John,

Congratulations on landing such a significant and high profile sponsor. I hope that rest of your off/pre-season work on your events continues to go well.

Best regards,

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

John,

Keep up the great work....now you need to put on a long course duathlon on a tough course, like Powerman Zofingen or Powerman Spalt. Something up in the total 30K of running + 120-150K of biking. Ontario is lacking an event of this type. The short course event could be something like a 5-50-10. There are lots of venues that would be perfect for such an event.

Congrats on the HSBC sponsorship !

Dev

That Collingwood course felt like 150km of biking. ;)

Congratulations John! Well deserved, Now can you make spring (dry roads) come any earlier?

Rick

Thanks Dev,

Please check out the New Long Course Duathlon in Collingwood on August 7, 2005. Last year we had a Long Course Triathlon and one of the comments was that the bike was like St. Croix. This on top of a finish in the heart of the Village at Blue Mountain makes it a very exciting event. I think anyone who did the race last year will tell you that this bike is a challenge to say the least. Details are at http://www.multisportcanada.com/...wood/description.cfm

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John Salt, Founder - MultiSport Canada
Canada's Largest Triathlon Series and Barrelman Niagara Falls
http://www.multisportcanada.com / http://www.niagarafallstriathlon.com
"Discipline Is What You Do When No One Is Watching You"

Hi John,

Don't get me wrong. I am a "triathlete" in that I will never do a duathlon if there is a triathlon option at the same event. Thus Collingwood would not be an option.

What I am thinking of is a stand alone duathlon, where the duathlon in the marquis event and not watered down by an accompanying triathlon. I am thinking that the ideal time of year for this is the second or third weekend in September, when it is starting to get too cool to have swims in Ontario (at least up here in Ottawa...although I have swam as late at Oct 9th with neoprene hat and LS wetsuit...), but perfect temp for a duathlon. Most athletes would get the bulk of their training done by Aug 31 and then go into a 2-3 week taper before the big event. Make the course reasonably tough, so that it is challenge in the vein of Nice, Wildflower, St. Croix or Zofingen itself. Slowman wrote a nice article about putting on standalone duathlons some time ago, and making them pretty tough.

I have a potential course in mind up in Gatineau Park if you would like to talk about it offline, combining road riding and a mix of trail/road running and 1000's of feet of vertical on the bike and run. Ideally though, you would have it within 2 hours of drive time of Toronto to attract the biggest possible crowd.

It would also be a good post "summer Ironman" race for many, or a good prep event for those heading south for GFT, or Ironman Florida...something like 10-120-21.1, which the top guys would do in a touch over 5 hours, top age groupers in 6 hours etc. This would make it tough, but not so long that guys can't recover from it for other fall events.

Just to be clear. There still is the LONG COURSE TRIATHLON at Collingwood. We just added the duathlon to make the Duathletes happy.

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John Salt, Founder - MultiSport Canada
Canada's Largest Triathlon Series and Barrelman Niagara Falls
http://www.multisportcanada.com / http://www.niagarafallstriathlon.com
"Discipline Is What You Do When No One Is Watching You"

I would be happy to chime in on how tough that bike course was. I plan on using it this spring as my warm up to Placid. It was tough.
I also would like to say that running into the village was a really neat experience. I think most triathletes would enjoy it. It had a distinctly European feel to it. I enjoyed it thoroughly. And the point to point swim was really cool too. I wish I could do it again this year, but it will be too close to Placid I think.
The only thing I didn't really like was near the end of the run, the road got really busy and I didn't care for inhaling all the gas fumes. But that was only along a small stretch of the road. I highly recommend this race.
M~

I have never understood why Duathlon has never taken off - it's getting there, but it is still a distance behind triathlon in numbers and interest

A few points:

1. Back in the mid 80's I recall a round table discussion with some key players in the sport. The consensus was that duathlon was where the real future in multisport racing was. Finding good water, at the right temperature in the right location for a triathlon seemed to be a logistical challenge.

2. If you ask most non-triathletes what the biggest fear/challenge is about triathlon, typically swimming is picked out as the #1 fear/challenge. They see the swim at a triathlon, look at the buoys waaaay out there on a lake, see the thrashing bodies and say, "there is no way I could/would do that"!

3. In our part of the world we really only have 2 1/2 months when the water is at acceptable temperatures. Even in June at early season races in Ontario the water is often quite chilly and people are saying, "There's no way I am going in", but they all end up going in. Yet at the same event, where there is a Duathlon option, there is only a handful of people entered. Triathlon seems to be the bigger draw.

I agree, if there was a shoulder season stand alone Duathlon that was, well promoted and sponsored, I think that it could be successful. However, the Ontario race calendar is already quite crowded with great events( a good thing) and I am not sure where it would be best to run it.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Thatnks for all of the positive feedback. We listened to what the athletes had to say about last years run and the traffic. We have redesigned the run course so that it stays closer to Blue Mountain Resort and we anticipate a lot less vehicular traffic in 2005.

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John Salt, Founder - MultiSport Canada
Canada's Largest Triathlon Series and Barrelman Niagara Falls
http://www.multisportcanada.com / http://www.niagarafallstriathlon.com
"Discipline Is What You Do When No One Is Watching You"

Fleck. A stand alone duathlon has to be in the shoulder season as I mentioned. It also has to be a "destination event". Something that people will train most of the summer for and make it their A race and plan a solid weekend around it.



