Stindiana and FF Boots might have some thoughts on that...IIRC, one of the hangups to hosting a PM-branded race in the US was the # of racers historically (as in, recent history) not really coming close to covering the PM branding fee.

That said, I'd like to see a resurgence and hope they can find a way to attract not just racers but race directors as well. I got in on the last PM-Muncie and one of the last PM-Ohios and loved them both. PM-WI is now on my calendar and maybe I can swing PM-MI too. Thx for the post...I might not have noticed otherwise!

---

Carl Matson

I am definitely looking forward to the series coming in full swing. As a duathlete learning to swim due to lack of du, I am excited to race their midwest offerings.

Unfortunately, PM-Wisconsin is the same day as a big tri for me, which is a shame because the run is going to be on the VERY famous cross country course outside of Kenosha. That will make for an amazing venue.

I still plan to make it up to PM-Michigan. Looking forward to the venue details.

---

Alex Arman

Strava

That is pretty cool! With 14, I can assume there will be at least one in the PNW!
Their 'elite qualification standards are pretty odd. From: http://www.powermanusa.org/qualify.cfm






...same run pace for 5k/10k. Ok, that is weird, but simple. For the bike...

More power to them if they can make this work. I might even get back to training if they have some cool locations as Duathlon is my favorite as it is just so pure. Suffer, then suffer some more

With that said Duathlon is in a bad place in most area of the US from what I can see. Our Spring Classic Duathlon was dropped from our schedule this year when it fell to about 100 for participants. Mid May before Tri season starts up here but almost no interest from the Tri community.

Our Autumn Classic might be dead as well. It takes place this Sunday and has about 130 registered. Tri season is done and all the WTC fanatics have hung the bikes up and don't want to come out and play. We've been producing this one since 2002 and its at a point that it just doesn't make sense to keep on life support.

Yes we are a business and yes that is an evil thing to many but my guys need profitable races to make their living and duathlon has not been that for some time and they would rather have the weekend off then do all the work for so few people. Other du's around here are part of Triathlons and get about 25 people. That's not good

Heck American Zofingan was on life support for a few years and mainly survives via Johns personal funds. Fly By Night was going to be gone until Jeff said it was a goner and people got behind it.

I would love to see this series make it and if they want or need any help they can contact me as I've got some amazing locations around here for a long course sufferfest as well as contacts in about 100 other markets via Fleet Feet Sports owners

---

Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

My first attempt at anything multisport was at Powerman Alabama (they had the whistlestop du at half the distance of Powerman) That was awesome.

I really really hope they come back and make it work. That will get me off my lazy ass and go looking for my running shoes and bike that have been locked away since June 2013.

Boots,

In regards to "WTC fanatics" how do you think it would go if WTC got into long-distance duathlon? Or has it been tried before? It seems a lot of people dislike the swim or are mildly afraid of it so I've never figured out why duathlon isn't more popular.

I never made it to any of your duathlons (shift-work) but did manage to race Sodus and Shoreline a number of times and enjoyed them immensely. I live in Oregon now so I don't think I'll be making it back anytime soon.

Good luck.

I'd love for the series to take off and come to the North East. The more dus the better. However, being a non-USAT race, not sure my son or I would play, but if they did sanction, we would be there.

If I was WTC I would never get into Duathlon, why take a pay cut just to make less money.

Lots of people do not like to swim (myself being one of them) but even more people don't like to suffer and duathlon just plain hurts. Plus triathlon just looks sexier, don't know if is the pretty water or the lack of Kenny Souza in Du these days. And the majority of people have heard of Ironman, how many have heard of Powerman let alone can pronounce duathlon.

Duathlon from a production point of few is perfect. You don't need a clean body of water next to a large open space for transition that also has a large parking area near by. You can easily host them in any urban area as well as out in the country.. There are no restrictions really.

Coors Light and Dannon Series were awesome events, just not enough people once Triathlon and WTC really took off. PEM tried and make Dannon work but after a while why do it for maybe 400 people when Bill could do a 70.3 for 2500+. Team Magic did an amazing job with Powerman Alabama (the original course was one of the best courses in the US), but numbers just kept fading and they moved to Triathlon and running events.

I'd love to see PM-USA really take off and bring Duathlon back as it is such a great sport. If they needed anything from my companies to make it happen I'd certainly listen since I have a national network in place already and a background in the sport

---

Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

If it happens I'm my foot is back to 100% I'm going to give the one in Jupiter/West Palm a shot this winter.

