Having finally admitted to myself that I am unlikely to ever waste more of my life staring at the bottom of a pool, I’m pretty much confined to duahtlons and individual sport events these days. Utah has one stand-alone duathlon that I have raced for five years, but it is hardly well attended. As and old man, I can’t train enough anymore to be competitive at running or cycling individually, but I still enter running races and cycling events.
Does anyone live anywhere that they still race duathlon regularly without flying all over the country?
I lived in Eastern Oklahoma in 2020. All the marathons and triathlons were canceled due to Covid 19, but I did a couple of duathlons. Oklahoma seems to be one of the few area that has multiple stand alone duathlons in driving distance. The midwest, California, Florida, New York are other areas that seemed to have multiple stand-a-lone duathlons.
What is the stand-a-lone Duathlon in Utah? I might need to do that race. I did three (3) in-person duathlons in 2020 as well as the two (2) USAT virtual duathlon and a (1) time trial duathlon when my “A Race” duathlon in March was canceled (but it later got rescheduled for June).
I didn’t get to do a duathlon after the 5-6 that I did in 2020 until 2022. I did the USAT long course National Championship in Arlington, Texas that year (it was driving distance for me). I focused on Marathons and Triathlons in 2023 but did a Duathlon focused year in 2024 where I did a duathlon option in Boulder, CO that was part of a triathlon (drove to that one too since I now live in Wyoming) and I again did the National Championship long course duathlon in Omaha, Nebraska (I little bit longer drive, but I still drove to that one since it was in a neighboring state). I went Triathlon focused in 2025 and did a (1) triathlon in Wyoming and three (3) in Boulder. This year I am run focused completing the Ogden, Utah Marathon in May and will do some trail runs in Wyoming this summer and fall.
I noticed that 2027 Worlds are in Edmonton, Canada (driving distance from me, about the same distance as Omaha was) so I will be looking into going duathlon focused again next. I have to see what the schedule of event is first though. I placed 2nd in my AG at both the 2022 and 2024 Long Course Duathlon National Championships but both Worlds that followed had Sunday races for the long course duathlon event and I don’t race on Sunday for personal reasons. If Edmonton is the same then I may just come to Utah to do your stand-a-long race and call it good. I don’t think I have ever seen a Sunday race in Utah. Duathlons are fun but it is hard to find events and most of the ones you do find are realy small fields of competition.
The race is called the Antelope Island Duathlon. I started racing it five years ago as the Legacy Duathlon held on the recreation trail there, but they moved it a couple of years ago and the new course is excellent. It is not big at all which 50-60 participants and an half marathlon/10k/5K that runs along the causeway, but the bike course through the island might be my favorite multisport ride ever. Then you take off and run towards the mountains on the flat causeway run that is just beautiful.
It is not run/bike/run, it is just bike/run and it is run in a time trial format. They changed the course again this year so it is a full 40K ride and then the 10K run along the causeway. So, a hilly to rolling hill ride and then a flat run, which is the perfect description of a race course for me because I love riding hills and hate running them.
The first year on the new course, I kind of laughed that there are so many Buffalo and no really any anetelope/Pronghorn on the island. Then, on my way back from the turnaround on the bike, I look to my right and there is a Pronghorn running to the road at a right angle. The closer I came, the more it looked like we were going to reach the road at the same time and I was like, “Are you kidding me?” Then it put on a burst of speed and crossed in front of me.
Nice! I am interested. I like the 40K/10K distance. With no 5K to start things off the Time Trial format is the cleanest way to do the start. 50-60 participants make this one of the larger Duathlons in the country. It is very rare to see a duathlon with even 100 participants. The USAT Nationals are the only duathlons I have done that are bigger than that. I see Pronghorn every ride I do in Wyoming. I don’t think I have ever seen them on Antelope Island though. I had my first Bison Burger there at their spring round up.
Boulder has one held nearly every weekend in concert with most triathlons. Sunset & Sunrise Du, Harvest Moon, Boulder Peak, Tri Boulder, Colorado Tri, probably more…and some start at the same time as a running race (5km or so) then the Duathletes can run with the pure runners. It’s a nice addition to those who don’t like to swim & I did a lot of them back around ‘14 or ‘15 when I had some shoulder surgeries. 2019 also. But really they are not what I would call competitive like the triathlons are. So few race it, you may be the only one in your age group in some of them…or not a full podium…but it is a nice option if you’re into duathlon around here. Once in a while a stud shows up out of nowhere & dominates like Logan Thralls did last year (who finished I think 2nd or 3rd OA at USAT Oly Nats last year).
I was actually going to do the Harvest Moon Duathlon as my mostly end of season race this year. Then when I looked, they had changed it to May and moved it to a Sunday (which I don’t race anymore). I’m now to the point where I make up my own course and time trial it occasionally when I want a challenge. I miss the direct competition, but I race my times from previous years and hope to improve them, something that becomes harder and harder as I get old.
The Colorado Triathlon series is where I got my 2nd duathlon score in 2024 to get my USAT ranking (in addition to the Multisport Nationals long course duathlon). There were only 11 participants in the Long Course Duathlon (5K/40k/10K). I won it by over 9 minutes. I raced it 6 days before Nationals as a Priming Race. If you are looking for head-to-head competition these Duathlon add-ons to Triathlon Series are not what you want. The stand alone duathlons are a very different experience where everyone on the course is doing the same event and everyone starts together. The add-on duathlon at the Triathlon series was basically a time trial event. All the duathlon participants line up together for the 5K run start but I was benchmarking my times against the participants in the Triathlons and I was pacing the guys from the Olympic Triathlon on the closing 10K run. I had the 2nd fasted 5K of the day behind Gwen Jorgensen’s 5K split at the end of the Sprint Triathlons, the 3rd fastest 40K bike split behind the top Olympic Tri and top Olympic Aquabike Splits, and I had the 3rd fastest 10K run behind two of the Olympic Tri run splits.
Oh…I am sad to hear this about the Harvest Moon. I did the 70.3 there last year (triathlon not duathlon). I guess that one is out of possible races for me in the future. I am glad I got in on the last Saturday/Fall running of the event. IM Boulder is on the same course in the Spring (and it is a Saturday race). Its too bad there isn’t a late fall option there anymore. Are they changing the name from Harvest Moon to something like the the Worm/Sap/Pink Moon?
If you are looking for head-to-head competition these Duathlon add-ons to Triathlon Series are not what you want.
Yeah that has pretty much been the case for the last 15 years. For the last half of the 00s, I raced the Desert Du in Phoenix, the Orange County Duathlon, the Devil Dog Du at Camp Pendleton and then finished with Duathlon nationals. Every year of the last five I have told myself , “I need to go to nnationalss" and then it just is not convenient or I can’t afford it.
