This thought crossed my mind today going over the results from my race yesterday. It seemed like an extremely fast field compared to similar distances last year. For example many 17:XX and under 5k second run splits. Don’t see as many of these in the sprint tri’s I have done before.
Are duathletes faster, or is this a product of early season lack of races to choose from so everybody fast showed up at one place yesterday?
Are all these people focusing on longer races as the year goes on?
Personally, I think Duathlons are WAY harder and the depth is WAY deeper. Well, Less athletes but the talent is deeper. Thats what I have experianced in the few Du’s that i have done.
I passed the 5k mark in powerman AL in 16:01 and was way back from 1st. I like tri’s better but I think that dus are just harder and faster.
I’ve found (in Ontario anyway) that triathlons tend to be more competitive than the duathlons. Early season races put both triathletes and duathletes together and, while there are a few really fast duathletes, the top of the standings are often filled with the same people that dominate the triathlons later in the season. During the summer, the triathlon fields are much larger and except for the top 4 or 5 overall, the duathlon fields are not as strong.
I agree, it seems like less people, but they are almost all fast.
I think duathletes are faster. They only have two disciplines to train for. I did an international distance du yesterday and the time for the 1st 10K was just over 30 minutes. I don’t run that fast in my dreams.
If you mean Ceasar Creek du I was there also. That dude went 29:50 10k, 1:01 40K, 15:30 5k run. I don’t care what anyone says, that is really fast.
Here’s the thing about folks who exclusively race and train duathlon. Suppose an athlete has 15 hours per week to dedicate to their multisports (that’s mostly all inclusive…commute to sites, changeover, etc) Lets say you want to swim 3 hours of that and the pool is a 20 minute drive away…that’s 5-6 hours total JUST for the swimming…leaving only 9-10 hours for running and biking. The duathlete can cram 14 hours or more (if they can change over quickly) of ON ROAD time. That’s probably 5 hours more running and biking than YOU can do with YOUR 15 hours. Of course they’re going to be faster. (That said, a heck of a lot of duathletes do at least a bit of swimming).
Someone needs to teach that dude how to swim. Damn, thats fast!
Dave in VA
Based on the results of Caesar Creek and the athletes that were there, you might want to check the course. It looked to be short of the actual distances.
a similar (but different!) take on this would be: “can more athletes be competitive at du than tri?” and the answer there is a definite yes. swimming’s usually the limiting factor with new athletes getting into triathlon - even if they’re not totally aquaphobic, they’re so slow that they’re out of contention from the gun. on the other hand, i know a whole lot of pure runners who could more or less fake it OK through a 20 or 40km bike (or get pretty quick with some training) and bash experienced multi-sport folks on the run. whereas if you took the same cross-section of runners/soccer players/etc and had them do a tri, a whole lot more would flounder in the water and be toast.
-mike
For the past three seasons I have been racing du’s only. This restarted doing tris. I think the top guys are faster bikers/runners than the top triathletes. I’ve done several du’s that had tri’s attached. The top second run in duathlons were faster than the top runs in triathlon. Du’s are also physically more demanding than triathlons.
The duathlon season is also divided into an early and late season in the US. There are only 1-3 truly national level duathlons in the June-Sept time frame. Most are early season and late season, bordering the triathlon season.
considering there are about 10 guys in tri able to break 30’ for 10km and maybe an other 5 in duathlon (in a real 10km) it’s probably short.
However, his run split was way ahead of the second split and he also had if I remember well the fastest first run at Powerman Al. 2004
so he definitely runs fast!
Erik:
Duathlons fields are WAY more competitive than triathlons. I have experienced this fact over the last 13 years. In a 500 field duathlon I have a tough time breaking into the top 20. But in a 500 field triathlon I can easily break into the top 20. This is coming from somebody who can’t swim(14:00 for 1/2 mile open water). I am also a Inside Triathlon All-American for duathlon and have been to worlds duathlon short course 4 times.
Duathlons are also harder on the body than triathlons. That is why triathlons draw more people. Lots of people want to go around telling there friends that they finished a triathlon. That is what makes the fields so weak.
If you want to improve in triathlons include 2-3 early season duathlon races and 1-2 end of season duathlons races. You will be surprised how easy the bike and run feels in a tri as you don’t have the opening run to kill the legs.