So true! I am going to brag right here that I finished Powerman Zofingen last month. A fantastic race with an incredible history and brutally hard. Team USA had 30 members with 7 DNF. One of the Europeans asked me what the big du races were in the states, and I told him there weren't any (or at least I'm unaware of any notable long course duathlons in the US).

I am a triathlete but knew enough about this race that it was on my bucket list. I'm not sure why triathletes don't incorporate duathlons into their schedule, it seemed to work for past Ironman Hawaii and Powerman Zofingen champions like Mark Allen, Scott Molina, Erin Baker, Paula Newby Frazer, and Natascha Badmann. And this year, I got to watch Olympic cycling silver medalist Emma Pooley blow my doors off on the climb up the Bodenberg. It seemed to be a big deal in Europe although even there it did not have anywhere the numbers you see at an Ironman. I hope the series catches on in the States.

Oops on math.

---

The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.

-Albert J. Nock

Exactly. Triathlon is a niche sport as it is even with an endless stream of bucket listers boosting race entries. Duathlon just doesn't have that cache.

This feels somewhat bizarre (partly because I just came from reading the ebay hoax thread and looking at the PM USA website a couple things seemed a little funny too). Crazy thing is that the next event is in my backyard in 5 weeks and I've not heard one word about it until now. I'm a full time duathlete, but I guess there are no duathlon focused mailing lists. Had I known about the November events sooner I might have given one of them some consideration, but just finding out about them now, I'm not interested for this year at least. A few random impressions:

1. Like some others here I would love to see this series grow and succeed.
   
2. The entry fees are excessive. I know that they don't come close to those under WTC and that is probably what they are thinking. Most established and reputable duathlons however charge half or less than half of where these are listed. Looking at the amenities again though, I can see why--finisher's medal, shirt, jacket, gear bag, hat--with that much stuff I guess that's probably a big reason.
   
3. I like that they're offering two options, short and long.
4. I know that the duathlon calendar is challenging, but a couple things look funny already. For instance, the Alabama and Georgia races probably draw many of the same people. Given that those two events are only three weeks apart (at my age it is unlikely that I would try to do both) I would be surprised if either pull in decent numbers. Likewise with Florida only two weeks after Alabama it is out of the question for most people to do both. At a minimum they would be better off spacing Alabama and Georgia apart, maybe one in November and the other in March for instance.
   
5. Lack of USAT sanctioning works against them for several reasons.
   
6. The locations so far seem to be a positive.
7. I'm still amazed at what appears to be such poor promotion. Again for instance, I can't find their Georgia race listed anywhere other than their own website. Of course it is not on USAT, but it doesn't show up on the Slowtwitch calendar either, nor TriFind.
   
8. I'll finish with one funny item--cut this from the "Support Crew--Friends, Family, Spectators" section: “Hot Spots” which are the swim exit, bike in/out and finish chutes are high priority areas in terms of safety and caution.

I would be great to see a series get established and I do like the two distance options. The former PM events such as Alabama, Ohio, and Tennessee were important events and well run by quality race companies. Again, I hope that this group makes it.

Curious. Why would you not play if they are not sanctioned by USAT?

Right or wrong, I like the idea of a race that is insured.

That being said - If a race like Fly-by-night, Toughman or Rev3 was not USAT, I would still race as I'm confident the RD would be properly insured.

Oh this is great. And yes..Duathlon hurts far more than Triathlon...but I believe offset by the easier logistics and training.

While I cannot find any indication on their site (which there definitely should be!), I think some sort of insurance policy is required before they can get permits from the local government.

Totally interested in this new duathlon development. I did Powerman AL a couple of years ago - maybe the last time it was 'Powerman' (?) in Oak Mountain State Park - and when I got off the bike, cramping (hey, it was early in the season - April? - and I was undertrained) - I thought "What the f*** am I doing?". I wanted to quit right there in T2 and find the nearest ice cold beers (it was probably 10.00, mind you). But I headed into the woods (partly a trail run) and finished. Poorly, but finished. Smarter now - well, maybe not, since I'm thinking about it again - but certainly more aware.

For me...the website does not do an adequate job of laying out which races will contribute to national and world champ slots. And which races count for what year? Do the late 2014 Powerman races feed into the 2015/16 championships? With a little more info and greater lead time, this could be a duathlon renaissance. Oh, I'd also prefer USAT certification. I don't know why, other than the insurance.

Here's hoping they can pull it off. I would love to see du take off. I think the problem with du now is that a lot of people want to socially participate in events. Du does make you suffer a whole lot more than most of the other "events" people will enter, ie tri, mud runs, color runs, even marathons, etc.

