Breakneck Point Trail Marathon Race Report

So last weekend I ran my first race of the season at the Breakneck Point Trail "Marathon", I put it in quotes because the race was about 29 miles long with about 10,000 feet of elevation gain and loss.

 

I went into this race in full fear mode wondering why I chose such a difficult race to start the season and wondering if I was up for the challenge.  Looking at the finish times from the previous two runnings of this race didn't help, the winner finished in 5+ hours and tough runners I know finished in the 8-9 hour range. So I went into this expecting it to be a long day, more like a 50 mile race than a marathon.

 

The course did not disappoint either, it was a long, beautiful, challenging day of big climbs and rocky, technical descents. One of the craziest moments for sure was the climb up Breakneck Ridge, which involved straight up rock climbing. I have experience rock climbing, but there were times when I was afraid I might lose my grip and fall to my untimely death on this damn course.  There was literally one climb I refused to attempt and took the extra time to detour around the side and find a more sane way to ascend.

 

 But the big pay off though was the view from the top and a bagpiper playing tunes for us.

It was interesting to run such a tough race, probably the toughest I've ever run and see how my body and my mind would respond.

I gotta say, it wasn't that much different to running a less difficult race. I struggled with the same mind games, but with experience I knew to take it a little bit at a time, try to stay in the moment I was in and just keep moving forward however slow that might be.

There were definitely times when I felt discourage at the bottom of yet another impossibly steep hill, but I would just put my head down and take it one step at a time, slowly picking my way up little by little.

In the end I didn't do too bad, thankfully at about mile 20 or 22 the brutal climbing ended and we got to run along a ridge line for a couple of miles and then end with a 3 mile descent back into the start/finish area.

All during the race I was meeting new ultrarunners from the area and connecting with old friends which was great. I even met two guys that had run the Eastern States 100 and got to talk to them about what to expect with that one.

All and all it was a beautiful, tough, fun race and I will definitely be back to do it again next Spring. I finished the race in 8:48, feeling strong, which means next year I'm gonna have to push it even harder and see if I can beat that time.  It was fun to hang out at the Start/Finish area afterwards on the sunny lawn eating pizza and catching up with new and old friends.