Ballbuster - March 2012

The Ballbuster duathlon takes place twice a year in Box Hill, Surrey, and it is widely regarded as the toughest duathlon in the UK. I, literally, busted my balls in November 2010 and I STILL did not finish it. I want to think that was due t the fact that I had just recently started training and was really not up to speed with what this race required from the body.

Looking at several forums and talking to people, my goal (apart from just finishing it) is to cross the line under 3h:45m with 1:10, 1:25, 1:10 splits.  I'm not really sure how I'll cope as, to be honest, with all the travelling I have done these past weeks my training has gone down a bit...well, a lot! 

On a negative point, I will be racing by myself as my wife and daughters will be at home this time around so I look forward to your comments as support! :) On a positive note, no matter what my result is this time around, I will take this saturday's race as a LONGGGG brick session towards my half ironman in Barcelona. Stay posted for some photos and my race report...and figers crossed for me to at least to finish the race.  

Here are some photos from my 2010 (failed) participation:

Starting line of the November 2010 race

Look at that fat ass! 

This was about 30 seconds before I quit! My knee was killing me :(

I survived the hills!

Ok, I know this might not be much to many of the people I go against on the triathlons, but this was the longest and hilliest bike course I have been on.

I got up at 5am to meet my neighbour for a 5:30 ride out to one of his routes, which I had no details about.  Once we met he mentioned we would be going to 2 hills and potentially another one depending on my response.  What he didn't tell was that most of the course on our way to the hills was also going to be hilly as you can clearly see below:

My tongue was out my mouth before we even got to the hills but I just had to keep pushing if I wanted to get home with any kind of self esteem of having at least given it a good try.  Once we go to the first hill Jezza mentions it was going to be a a 1.5 mile uphill ride! I about died, but I made it up in one piece. The second hill was worse as it was longer and steeper, but with a couple of stops I was able to make it up.

All in all, I think I didn't do as bad I I was expecting to do and the scenery was great with some awesome views of the border of Surrey and Kent.  I also learned a new route which I can do (without the hills) and get some good mileage on the legs.  I can handle the hills there and back, just not the two specific hills he took me to off the main road.

I will try and go for a light jog at the end of the day.... children permitting, of course!