Ballbuster 2016

In my spirit of being more and more prepared for this race each year, this year I coached 13 clubmates for the 8 weeks leading up to the ballbuster, with the aim of helping them, and preparing me specifically for this tough race!

a slightly later departure this year saw me pick Tabs up at 5:20 and arrive at the top of box hill at 6am, bag a great parking spot after a bit of negotiation, register, put bike in a blustery transition with all my bike and run 2 kit in a plastic bag (my transition bag still has muddy bits from last year), then back to the car, and into the 30 minute queue for the loos, got that done just in time for the race briefing at 7:50.

The goal for this race was first and foremost finish first BTS, and ideally improve my pb of 3:10:38, but this would be a challenge due to terrible weather conditions, and the changes to the course making the first run and bike about 500m longer!

We'd agreed to start together, and apart from Andrea getting pushed into the wave in front we managed it, avoiding the mystery of who was in front of last year, unfortunately this meant we set off mid pack, so I knew that I would be more likely to run into congestion later on, so I set off a bit faster than planned, Tabs help back but I did the whole first run with Andy Y, who was doing the race as a relay, and watched Paul F disappear into the distance.

The first run was generally uneventful, a quick mouthful of water at the aid station and gel halfway round, we made pretty good progress, but always keeping the brakes on, you don't know if you've overdone this race until some point on the final run, and I didn't want to fall apart! Onto the climb and I didn't want to go over 170bpm, despite this we continued to pass those who set off in front of us, and into t1.

I had decided the jacket probably wasn't necessary for the bike, with toasty gloves and arm warmers on I was already baking, so thought id be fine, and decided with heavy rain glasses would probably be more trouble than they were worth, so quickly put bike shoes on and splodged my way back to the road.

Onto the bike and I exited transition with someone on a full TT rig, disc and all, who sat on my wheel for a bit, then went past me when it flattened out, and I then passed on the first hairpin corner never to see him again, a reminder that this race would have to be perfectly dry to make a TT bike worthwhile! meanwhile I was loving the bike course, the back section that is technical and then a series of blind but sweeping corners so my average speed fly up as high as 35kph before a reserved approach to box hill saw it tick down, and then climb back each lap. i passed the fast running Paul Fitzpatrick just over half way up the climb, I was pleased that he was finally pacing his bike a bit more sensibly but worried as this would leave him in a position to run well off the bike, something he usually fails to do when racing me, so a frightening prospect!  I ran into the tail markers earlier than usual this year which made the middle of the second lap considerably slower, as slower cyclist held up cars but I kept calm and put in a bit more effort up the hill the second time, making my lap time almost identical to the first, the third lap was surprisingly quiet, when its usually a nightmare so I was able to maintain my average speed. trying to keep the pace high, to continue to put distance between Paul and myself I rode hard into t2, but managed to take a third gel on the final climb, hopefully leaving me with enough in the tank for the run! I was still feeling pretty good at this stage, testament to a good training block and nailing the taper!

T2 I briefly flirted with the idea of wearing the same shoes as run one rather than the nice dry ones in my bag, but quickly reverted to the dry paid when I discovered how wet they were, i grabbed one gel having noticed there were SIS gels out on the course. I left my arm warmers and gloves on for the run as i was pretty chilly after a wet, windy and cold bike that saw an unusually high number of racers fail to finish

onto the run, I couldn't feel my feet at all, and jokingly asked the marshal if there were actually any feet there! starting pretty steadily I slowly upped the pace, catching a couple of people and having a couple of fast relays pass me as well, I worked on getting my average pace down to 4:30kms on the logic that Paul could probably run 4:10 if going well, and I guessed I had about 3 minutes advantage, this would mean id could pace myself to 9km when he'd catch me and would be in shape to battle him for the final 3km up box hill, I took my first gel early and the volunteer at the aid station kindly handed me a gel meaning I didn't have to slow down to pick on up, the SIS gels have the advantage that they don't need to be taken with water so ideal for running when carrying litres of water isn't ideal! at about half way Andy Y caught me, had a brief chat and carried on his way, from this point onwards I was running scared, and tried to up my pace a little, every time I could hear feet approaching I began to steel myself to race but for the most part I was relay people who I left to go on their way, so made it all the way to the bottom of the hill with no sign of Paul, but  I was constantly looking over my shoulder, I focused on a rider in front and tried to catch her, by the second switch back I could see someone in a black top was a little closer, but spectators on the corner helpfully told me they were miles away, I caught the lady cyclist after the final switch back, with about 1500m to go I threw caution to the wind and tried to push as hard as possible, trying to take the shortest line, I began to overhead so took off my gloves, and watched my hr. rise incredibly slowly and saw no real increase in speed. starting the final part of the climb, the figure in black was close enough that I could tell it wasn't Paul, but wasn't prepared to give up a place so started my finishing sprint about 400m uphill, I knew from the amount of time that few people can stay with me when emptying the tanks and pulled away from random stranger in black, and as I rounded the final corner saw Paul wrapped up in all his clothes, clearly having decided to call it quits early, I crossed the line, pleased with a well controlled race but nearly ready to be sick!

I quickly went to the car and changed and grabbed my phone to get some snaps of the others, i managed to get to the final corner in time to get a quick picture of the back of Tabs, and then not being able to see Paul, went back to the finish line and found Andy and Martyn, and got a picture of Chris, missed Lynda, got one of JC and then missed Andy, Kate and Gemma!

Of home for a bit of R&R ahead of the Club awards do!