hadn't planned on taking another gel but was bonking so I had one without any water. Surprisingly, the top woman didn't pass me until about a mile to go, but like before, she was out of sight within a minute. I got to the bottom, went around the field, and dragged myself across the finish for an uninspiring 2:43:33 for 12th place. Despite passing me with only a mile left, the top woman beat me by nearly two minutes, confirming how bad my last mile was.
I went for a short cool-down to get to 20 on the day and my ankle was only a little bit uncomfortable so that was a good sign. Definitely a concerning thing going towards Snowdonia which would be 8+ hours of technical running. Kind of a mixed bag, usually with that level of swelling there's a lot of pain and instability, here it mostly just felt large. I forgot about the injury for many miles of the race. But of course, rerolling my ankle is not a good thing.
As for the race, this was really disappointing. I thought I had no expectations going into this one, was treating it as a training run, and am still shocked about how badly I ran. I'm not sure I've ever had a race like that where I go out conservative, hold myself back several times, and still end up cratering at the end and having nothing in the tank. My uphills were a lot better than my downhills, but my uphills weren't really good - it's more that my downhills were atrocious. It seems like I lost of ton of confidence post ankle sprain, and of course rerolling it doesn't help. I think my uphills were okay - but looking back a lot of the grades were runnable, and I should have been faster than I was. I think my race was still okay/solid for an off/training day through 9 miles. But then I totally ran of steam and my last 4-5 was pathetic. Running slower than easy run pace pathetic.
In the grand scheme of things, running poorly here isn't a very big deal. But it's more what it represents. Have I completely lost the ability to run good technical downhills? Am I unable to push myself in a race? Do I have zero heat tolerance or endurance? Is it impossible to keep my ankle healthy?
Of course, one bad race doesn't mean a failure for all those questions. And I do get a little bit of an excuse with the fatigue coming off Boston and the other trail runs. But not a confidence booster whatsoever and just adding to a growing list of things to figure out in the world of trail running.
This was a performance to forget. And a reminder there's a lot to work on. Onto Snowdonia, hopefully get things under control for there. As for the event, I thought it was pretty well organized, cool course, think some of those trails are a bit too technical for me. I think I could run so much faster if I did it again. The post race food was very good.