Personally, I think that duathlon has been poorly promoted by mixing it up with triathlon. This is the big mistake !

Standalone events, like Zofingen, Spalt and Desert Princess are the way to go.

Hey Fleck,

I think it might simply be that the swimming part for a lot of people, is what separates the two. For me, if I do a duathlon, I don't consider it nearly as hard as if I do a triathlon. The swimming for me is what makes triathlons a real challenge to my mind and body. I think it is also the mystique behind the sport. I think every triathlete in the very back of their mind has that Hawaii picture in their mind. Whether they think they can get there or not. Duathlon, for me, just doesn't have that much appeal. The challenge for me is in the swim.

TnT has good points. This is why a standalone duathlon has to be tough, challenging and also be a destination standalone event. Otherwise is "literally" gets watered down by the accompanying triathlon.

Its like the stuff about positioning you learn in marketing 101. If you have two products that you are trying to sell at the same time to the same consumer, the consumer will pick the one with higher perceived value all things (ie needs, price) being similar. The only way to jack up the perceived value of a duathlon is to substantially differentiate it to the consumer. Right now, most dus in Ontario have no compelling real differentiation from triathlon. They are perceived as the event for people who either can't swim, or won't put the effort into swimming. Completely remove the swim and this stigma is eliminated.

Cngratulations John. I have a number of your races in my plans for this summer. Collingwood being one of them, it has always been my favourite race in Ontario.

Since running is my most dreaded event I will pass on the duathlons though :)

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Wilfried Heinle

Artificial Intelligence can never beat natural stupidity.

Actually, if timed correctly, I would defintely consider a long course du. It would be pretty interesting to have one really early in the season to see either how bad or good my winter training was. Even having it late Sept/Oct is possible. Although I think early season would be more preferred.
Good idea Dev. And something in Ottawa would be a great excuse to come back up. Haven't been in years.

I agree that a long course duathlon in the fall would be a great addition to the calendar. I will never do a du if a tri is also offered, but I get bummed when my season ends in August.

D.

The solution to your season ending in August is the Wasaga Beach Triathlon on September 10, 2005. This will be the fourth year for the race and each of the past years the temperature has been in the high 70's/low 80's. The water is clean, clear and warm. It also happens to be part of the HSBC Triathlon Series line-up at www.multisportcanada.com

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John Salt, Founder - MultiSport Canada
Canada's Largest Triathlon Series and Barrelman Niagara Falls
http://www.multisportcanada.com / http://www.niagarafallstriathlon.com
"Discipline Is What You Do When No One Is Watching You"

I have done that one two years in a row and really enjoyed it as well.
I want something even later though. That's why I am going down to NC in October to do Duke. :)
Mark

Having a stand alone du in the end of September would be a great event - too cold for swimming, but still warm enough (and enough daylight) to train and race. With the season so short here in Canada, I think a true late season event would be well received.

I'm going to combine a couple of thoughts here - I've never understood why Du's aren't more popular/better marketed. I got into multisport from running. I started running years ago for basic fitness. Very, very easy access (buy running shoes, go run). Like a lot of runners I started riding a bike to do a bit of cross training - and started to really like riding. I happened to stumble across duathalon and I was hooked. I wasn't interested in swimming (at least not starting out - training two sports was enough of a challenge). I found entering my first du to be easy and straight forward (unlike trying to go into bike racing)

I've worked in a running store, and a bike store (actually a ski store that sold bikes in the summer, but that's another matter) and I KNOW - especially from the running side - that there are tons of people out there who would are interested in doing a Du - but don't really know about the event. A tri is perceived as being just "too much" (effort, time, etc). They're already doing biking and running - so it isn't that much of a stretch to enter a race.

Here in Ottawa, the Tri a Tri events are growing like crazy. And with all due (no pun intended) respect, I wonder if duathalon was actually marketed better if there would be even more people entering the sport.

Cheers,

EKB

Having done a few of John's races, I think I'll chime in here:

I'm thrilled that such a major sponsor has chosen to support the Multisport series. Hopefully, this race series will continue to increase in popularity, as the races are very well run, and always fun. To boot, the "heart" that John puts in these races always comes through.

In Ontario, we're really lucky -- we have TWO major race series, both of which have excellent management and organization. If you're so inclined (or slightly demented, as kentiger was last summer) you can do at least one race a weekend, every weekend from the end of May until late Septemeber.

Collingwood is a blast of a race, though borderline masochistic on the bike portion. See my race report from last year here.

Wasage is a great location and gorgeous swim. I'm hoping to do it this season again.

4 familys will have the weekend booked very soon for the Wasaga Beach Tri's, (adult/Kos) it was a great vacation weekend. Well organized, great scenery lots of different surfaces to run on, nice beach to watch..........Hopefully my kid will only do the adult so he can help out at the KOS. Keep up the good work John!

Rick

I'm not slightly demented..I am totally demented tyvm. And for the record I am cutting back on my racing this year..just not cutting back on this series. I'll be racing it exclusively and doing relays in the other. John..major news with the new sponsor..totally awesome for you and the people that race your series. Expect to see as much of me as you see of your family this year...where do I sign? See you at the bike show perhaps.