I recall sitting in on a round-table discussion almost 20 years ago with a number of prominant people in the local multisport community. It was decided that, duathlon, then called biathlon, was going to be the big thing. That it would overtake triathlon in popularity. The main reasons being:
It’s way easier to set up a duathlon race course - no need to be near good water
It’s easier to train for( as you stated)
The #1 reason stated by most non-multisport people for not taking part, is fear of the swim.
However, it has not worked out this way. Duathlon, is the poor second cousin to triathlon for the most part.
Why faster more competitive Duathlons:
A) At this time of year you have, all( triathletes and Duathletes) taking part.
B) You have some good runners looking for a multisport experience - Hence the blazing fast first run splits
c) Running tends to be less of a selector than swimming - a 15 - 20 min swim will spread the field out more than a 15 - 20 min run.
Locally, we get this same pattern. The stand-alone early season duathlons are actually very competitive and deep. But once we get into the main triathlon season the duathlons at many of the races seem like and afterthought and the fields are not that competitive.
Fleck
dag, that is fast! smokin fast in fact.
i so wanted to come out for this, but the damn setbacks I’ve had with my knee have kept me out. how many people showed? how did you do? will you continue tri or do more dus after this race?
kc
I too was at powerman alabama and had this same thought. There are no people at a du who are trying to get in shape or looking for the sense of accomplishment that a tri provides. What I mean is that in a tri you see all types - like in a marathon - but at a du (at least at powerman) 95% of the people were FAST not FAT.
Here in the Midwest it seems that Du’s are pretty competative although the fields arent as large. Not to brag but I won my first of the season and I know the first run was smoikin’ fast, we were killing each other! I would have been happy to have run that split in a standalone running race. Then the bike leg is just one blur of pain capped off by a second run where you dont think you can go a second longer at this pace but somehow you do. Triathlon has this mystical allure to it that a large majority of people are attracted to and they can add it to there “things Ive done” list. Ive been to many tris where the large majority of folks are just toolin’ along not really racing and just in it for the experience. There is nothing wrong with that but its just my observation.
The courses at Caesars Creek were incorrect. The 10K was about 75-85 seconds long, the bike was a little more than 40K, and the 5k was yes, about 37-43 seconds short.
I’ll agree with that. I usually race tris, but did the Caesar’s Creek Du a few years ago while nursing a sore shoulder from winter swim training.
Same blazing fast runners. I remember starting in awe at the sprint (no kidding). My first mile was like 5:30 and I was just keeping up like on a California freeway (WAY too fast for me to keep) and I could barely even SEE the leaders. I just figured they would all fade and were excited at an early season race (they didn’t). Don’t remember my exact times, but they seemed to good to be true. My pace seemed about 20-30 secs/mile too fast on the run and the bike leg was likely a hair long as you mentioned.
Still, the winner there usually runs close to sub 5s … jeez
The big ones definitely are more competitive - those guys fly. Unfortunately there aren’t very many. The fields are so small at most du’s that I find them to be less competitive. I think it depends where you are. It sounds like some of you guys live in areas with vibrant du scenes. Count yourselves lucky. Cali sucks for du’s, especially SoCal. I remember Texas always had a good early season Duathlon season, but there are maybe only one or two here that draw a decent field.
I’ve done 2 du’s this season.
In the 1st, I came off the bike in 1st and got ready to go on the 2nd run and none of the volunteers even knew there was a Duathlon going on! There was a tri going on at the same time and they kept trying to send me to the pool as there was a reverse tri going on at the same time. After spending about a minute trying to find anyone who knew what was going on, I just started running, trying to figure out where to go by myself. Finished in 2nd to some guy that ran about 1/4 mile less than me.
In the second, I also came off of the bike in 1st, only to be run down by some 31 minute cross country guy and finished in 2nd(How do you have a duathlon with over 5 miles of running and only 9 miles biking)?
Now, I’m a decent runner/cyclist, but I shouldn’t be coming in 1st or 2nd overall. Nobody shows unless its a big time event. Even in your small local tris, there’s always a decent turnout and several fast guys cherry-picking. In a state with so many multi-sport athletes it’s a shame that the Du scene sucks so much.