This is part of Powerman's marketing problem. When I first started thinking about Powerman, I thought you had to qualify at one of their other races. The reality is that none of the US Powerman races feed into the world champ slots unless USAT designates one of them the US National Long Course Duathlon Championship. This year's qualifier was the Cary Duathlon (May 14) with no affiliation to Powerman. That was the route I took. You need to wait for USAT to announce the 2015 qualifying race and go there if you want a world champ slot. And apart from setting up the team, USAT wasn't much help in explaining or advertising how Zofingen works. They were either clueless or have no interest in expanding duathlon themselves.

In the past, Powerman Zofingen has been its own championship similar to Ironman, but for the last seven years straight they have also been the ITU World Long Course Duathlon Championship. ITU and the IPA (International Powerman Association) apparently have already agreed to maintain that relationship for 2015 and 2016 as well. So the race consists of an ITU division and an Open division. The 2015 brochure they put in our registration packets stated that anyone can sign up for the open division...first come, first serve for 300 slots. There was nothing that states you need to do another Powerman race first, or have to place within a certain level. Also, if you register for the open division but later earn an ITU slot from your national federation, then your registration will be transferred over. But Joe or Jane BOP duathlete could register and go on their own if they wanted, but if they aren't fit the course will finish them instead of them finishing the course. The long course race start reflected the various divisions:

8:00 am - ITU elite women, ITU age group women, Open division women
9:00 am - ITU elite men, ITU age group men
9:02 am - Open division men

Regardless of start time, all were subject to the same 8pm finish time and intermediate cut-offs. While the advance marketing and information flow was horrendous, the race itself was a polished, flawless production. It wasn't possible to get lost on the runs with tape closing off any possible wrong turn on the trails. There were no markings whatsoever on the bike route, but alert volunteers at every turn to make sure you went the right way. Press helicopter, media motorcycles, professional announcers at the stadium and even an announcer calling out your name and country as you crested the Bodenburg. Very professional.

A trip to Zofingen, Switzerland is costly, but similar to Kona depending on your flight costs, and definitely a better destination race depending on your perspective. For a once in a lifetime experience, I would highly recommend it.

I could see myself "socially participating" in a Powerman duathlon more easily than a marathon or a 70.3. Two 10K runs split with a 60K bike would be a lot easier on the legs and the stomach than a marathon if your main goal is just to finish. No swim, so if you want to you can chat with your friends from start to finish. :)

If Powerman is going to make a comeback in the U.S , it needs to figure out a way to attract completers as well as competitors. Their website at this point seems pretty hard core focused on qualifying for championships.

Not to scrutinize their website too much, but in viewing it other issues pop up that bring into question the organization of these events and the lack of USAT sanctioning. For instance, I can't find one reference to drafting, or more specifically standard definitions and prohibiting of drafting on the main site or any of the individual race sites. I'm assuming that they don't permit it, but if they've overlooked mentioning it, will they make any effort to monitor it at their events? It's not that they haven't posted rules--under policies they tell you that yelling isn't allowed, throwing trash, or use of recording devices. They do state: " Pacing will not be questioned, you cannot follow or be followed by a fellow athlete, friend or family member at any time on the course by any means. This will be deemed pacing in any form and therefore will result in disqualification." What does "not be questioned" mean? I guess this might be the anti drafting section, but unlike the Zofingen site which defines what isn't allowed, this just looks like something cut and pasted from some small local unsanctioned race site. Of course if they were regulars on this site, they would know to be more specific about friends and family and stated: "by a fellow athlete, friend or family member, including gorillas, ....."

The website definitely leaves a lot to be desired. I spent 10 minutes there yesterday looking for a mention of the distances involved and couldn't find a thing.

I love duathlon and hope it works out well for them. But seems like a giant uphill battle. For some reason, which I can't quite figure out, duathlon is just never successful here in the USA for some reason. It's not a whole lot different than triathlon, yet people seem to poo-poo the idea and attendance is very lacking. I don't get it..... it's extremely similar to tri, works out very well for the early and late season times when it's too cold to swim, requires slightly less gear, you only have to train for two sports, and if nothing else is an awesome training race for your tri season.

I know there was a Powerman event here in Ohio, which was an awesome race on a brutal course, and it only lasted 2yrs I believe. Likewise there was one in Indiana, on the Muncie Endurathon 70.3 course, and it was dead within about 2yrs as well. The same course that draws thousands to the triathlon, could barely get a couple hundred (at best) duathletes

Hope it works though, would love to be a part of that, though I need to work on my running a whole lot first!