Ironman China - Glenn Hatrick

Thursday – Arrive in Haikou for the very first Ironman China.  I’d never heard of Haikou, but it’s a modern city of close to 2 million people, and capital of Hainan island, known as China’s Hawaii.  Other than it’s an island, I‘m still not sure why.

Ballbuster Duathlon, Box Hill, Surrey.

Saturday 15 March 2008

http://www.humanrace.co.uk/buster/index.html

Humanrace's Ballbuster has been a late season fixture on the UK race calendar for a number of years, last year saw the introduction of the Spring Ballbuster - a tough mid-March workout to put the winter training to test.  The race is billed as 'a severe test of and stamina', 'the equivalent to running a marathon' and 'should not be taken lightly'.  The race comprises an 8mile loop which is run once, cycled three times then run again.

If you fancy having a go at a Half IM then I can thoroughly recommend the Vitruvian. The race is run in and around Rutland Water and will be familiar to anyone who has done the Dambuster Olympic distance event, in fact the Vitruvian is basically two laps of the Olympic course which makes the bike a bit short! Ideal for a fast time!

In 2005 it was an event with a field of about 300 people with a nice relaxed atmosphere and a good number of longer distance virgins in the field. Wave sizes were not too large with a wide start line to pick you position from.

Apparently the sun rarely shines on the Shropshire tri at Ellesmere, but last year was an exception and the sun, the course and the good organisation made for one of the most enjoyable races I've done. The race officials are friendly, the swim is straightforward, the bike is undulating but fairly quiet in terms of traffic, and the T-shaped out-and-back run is traffic free. Oh, and there's the very respectable race start of 11am!