Photo courtesy of FinisherPix
I recently had the opportunity to compete in the 2019 USA Triathlon Duathlon National Championships held in Greenville, South Carolina. Held over two days, athletes had the opportunity to qualify for the 2020 ITU Multisport World Championships Festival in Almere, Netherlands through one of the three races held that weekend. The three events that duathletes can participate in are:
Draft-Legal Sprint-Distance (5k run, 18k bike, 2.85k run)
Non-Drafting Standard-Distance (8.45k run, 39k bike, 4.5k run)
Non-Drafting Sprint-Distance (5k run, 18.2k bike, 2.85k run)
Unfortunately, due to heavy rain, thunderstorms and threat of lightning on Sunday afternoon, the Non-Draft Sprint-distance race was changed to a super-sprint-distance race: 2k run (two laps), 6k bike (one lap), 1.35k run (1 lap). Even though I had prepared for the sprint distance, I had to quickly adjust to both the weather conditions as well as changes to the race. Ultimately, I finished 9th in the men’s 45-49 age group and 147th out of 214 overall with a time of 33 minutes, 32 seconds.
I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t a bit disappointed that I didn’t do well enough to meet 2020 ITU Multisport Festival qualification (USA Triathlon allots eight spots for men and eight spots for women in each age group in the Non-Draft Sprint-distance race) but I was even more disappointed with my overall performance, especially with my time in the transition area. During the transition from the run to the bike, I couldn’t get my helmet to buckle properly so I ended up fumbling around with it longer than expected. Oh yeah, switching from wet running shoes to wet cycling shoes in the rain didn’t help much with my transition time either. Needless to say, I played it safe on the bike because of the wet roads and high winds. Not the race day performance or finish that I wanted but given the circumstances I did better than expected and safely crossed the finish line. That is what matters most.
After all is said and done, this weekend was about having the opportunity to participate in the most competitive duathlon event in North America. More importantly, this weekend has become fuel for this upcoming duathlon season as well as my training to prepare for the 2020 Duathlon National Championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.