No need to qual, just sign up

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

To confirm, you do not need to qualify for the Sprint National Championships in Milwaukee (only the Olympic distance). As Dave notes, there is no qualification for either race in St. Paul. I raced both Milwaukee and St. Paul last year. Milwaukee certainly was the better of the two locations, but St. Paul was nice as well.

Thanks. I raced Milwaukee last year (Oly) and had a great time so that piqued my interest in the Nat'l Duathlon Championships. Wont be able to make the June 6 date though this year but maybe next.

DU nats (standard and sprint) will be in Bend, OR for 2016 and 2017...fyi.
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Straightenin' the curves; Flattenin' the hills
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Coached by Mike Plumb @ TriPower MultiSports
https://www.strava.com/athletes/1149072 - https://www.instagram.com/thoswoods/

Interesting. Thank you. I would need to fly instead of drive, but it sounds like a great location. I guess we are still waiting on the location for the 2016 Worlds. I am assuming that we may find out when they announce the location of the 2017 Worlds on May 15. (I read somewhere that they are combining a bunch of the Worlds for 2017 and put it out to bid with a decision to be announced on 5/15).

Also be aware that USAT just announced changes to the World qualification for the Sprint distance duathlon. It went out to Team USA members, but there is also now a Q&A posted..

2016 ITU Sprint Duathlon World Championship Qualifying Information:
USA Triathlon has held Duathlon National Championships for many years and have continued to see it grow. With regard to qualification for the 2016 ITU Duathlon Sprint World Championships, as it stands today, we are looking at the strong likelihood that a non-draft sprint race will not be offered. We will not likely have a definitive answer until late spring.

http://www.usatriathlon.org/...vent-info.aspx#DLFAQ

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Non-Swimming Duathlete

The race at bend is all loaded and ready to go tomorrow. Good luck to everyone racing

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Boy did USAT put on a first class Nationals Duathlon race in Bend on Saturday!
Folks who missed it missed something special.

I have never ridden on such nice pavement! Was finished 2 weeks ago.

The course was nice and hard, but not over the top, making it a real championship course!!

Looking to going back in 2017.

Bend sure is a great place!!

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

The Strava files of the course look legit. That bike course probably crushed some dreams on the last 5k.

I gotta agree Dave, that was probably the nicest bike course surface I've ever ridden on. I don't think there was even a bump on the entire 20km loop!
Great venue, Oregon is an absolutely beautiful state, very much looking forward to coming back next year.
Congrats on duing the double yesterday, impressive especially considering the challenging course and the afternoon heat!

Yep, the bike course was hard, but on the std, the run course was also a killer.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

On the down hill I never touched my brakes once in for me like 12 minutes. I have never gone that long like that. It was pretty windy so with my 808 front,
I was on the horns most of the way down.

My friend on the sprint was coming into T2 when that twister wind knocked him to the ground. My wife has pictures of parts
of the finish arc flying off in the air. If that had crashed 5 minutes later, we would have had injuries since folks would have been coming across the finish.

I can barely walk today. Doing the double was dumb but I wanted to challenge myself. I was proud all my runs were under 7 pace. I had some great runs
off the bike. That heat in the afternoon just about killed me on that second run.

My goal was to try and qualify for worlds in both events, which I did with or without the roll up. I was pretty proud that even though I had already race the std, I ended up
with the roll up being first place in the 60-64 sprint race.

Shall be interesting what they do with the race next year since they said at the Du meeting they will have a DL Sprint for the Sprint ITU world spots,
and then a NDL sprint and Std. Would be on separate days.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Fantastic. Good to hear.

Do you know if there is bike rental at the event, or just in Bend in general?

Nice work!

We pre-drove the bike course to check it out, but should've done the same for the run. That climb was no joke!

That bike ride was fantastic! I couldn't believe how smooth that road was and how quick you could descend and still feel fully in control. I flubbed the transfer after the second descent and wasted about 30-40 seconds doing an unnecessary U-turn before turning back around, but otherwise had a blast. The second run killed me. I'm not sure if I overcooked Run1 or the bike, but the final mile was spent constantly looking over my shoulder and hoping that the 3 or 4 people that passed me were in another AG. Luckily, they were, so I held onto 5th to squeak onto the podium.

I was a bit peeved at the separate awards ceremony. I fully understand that they didn't open up transition until the last rider finished...that's fine. But, if I'm going to have to stick around 2 hours to get my bike, I'd like to roll the awards ceremony into that time. Having to come back for a 2.5 hour ceremony that night was pretty annoying.

I came, saw and did my job - which was to make you fast guys look good. I qualified for Worlds (standard course) without need of a roll down but short course is definitely not my thing. I really, really liked Bend -- could be happy living out my days there although not likely I will move.

Very professional race management on a championship caliber course. Well done by USAT. If I were to criticize anything, it would be the two sharp right turns immediately after the start of the run. And since the Standard Course was first, it should have been first at the awards - which were entirely too long.

