Recovery???

2 weeks on from the ironman and as the sun was shining the ironmen donned their trainers once more for the first run since the big event. It also happened to be Phil's 30th birthday!! All the chat was about the event and on completing a 4 mile bimble, everyone seemed to be feeling fairly pukka...... Next morning and things had changed!! My knees and ankles felt like they were going to fall off and PH's lower back was still screaming. Still plenty of room for recovery - although try telling that to Phil who had actually cracked the rowers revenge tri the day before!! More info to follow I'm sure.....

YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!

Sunday 18th September 2011 - Harrison, Hindley and Ballard are now officially IRONMEN!!!




The day before the race - sorting out the masses of gear and nutrition needed for the day - all to be sorted into colour coded bags and checked and double checked.

Last minutes tweaks also made on the bike.....as this stage she was looking good!!

The Pre Race Briefing - nearly 1000 prospective ironmen gather in a marquee to go through the rules and regs of the event.

The pre race expo, although a bit small in scale contained some excellent stands including one from our buddies at B2P triathlon and also Athlete Services in Henley who were to prove our saviour hours later.

Harrison and I at the pre race briefing. butterflies were starting to flap in the stomach at this stage.

H is showing his fighting spirit already!

Sprits were high as we tucked into some paella and a coke

Soon after - the drama kicked off - Hindley's tri bars fell off, my front tyre blew out and H's speedometer packed up! What should've been a quick job of racking the bikes was turning into a right mission!

The drama continues......

Crisis! A broken derailleur on the Fuji! Bikes were supposed to be on rack by 6pm and at 5:20 a major problem hits! Myself and H rush back to Phylis Court T2 to seek the help of the boys from Athlete Services bike repairs - luckily they source a new part and have the bike fixed by 6:30. Some serious flirting by Harrison with the (male) race organiser allows us to rack our bikes late..... we are in!!!

6:30 am - September 18th 2011

The moment is here and we line up to enter the water. It's still dawn and mist is wrapped around the Thames. Music far too similar to the theme tune of Jaws booms over the loud speakers. Shhiiiiiiiiittttttt!!!

A quick goodbye to loved ones and pats on the back all round. It's great to be joined by Neil who wishes us luck. Such a shame he's not in there with us.


Myself and Phil hit the water at 6:40 with H starting in wave 3 at 6:50. There's no looking back now. It's on. A quick high five with Phil before the hooter sounds and we're off!!!!

The first 500m is a washing machine before we settle into our rhythm. I have the best swim I've ever had and relax into my stroke. The surroundings are amazing and its a privilage to be there. I exit the juice after 1hr 06mins. Delighted. Into transition where I am quickly joined by H and then after a few more mins, Phil. We're all out. Stage one done!

Staring down the barrell of 112 miles is tough!! Still on a high from the swim, lap one of the bike goes well but my stomach is full of Thames water and I can't take on nutrition. I try to eat but struggle. I know this will hurt me later on.

Stewart pushes ahead on the bike, lap two for me is a killer and I dig deep, remembering my bro especially as I hit Pishill for the second time. Lap 3 is better and I start to eat and hydrate.

Phil catches me around 8 miles from the end and its a privilage to enter T2 with him, a real highlight of the day. Great support from family and friends.



Working hard out of T2 with 26.2 miles ahead. I'd dreaded this moment but actually feel really good. The legs that are usually like jelly after a cycle feel pretty good. This should've been a sign to take it easy but I try and push on.

I know H and Phil will pull away from me on the run so I settle into a me Vs the course mentality.

Great support from the crowd despite the torrential rain that hit us at this point.

After a really solid first lap of the run (6.5 miles) I started to seriously feel the effect of my poor nutritial apporach on the bike. As I began lap two I felt faint and weak. A good feed station perked me up, as did unbeleivable support from my family and friends. I pushed on, chatting to other runners and people in the crowd. Each run on the tow path back towards Henley was inspirational. By lap 4 I was exhausted but new I had another 6.5 miles in me and pledged to enjoy the last hour.

Crossing the finish line!!! Ironman.....done!!

Awesome feeling as I crossed the line in a time of 12hrs 17mins and 08seconds. The competitive part of me was dissapointed not to break 12hrs but given my 2 weeks prior to the event I couldn't help but be over the moon. I felt completely drained, but on top of the world. I never thought I could've completed a 2.4 mile swim, or a 112 mile bike and although I'd done a martathon before, I had no idea if I could do it on top of nearly 8 hours on exercise. To do them all was probably my top achievement in sport. It was made all the better by sharing it with two of my closest friends, Mr Harrison and Mr Hindley who quite frankly, bullied me all the way to the finish line!! I never want to hear Stewart say "come on AB, one more lap" ever again. But I know I will!!!!

Mission complete!

It's been a long, hard and very eventful few months but in the end......... We got there! Here's a run down of my lead up to Challenge Henley

End of July 2011 - I returned from America feeling in fantastic shape. Training with my buddy and pro triathlete Pete Mallett had inspired me and along with some improvments in my swimming tekkers from our pool work, and running speed from our track sessions and nightime runs through Boston College and NorthWestern Uni Campuses I felt great. I followed this up with a 3km lake swim at Marlow. for the first time ever I was close to Harrison come the end which gave me a lot of confidence.

August 1st-14th 2011 - The first half of August passed far too quickly and didn't contain nearly enough sessions. A few decent runs were smashed, the lowlight however came whilst riding a loop of the Challenge Henley bike course. I picked up my first ever puncture coming down Pishill. I then failed to prepared which left me unable to fix it roadside. With no signal on my phone it took an hour to walk to the Crown Pub where the friendly barman lent me his phone and sorted me a J20 and some nuts! Luckily my girlfriend was able to drive to my rescue!

August 14th - 30th 2011 - So this was the time to step up the milage and hit the road hard. This I did, but interspersed with a week on holiday in Spain! That said some decent warm weather training was completed in sunny Alicante including some beach runs and an early morning run in Calpe bay.

I returned from Spain feeling refreshed and trained well, including some good sessions in the lake at both Marlow and datchet and some solid runs. The bike was beginning to become a worry with few miles completed.

Sunday 4th September - MAIDENHEAD HALF MARATHON

In preparation for Challenge Henley - Myself and Jon Childs (The Iron Lady) cracked the Purple Patch Maidenhead Half Marathon. This was a 'late doors' decision but one that proved to be a good one as the course was fantastic and the event was very run as ever by Chris and Claire.

After a solid start JC pushed on after 3 miles which left me to keep up the pace of subbing 1hr 30mins which was my target. I managed to do this and stayed strong through some dodgy patches around 7-8 miles. At 9 miles I was joined by an athlete from Maidenhead Athletic club, we pushed each other on fro 2 miles before he ate my dust as I picked up the pace for the last few miles. Picking up the relay marathon course for the last 2.6 miles was a real inspiration and helped counteract the heavy rain that drenched us. I was elated to come in at 1hr 28mins.

2 weeks till ironman....

The plan was to train at around 50% intensity for a week and then drop down to 30% the week prior to training. Unfortunately I suffered a berevement in the form of the sad death of my brother the day after the Maidenhead Half. This knocked my preparations into touch as I struggled to come to terms with this news. Doing the ironman was never in doubt, although the day before the race I was physically, but especially mentally drained. My focused had changed to just completing the ironman in memory of my bro. But could I do it? And could I last the bike course having only done a longest training ride of 49 miles? As the event loomed there were lots of doubts and emotions in my head........