A few questions: Is this a good/bad choice for my inaugural multisport event? How difficult is this? What is the median pace (running and biking) I should expect for the 30-34 male age group? Does anyone know of any good sources of information for structuring a training program for duathlon? Is drafting allowed on the bike segment?
You’ve got to start somewhere. Give it a shot. It looks like they have a short distance race at the same event. If the distance bothers you, go with the short course. I’ve only been doing these for a couple of years, but I’ve noticed that most races have a group of people racing wide open for a top three age group finish, and many more people out there having a good time and just doing the best they can. At the end of the day, it’s a good time. I raced the short course at Powerman Alabama last year. It’s a hilly course, but look at the results on trifind.com and you’ll get a ballpark idea of what kind of times were turned in. You’ll see the results were all over the map.
Absolutely no drafting, by the way.
I’ve been racing duathlon’s for several years in the M30-34, including Powerman bama. I say go for it, as long as you have put in some three hr long combo workouts. No drafting on the bike although USAT rules do allow you to draft for up to 15secs as you pass someone. Median pace running and cycling. I typically run in the 36min 10k range and that places me about the top 40% of the AG, usually about 2.5-3 min down on the AG leader. I typically outride the overwhelming majority of the AG and AG field. Depending upon the course, ie flat to hilly, expect the top AGers to Avg 25mph+ if flat to 23-24 if rolling. Check out www.dannonduathlon.com and look through the splits. That will give you a good idea of how things stack up, also google Powerman Alabama for more results