Ballbuster November Sixty Two Quid!

I used to do the race but not any more for that very reason.  Its a bit like the London Tri, Duathlons.  Great for a year or two, partic for your first races....but the novelty wears off when you have to fork out so much cash!  There are much cheaper alternatives.

Id love to know where the money goes - thats a hell of a lot, partic for a closed anti-clockwise duathlon race with a huge participation.  Personally I think FOI should be brought into Tri - lets get the organisors to start providing a breakdown of costs

M...eldy wrote (see)

I certainly would not pay that much money for that sort of race .....  thats nearly half IM price 

But you will pay how much for an official IM!!

i love people moaning about things being expensive.

if you cant afford it, or dont think its worth it, dont buy it!

i've never felt the need to moan about how expensive a Ferrari is, I just decided not to buy one.

AndrewSmith wrote (see)

Ballbuster isn't on closed roads, unless it has changed? Maybe the Zig Zag but not the rest.

It was all on open roads last time I did it.  

I agree with Oxy. (I dont say that often)

You do have to do this race once, so get your money out Dustboy you tight arse

Look it is easy. The New York Mara is the next day and will cost at least a £1200. That is £46 a mile.

 The ballbuster is only  £3.88 per mile with 24 free bike miles thrown in. On that basis it is cheap.

My next favourite moan is the cost of trainers. £75.00 per pair with a life span of 500 miles is £0.15/mile. It would be cheaper to do a run in the car as petrol is only £0.10/mile! So the ballbuster costs another £2.40 in trainer wear and tear. Warning do not do this calculation for your bike it is terrifying!

meface

500 miles per pair my a*se ! Marketing bllx to get you to spend your hard earned on more pairs.

You can get many more miles than that out of a pair especially once your legs get used to not running in brand new shoes. I have one pair of trainers and use em to race in too.

Got to say that you do get a quality garment included in your race entry, I got a fleece jacket when I did the Ballbuster.

TR,

my trail shoes soles are pretty much shot at 400 miles. Virtually no tread left but the trails in Surrey have some fairly hard surfaces. Summer I tend to use road shoes.

my road shoes tend to look OK but the last pair I knackered running on rocks in Lanzarote (Mizuno Creation 10s which I really liked but the hard rocks smashed all the plastic underneath them - not the shoes fault - volcanic rock is sharp.Only got 300 miles from them.

OK I am heavy footedand don't always use the kit as intended but 500 miles seems a fair average.

meface

Probably just seems expensive because so many people are out on Box Hill every week with friends and clubs.  Depends a lot if they can keep the cars and big bikes off the roads.

 Can't remember the cost (or even if it still runs) the three circuit run that used to be held there.

Daz wrote (see)

Lets get the organisors to start providing a breakdown of costs

Erm, why?  Would you expect Heinz to oo that to justify the cost of their beans agains HP or Tesco's own?

I agree with Oxy too, Dustboy. Personal perspective -  auction principle, if you want it you'll pay the going price, if not, then you don't buy.  Seemples!

Personally I find the London Triathlon extremely expensive and for that reason have resisted entering, even though I was born in London and would like to race there, however not enough to pay 75 squids or whatever it is now for 2011. Didn't enter Tristar 111 either at 150 euros, seems too much for 1km swim/100km bike/10km run. I don't wince at paying 3-figure sums for a summer IM because it's not just a race, it's an event, a holiday, a Pirate happening, and it's fun.

I think if it's an "event" that's one thing, eg IM or something that makes it special. But correct me if I am wrong, BB is not closed roads and it's basically paying someone to time you doing 5 laps which you coudl do with your mates if you wanted at the same time for owt. I think John Lunt puts on some fab stuff  but I just don't get the BB ethos. I paid 75 for the Kingsturge Sprint Tri at Dorney though and that was a great day out.

£75 for a sprint? You just lost your right to whinge about Ballbuster. 

Any event at Dorney is in that sort of price bracket (£65+)  Its a private site, good parking, excellent lake, nice looping bike route (although run up and back laps is bit boring)  Good area for racking and club house, so all events are fully booked.  Same as Blenheim (and London) you do it once for the experience. 

 Been a lot of similar discussions recently where people are gettting peeved about IM costs, there's other distance events at a lot less price if you don't want to pay.