I doubt I will return in 2017 but only because of other planned travel then, not because of any problems with the race. Glad I came ... now back to LONG COURSE TRIATHLON.

There were 18 spots for worlds in the standard. I am pretty sure there were not 18 people in any AG. If you showed up and finished you got a World's spot without a roll down.

The sprint race seems like kind of a joke. I missed the 40-44 AG title by 10 seconds, but I managed to push the winner enough so he collapsed at the finish line. He managed to come back 3 hours later and finish 3rd overall in the sprint. If someone can race to the edge in a two hour race and then come back in 3 hours and beat fresh competition, that wasn't much competition.

Even in the standard, I think a lot of people didn't show up. I finished second masters in the regional, lost by like 5 minutes and then I am 10 seconds from the national title (regional masters winner, who lives within a 5-6 hours drive didn't show), other top 3 finishers from the regional (I was 5th) didn't show up. I was excited to get on the OA masters podium and get second 40-44, and 6th overall, but I'm not that good. No disrespect to the other competitors, this was one of the most competitive races (in terms of close finish position and exchanging positions), but I don't think anyone cares about Duathlon anymore. Too bad, because this was a great course, really made you work on the run and the bike and it was very clean racing.

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"When I first had the opportunity to compete in triathlon, it was the chicks and their skimpy race clothing that drew me in. Everyone was so welcoming and the lifestyle so obviously narcissistic. I fed off of that vain energy. To me it is what the sport is all about."

Your assumption would be wrong. The world ranking sheets were posted outside of the auditorium with the line drawn at 18 and a bracket on the folks eligible for roll-down. I saw numerous age groups with roll down brackets on the standard AG sheets (adjusted for 2017 age up). I did not race the sprint and did not look at those results.

Your speed and results are impressive. And I do agree with you that duathlon is not seriously contested in the U.S. I came from Florida where duathlon is simply an add-on event that RDs use to make a little extra revenue. E.g., host a triathlon with maybe 300 entrants and pick up another 15 entry fees if you have a duathlon for the non-swimmers. Not even worth doing. In fact, this was my first duathlon since Powerman Zofingen Sep 2014.

The participant list showed that there were people travelling from all over the nation for Du Nats. The fact that faster people passed up is not relevant because people will always have schedule conflicts, financial limits, or simply other plans. This race was about as good as you can find in the nation. There are no asterisks on the AG National Champions titles...earned fair and square. Those who don't show up simply don't matter.

Every single woman that raced standard distance qualified for World's. So for women, that means their is exactly zero "prestige" in making "Team USA". The last place finisher in every AG is going to World's if they want.

All but 4 men under the age of 50 (all men under the age of 40) qualified for World's by finishing. Again, for men under the age of 40, there is exactly zero prestige.

At least for these two large groups, I do not believe the current process is not fielding the strongest team we could. I could see making some exceptions for small AGs, but if you need to at least finish top 25% in your AG in a race to race Tri Nationals, shouldn't you need to at least finish in the top 50% of your AG at Du Nationals to go to Worlds?

The sad part is the location was the problem. Long Course Nationals was "about" the same distance as the standard and had a lot more people at it. You can't hold a "National Championship" in a very fringe sport and make it very expense and difficult for people to get to. It just wont draw the crowds. We would have loved to race it, but multiple connections ad expensive tickets made it a non-starter. These races need to be relatively near a major airport or a highly populated area to draw a crowd.

For example - Men's 40-44 - Long course 39, Standard 21. Men's 45-49 37 vs. 19.

Will Long Distance Du Nats be back in Cary, NC next year?

(it really should be in New Paltz, NY)

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

No idea, but I'll be back in New Paltz. Cary was a lot of fun (minus the rampant drafting)

FWIW - the distance was roughly the same at Nationals and AZ SC, yet I was about 35 minutes faster at LC then my best time in New Paltz.

Although I agree on the difficulty and beauty of the course in New Paltz - It was a similar issue as Bend - just not the most user friendly for people traveling.

Maybe. Miami Man already has a lot of locals signed up. It sells out anyway. The number travelling from out of state relative to total registration numbers in a given age group will be low in Nov compared to Bend where that same statistic is very high. So total registered can be a p3oor metric on how many are really trying to qualify. There is no one location that is best for all or even most. This isn't the Olympic trials and the selection process is what it is.

Long course du nats is way too short. When I did Zof, about 8 of 30 on Team USA DNFd. I think part of the problem was that Cary is basically a short course race. And the race at Cary might as well have been a pancake compared to the Swiss course. It was like using a track 5K to pick a team for a mountain marathon. But again, those are the rules and it's the same deal for everyone.

Not sure about the bike shops, but I know that raceday transport, talking to owner Mark, says they are renting bikes now. Give them a jingle.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Congrads on getting on TeamUSA. Are you going to worlds?

Yep, the run turn was tough at the start, but I just sucked it up.

The 180 bike turns were to tight also, so I just unclipped as I went around. Wanted to be safe.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep