Race Coverage

"My Best Duathlon Race Ever...."

Friday, 09 May 2014 00:10

A Win!

By Devon Palmer

I won a duathlon on Saturday. It was fun. It was a nice course out of Square Lake park in Stillwater. The top 4 men from the prior weekend at Falls Duathlon were all back. This race was an out and back 5k, a two lap 20 mile bike, and the same run again. Given the length of the bike I figured it would be down to Joe Johnson and I. My Gear West Bike teammate Brian Sames (pronounced the same as the word same, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) would get a good lead right away and Joe and I would need to ride him down before the half way point in order to get a big enough gap before the second run. Curt Wood, a very strong cyclist but not super fast runner, pointed out an obvious equation I still use for duathlons – if both runs are equal length and you’re trying to beat runners on the bike you need to take the lead before half way on the bike. Otherwise it will probably be too late to build a sufficient gap.....

This was my best duathlon race ever. Last year I won Falls Du in the style I win most of my races, just hammering away on the bike and holding it together on the second run. This race was different because I thought out a specific plan to win and executed on it. READ MORE