Ballbuster Duathlon
I raced in the Ballbuster Duathlon yesterday, the second time I've competed in this epic event (the first was in 2005). At 40 miles (64km) in total (8-mile run, 24-mile bike, 8-mile run) it's not spectacularly long, but what makes Ballbuster so formidable is that those 40 miles contain a combined 875 vertical metres (2,870 feet) of climbing, and that it's in mid-November, around narrow, potholed lanes that seemed covered in wet leaves and horse droppings.
I called my brother afterwards to tell him how I'd done and he signed off saying "Isn't it great it when you set yourself a goal and then go on to achieve it?" My goal was to finish in under three hours – a bit of a step up considering my 2005 time was 3:15 and that I came 77th that year, but I finally grimaced my way under the line in 2:57.33 (coming 21st), an 18-minute improvement. [Disclaimer: geeky detail follows that may be of more interest to athletes than to my regular audience.]
It wasn't a perfect race – the bike leg of the 2005 Ballbuster was the only time I've had bad cramp during a race, and it happened again yesterday. The last run was tough, and I'm not sure I took on enough fluid or calories throughout the race (750ml of carb drink on the bike, two half-cups on the run legs and about 250ml of water at each transition, so roughly 1.2 litres in total, or 240ml per lap. I saw a couple of the leaders running with small drinks bottles and ignoring the cups at the one drinks stop, and that's definitely what I'd do next time round. Food wise, I had a gel halfway round the first run, the carb drink (High5 Isotonic) and a Powerbar on the bike, a gel at the second transition and the last gel halfway round the final run. 716 calories in total, which at 238 cals/hour is theoretically perfect, though I seem to be able to tolerate 250 -275 cals/hr when I'm going hard and another gel at some stage (or carb drink during the run legs) would have been ideal.
Kit-wise, I raced on my Scott CR1-SL road bike, which was perfect. The organisers advise against tri-bars, but all the fastest boys and girls had 'em, and I used a pair of Vison Tech Mini-TT clip-on bars. I also taped my target split times for the bike leg onto my stem, which gave me both lap times and an average speed to aim for. I ran in my funky new Newton Distance S racing shoes, which felt super-speedy throughout.
I was pretty slow in the transitions (and forgot to remove my spare tube, CO2 canister and tyre levers at the second one, so I was carrying some excess weight up the last hill!) but in all, pretty chuffed with how it went. Next year I'll be in Antarctica, so perhaps I'll break into the top-ten in 2009…