As previously mentioned, the Ballbuster is so called as it starts at the top of Box Hill, not quite a french alp but as close as we get to it in the south east of England with a 2.5km climb from the bottom to the top including a couple of hairpin bends for added mountain authenticity.
Not quite sure how best to describe the weather. If I were being the optimist I would say that it was relatively mild for a November morning, however that was largely due to the cloud cover and pouring rain that started about 30 minutes before race start!
Transition was in a field on top of the hill which was already muddy when I was setting up and got worse throughout the day.
My plan for the race was to try and finish the run strongly, after looking at last years times, only a handful of people ran the last lap quicker than the fist so I thought that was a good aim and I had a time of 3 hours 30 mins as a goal.
Support crew was thin on the ground today as Erika was starting her massage course. My mum made more than enough noise each time I came past.
Run 1
The hooter went for the start and about 400 or so competitors slipped their way across a muddy filed onto the start of he loop, as planned I took it nice and easy and felt fine, was pleased to actually get warm so no real dramas on the first part of the run, had to stop about 30 minutes in due to a case of over-hydration, but a quick pit stop and was soon back on my way. Was running along in a group with 3 other guys and as we hit the bottom of the zig zag road up to box hill I felt fine. Didn't suffer too much in the first of 5 climbs up the hill, had a good chat with the guy that was running next to me that helped to keep the heart rate in check.
Transition 1
This was more like a cross country race that what I am used to, run through the mud to my bike, got bike shoes, helmet, bike jacket, gloves on and loaded up the pockets with energy gels and spares for the bike and took the bike off the rack and ran back across the muddy filed to the road. My feet were already wet from the first run but after going across the filed in bike shoes they were soaked!
Bike
Bike course was 3 laps of the same loop, the first lap was terrifying, anyone who knows my bike riding knows that I am quite happy hammering along nice and fast but this was something that I have never experiences before, the road is quite bumpy and was wet and covered in leaves, grit, mud and anything else that had been washed on to the road. As I came down to the first sharp left hand corner which was at the bottom of a downhill section I grabbed the brakes and despite some noise from the wheels, they didn't seem to effective at slowing me down, in fact I think I got faster! After a quick prayer I hung on for deal life and luckily made it round the corner without coming off! That knocked my confidence a bit and not being too familiar with the roads I crept around the next part of the lap with a few people coming past me who were more confident on their bikes so I was actually pleased to reach the bottom of Box Hill again as it felt a lot safer! I started passing plenty of people on the way up the hill and didn't feel like I was pushing too hard.
The next two laps were more of the same, I slowly go more confident on the downhill sections as I learned the route a bit more but I still hat to crawl around some of the turns to make sure I didn't come off. I was making up plenty of places, going quite a bit faster than those in front of me up the main climb which was promising. My last lap was actually my quickest as a result and coming into transition I felt pretty good.
Transition 2
Running across a lumpy car park in bike shoes is not easy and wasn't something I had planned for but back through the muddy filed to get my trainers back on feet completely frozen. Removed the bike jacket and started on my way for the last 8 miles (13km). On the way out of transition I realised how cold my legs were, couldn't actually feel my feet but just hoped that it would get better!
Run 2
I was clearly not de-hydrating (unlikely given the weather) as I had to have another quick over-hydration pit stop at the start of the loop and then I set about chasing down those in front of me. Despite being a bit numb, my heart rate was nice and high which is a good sign for me as it means that I still have some energy left in my legs so I planned to try and set a good pace for the first 20 minutes and see how I felt. I was making up places throughout the run and after about 15 minutes could even feel my feet again so things were looking up! Threw an energy gel down at the drink station after about 5km and then tried to keep up a good pace to the bottom of the climb where I would give it everything I had left. The run felt pretty long, the long downhill sections was really tough on my legs.
I did have one interesting moment to make sure that I was awake, running down the narrow country lane I heard a noise in the bushes and then a deer scrambles across the road in front of me ('made me jump' is probably an understatement!!) and runs of across a field, that was certainly a first!
I was pleased to get to the bottom of the hill and then started the long slog up, it certainly hurt but I was passing quite a lot of people so kept pushing forward. The fifth and final time up was certainly the hardest and felt like the longest but I was thrilled to hit the finishing line in just over 3 hours 27 minutes, running the last lap over 3 minutes quicker than the first.
I came in 114th overall, after being 240th after the first run so was really pleased. Had the course been dry I'm sure that my bike time would have been quite a bit quicker but you can never know how much it would have taken out of my legs for the last run.
My legs are definitely going to be sore tomorrow, here's a profile of the course from my watch that will probably explain why:
A really good race though and certainly something a bit different. They run this race again in the spring and if it fits in with my schedule I'll definitely plan to do it again as it was a good training day.
I'm really pleased with my training so far, I'm now going to try and have a few weeks of focusing on my swimming, before having a week off training altogether before starting the 30week run into the Ironman.
Off to bed now for some well earned sleep!
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