Breakneck Point Half Marathon

View of the Hudson River from Breakneck Ridge
Photo by Katherine Hawkins

Question: what do you do when you have a marathon scheduled four weeks after a tough 100 miler? Do you (a) take some time off to let your body heal or (b) try to maintain your weekly mileage to stay fit? The answer, if you are me, is (c) sign up for a crazy-ass half marathon on some of the steepest terrain in the region. YOLO!

This is the story of the Breakneck Point Half Marathon.

Background

In the Revolutionary War era, the Hudson Highlands were heavily mined for copper and iron ore, the latter of which was used to make cannons at the nearby West Point Foundry. Quarrying at the base of Breakneck Ridge exposed massive vertical rock faces, giving the mountain a ridiculously steep elevation profile.

An exposed rock face on Breakneck Ridge
Photo by Quincy Koetz at The Pursuit of Life

I've hiked the Breakneck Ridge Trail a few times over the years with Alex and our families. The scenery is amazing (see above), and the rock scramble up to the summit is reminiscent of our rock climbing days. The first half mile of the Breakneck Ridge Trail climbs over 950 feet, an average grade of 37%, through boulder fields and massive rock slabs. The NY-NJ Trail Conference website describes the trail thusly:

"Despite its relatively short length, this is generally considered to be the most strenuous hike in the East Hudson Highlands. It involves steep climbs over rock ledges that can be very slippery when wet. You'll need to use both your hands and your feet in many places along the way."

A climb like this requires a cautious, slow approach. It would be absolutely crazy to try to run up it. So of course when we heard about the Breakneck Point Races, Alex and I had to sign up.

The Course

Half Marathon course map

The Breakneck Point Half Marathon is a lollipop shaped course, consisting of three big climbs and descents. The total elevation gain is about 4,500 feet, or 340 feet per mile. This is comparable to some of the most extreme ultramarathons in the world, such as Hardrock 100 (330'/mi) and Ultra-Trail Mont Blanc (305'/mi). It also happens to be almost exactly the same as the Barkley Fall Classic (340'/mi), which Alex and I both ran last year. Not bad for an east coast race!

Elevation profile for the Breakneck Point Half Marathon

The first climb is a long meandering ascent that skirts the side of South Beacon Mountain, topping out at 1,300 feet before plunging back down to Route 9D at the bank of the Hudson River. From there, the course makes its ascent of Breakneck Ridge, by far the steepest climb of the day. After summiting, the course then descends the back side of the ridge on the rocky Breakneck Bypass Trail, which completes the looped part of the course. The last five miles are then the same as the first five, but in reverse.

Goals and Strategy

It's always hard to come up with a time goal for a course that I haven't run before, especially only two weeks after running the hardest race of my life. Nevertheless, it's nice to have a general idea of how long a race will take. Here's what I came up with, based on the race results from 2015:

• Finish faster than my full marathon PR (3:25ish)
• Don't die on Breakneck Ridge
• Seriously, don't die on Breakneck Ridge. To quote the race directors:

"We'll have EMT's and/or physicians [...] but there's not too much they can do if you take your eye of the climb or trail and fall hundreds of feet off a cliff."

Other than that, I just wanted to enjoy the course and see whether my legs still worked. I figured that if this race took as long as a full marathon, I should aim for about a 7:38/mile effort (my goal marathon pace) for as long as possible.

I opted not to carry any water on the course since I didn't want to restrict my movement on the Breakneck Ridge ascent. Instead, I stuffed a few Gu packets into the pockets of my shorts and decided to chug water at the three aid stations along the course. The weather was very mild, and this ended up being a good decision.

The Race

After a 90 minute drive, we got to the starting line at 6am, just as the sun was coming up. This gave us an hour to check in and mill around before the race start. I caught up with the ever-cheerful Charlotte Dequeker and the human mountain goat Jason Friedman who were running the full marathon. I also spotted Cheryl Wheeler, whom I had just raced against at the NJ Ultra Festival. As the race director gave his final (completely inaudible) set of instructions, I squeezed my way toward the front of the pack at the starting line. A few minutes after 7am, we were off!

The start of the race
Photo by The Ascent Collective

The first 200 yards of the course crossed an open field before funneling all 300 runners into a narrow section of single track. I attempted to sprint out to the front to avoid the ensuing bottleneck, and ended up in a comfortable position with about 50 people ahead of me. After a quarter mile of single track, the course turned onto a wide jeep road and then onto the rocky Notch Trail as we made our continuous first ascent. My GPS showed 10:48 and 9:51 for the first two miles, which climbed 700 feet in total. Strava tells me that this is equivalent to a 7:36 pace on flat terrain - perfect! However, I would find out afterwards that my heart rate was screaming at 170 bpm during this section. Apparently I'm still not good at climbing.

After 2.5 miles and 1,100 feet of continuous climbing, we topped out on a rocky ridge near South Beacon Mountain and began our steep, technical descent down to Route 9D. Usually the downhills are where I can really open up my stride and pass people, but the loose rocks that littered the trail slowed me down to a shuffle in most spots. I passed a few people here and there, but did not move up significantly in the field.

