Breakneck 2022 Race Report by MPF coach Ben Nephew
The Breakneck Point Trail Marathon is always a serious endeavor, but this year was extra special spicy. This was due to a perfect storm of intense competition and rather unique trail conditions. With regards to the competition, the fact that Breakneck was a qualifier for the US World Trail Marathon championship team brought everyone and their faster trail running brothers and sisters. The field was almost as deep as the leaves from the crazy wet summer and fall last year. When I say deep, I mean knee deep. That would not be as much of a problem if there was buffed out trail beneath that blanket of leaves. What lies beneath a Breakneck trail is miles of fist sized rocks, roots, and foot eating ruts and holes. Ian did a horribly good job of finding all of the deepest piles. Then there was the new climb in the second half, but we’ll get to that.
The one positive was surely the weather. We’ve had some horribly hot years, but this year it was cool and dry. Between the weather and the level of competition, the pace was intense right from the gun. Matt Lipsey fired off the front and the rest of the field strung out in pursuit. I felt good for the first few miles running with Matt Moschella, one of my coaching clients. He pushed the downhill to route 9 pretty hard, and I decided to back off a bit due to feeling a bit weak. By the traverse over to Breakneck and the scramble up, I was definitely struggling. I had woken up that morning in a cold sweat and must have been fighting the flu that was going through our family. The legs felt weak to the point of being unsteady, not a good thing on the exposed sections of that climb. I had a couple of sketchy moments for sure.
I decided to back off the pace even further, well, there was really not much of an option, and see if things felt better. They felt better, but slow. I was not surprised to see Andy Vermilyea reel me in. I always enjoy running with Andy. His pace seemed reasonable, he is a master at metering his effort, but I could not stay with him without increasing my effort to an unsustainable level. It was frustrating to be at a race with such a deep field and be stuck running by myself, backwards. A little while later Liam Cregan caught up with me as well. He was moving a bit quicker than Andy; I just said hello and waved him on by.
I felt slightly better climbing up the back side of Breakneck Ridge, but the leaves on the trails leading back down to the start finish were atrocious and I was forced into a safety dance pace. Surely someone was going to snap an ankle in the river of leaves hiding the evil lurking beneath. A few miles before the start/finish I was seriously considering bailing, but I slowly recovered my strength and my pace must have picked up as I was not all that far behind Andy and Liam at the turn for the last 10 miles. If I would have known what I was in for the second part of the race, I surely would have dropped.
After grabbing my new bottle and heading back out, I soon reached the right turn that led to the new section of the course. I thought I had seen just about every disgustingly gnarly trail in the Breakneck area, but I took one look around the corner and up, straight up, the trail, and a line of expletives flew out of my mouth. I was looking up at a washed out riverbed of a trail, filled with leaves and large rocks, that went straight up the ridge as far as I could see. A soul crushing climb at that stage in the race. All the trails climbing the ridge from that area are burly, but this thing was far steeper than the previous courses. I just put my head down and told myself that everyone was surely in the same boat, wading through the sea of leaves. Sadly, as I was approaching the top after what felt like a half hour, I saw Matt Lipsey screaming down the hill, explaining that he had gotten horribly lost and turned around.
Knowing how complex this trail network is, this was concerning, and I cranked up the power on my trail sonar. Things were going fine until I passed the reservoir where the markings just ended. Nothing. I ran about 200 meters past a major intersection and realized that this must have been where Lipsey got lost. I just stopped and frantically screamed for Jay Lemos to save me. Brian Rusiecki showed up, which was great, but he is no Jay, so we both yelled for Jay. We were almost in tears as he came flying down the trail, long locks flowing in his wake. Jay knows these trails and was sure the course took a left up a relatively minor looking trail. Brian ran up the trail quite a ways before finally finding a sole trail marking. Someone had stripped the turn. We moved a flag and some logs to direct the rest of the field onto the correct trail, and then continued on at more of a group run pace due to paranoia about getting off track.
Given my struggle during the first half of the race and how seldom I run with Brian, Jay, or anyone, I was perfectly fine with the relatively mellow pace. There is nothing worse than running a highly competitive race solo. After a few miles of trail runner fraternity reunion, we were joined by Michelle Merlis, who was all business in her quest to win a ride to IAU Trail World champs. It was a good thing we were not pushing harder, as Jay, after saving our races at the stripped turn, was just about to lead us astray before Michelle provided a key course correction. We had to up the pace just to keep up with Michelle, and then Jay started to spread his downhill wings and loins and provide an exhibition on his trademarked YOLO downhill technique. Similar to some of the earlier downhills, several over these last 10 miles were filthy, buried in leaves and spring runoff shrapnel. I had to repeatedly dodge rocks dislodged by Jay’s freewheeling antics. Michelle would just exhibit the appropriate degree of caution and reel everyone back in on the next uphill.
The last major uphill was on one of my favorite trails in the network. High quality scenic singletrack, clear of any debris, and at a grade that was runnable even on fatigued legs. Despite the abuse from following Jay, my legs felt good, and I started to push the pace since our gang seemed to be breaking up. I am often in an extended battle to the death at this point at Breakneck, and it was nice to not be in a similar position. I was still pushing hard, grateful to be feeling better than the earlier miles and glad that I did not drop out. I wasn’t sure if there was anyone that I would be able to catch, but it was simply fun to try and run fast over hard trails. There were flashbacks of previous race finishes which certainly played some part in my increased effort.
Just when I was really starting to fatigue and turned left onto the last insultingly steep climb, I saw some pink hot pants that I had not seen for many miles. It was Liam, who was hurting from trying to chase Andy all day. Well, although I would have been content to powerhike that climb, I decided to try and catch him. I was able to pull up to his back, but he was not interested in waving me by. We threw down, and I had just enough more in the tank to pass him prior to the final descent.
The finish times were incredibly impressive, and it was great to see the course and race attract a wider audience. You certainly had to be a well-rounded trail runner to do well on the course, with everything from top speed downhill blasts to climbing and descending with all four limbs. Congrats to all the finishers, and for Ian organizing another top notch event. I’m not sure about all the trails included on the race route, but that is to be expected at a Red New Racing event!