At mile 5, we hit the first aid station and I threw back a cup of Tailwind, a cup of Coke, and a cup of water in rapid succession. I also ate an espresso Gu for good measure. Time to see how my stomach handles some sloshing! Luckily I didn't have any issues with this fueling strategy. I made good time on the runnable decent down to Route 9D at the base of Breakneck Ridge, hitting 8:19 for my mile split.

This is where the course got crazy...

Eventual marathon winner Ben Nephew climbing Breakneck Ridge
Photo by Katherine Hawkins

The first pitch of the Breakneck Ridge Trail climbed up a steep boulder field to a false summit. A few sections actually resembled bouldering problems, requiring careful hand and foot placement to scale the rocks. At the top of this section was a flat landing with a flagpole where I remember stopping to have a snack during previous hikes. This section also provides one of the best vistas of the climb, offering a spectacular panorama of the Hudson River as well as Storm King Mountain on the opposite side of the river. I stopped for a moment to appreciate the view before resuming my climb.

Slab climb on the Breakneck Ridge Trail (not me)
Photo by Katherine Hawkins

The next pitch involved sections of slab climbing, which is my favorite type of rock climbing. This is where the soles of your shoes are put to the test. We scrambled up several 10-20 foot sections of 45 degree rock slabs on our hands and feet. A few of these scrambles brought us precariously close to the quarried cliffs, where we could see 500+ feet straight down to the riverbank. This climb brought us to another false summit, where a bagpipe player was just starting to play a jaunty tune. I would later find out from Alex that a local running club had brought a case of beer up to this area and was handing out Dixie cups of Yuengling to runners. As the saying goes, races are like mullets: business in the front and party in the back!

This felt a little like a funeral, which seemed appropriate.
Photo by Katherine Hawkins

Despite the views, anyone who is unfamiliar with Breakneck Ridge was bound to be disappointed at this stage of the climb. After more than 900 feet of climbing and many apparent summits since leaving the road, there was still 300 vertical feet separating us from the true summit. Luckily, I remembered that there were a ton of false summits, and I soldiered on as quickly as I could. Somewhere around this part, I hit mile 7. My GPS showed 28:21 for that mile alone! I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that even the marathon winner, elite mountain runner Ben Nephew, took 20:00 to cover the same stretch of trail.

A line of runners forming behind me. Slowpoke.
Photo by Katherine Hawkins

Near the apex of the climb, the half marathon and full marathon parted ways, and I found myself alone at the rocky summit. The hardest part of the race was now over, and I just had to descend down the mile 8 aid station (same as the mile 5 aid station) and then backtrack along the first five miles of the course.

The descent down the Breakneck Bypass Trail was scattered with bowling ball sized rocks, deep piles of oak leaves, and downed tree trunks. This was the most technical descent of the day, and this mile of trail took over 13 minutes to complete despite losing 700 feet in elevation. This section also included my only real wipe out of the day. I snagged my foot on a log and pitched forward in slow motion. I managed to contort my body in mid-air and landed softly on my side in a pile of leaves. Crisis averted!

Once back at the aid station, I again swigged a few cups of water, tailwind, and soda before beginning the long trek back to the start/finish. There's not much to write about the next few miles, except that they were slow and hot, and my feet started to ache from the accumulated punishment of the past few weeks. It took 46 heart-pounding minutes to climb the three miles to the final summit. I passed one other runner along the way, but otherwise saw no one the entire time.

Near mile 11, I passed a couple of race volunteers, who informed me that I had two miles of downhill running left. I was able to open up my stride a bit in this wide semi-technical double track, and hammered out 9:49 for mile 12, and 8:13 for mile 13 (my fastest of the day).

At the final turn, a little kid was standing with his mom at the side of the trail. His hand was outstretched, pointing toward the finish line.

"Is this the high-five station?" I asked him, reaching out to slap his hand.

"No," he replied firmly, pulling away and furrowing his brow. His mom cracked up. I smirked to myself.

Swallowing my feelings of rejection, I flew down the final few tenths of a mile, happy to still have some life left in my legs. I crossed the finish line in 2:54:29 in 21st place.

Post Race

The post race festivities were some of the best I've experienced at any race. The organizers had a great selection of sandwiches, salads, smoothies, and - best of all - kegs from a local brewery. The weather was gorgeous and I staked out a spot to eat and drink while I waited for Alex to finish.

Since I finished a little faster than my marathon time, I expected her to come through only a little faster than her marathon time. So when she called me only 4:09 into the race, I was concerned that she had dropped out. In fact, she had had a great race, and was calling me from only 20 feet away. I had completely missed her crossing the finish line! Oops.

We sat around for a little while and watched the half marathon runners trickle in. At 5:04 into the race, a cheer erupted from the crowd as marathon runner Ben Nephew came tearing out of the woods. Sprinting to the finish, he looked more like an 400 meter runner than a marathon finisher. He crossed the line in 5:05:08, breaking his own course record by seven minutes.

All in all, this was a fun little race. The volunteers were excellent, the course was spectacular, the weather was perfect (finally!), and the food and drinks at the end just sealed the deal. Despite dealing with some lingering pain from the NJ Ultra Festival, I feel like I ran a strong race. Meanwhile, Alex reaffirmed her belief that she's a much better trail runner than a "real runner" (in her own words), finishing in the top 20 women.

We will definitely be back next year.

Official results and Strava data.