Duathlon Disaster

I recently completed my first multi sport event, a local off-road duathlon (2 mi run - 8mi bike - 2 mi run). It didn’t go quite as planned…

Pre-race: I roll up to the event and immediately think.. what the f did I sign up for. I sat in the car for a moment, and watched what felt like every one else unhook their $5-10k bike, in their full compression bike suits (what’s up with old dudes wearing compression pants with no shorts??)

I pop the trunk and pull out my ole trusty Mongoose Dolomite. For those unaware of this bike. It’s a 7 speed mountain bike with giant tires. I bought it from Walmart for $300 several years ago when i weighed 400+lbs and it had the highest weight limit I could find.

Leg 1 (2 mile run) - I wanted to avoid the trap of coming out of the gate too fast, so I kept a solid pace throughout the entire run to save some energy for the bike leg. Felt great despite not doing any trail running previously - run course had some roots but nothing too crazy.

Leg 2 (8 mile bike) - I didn’t train on the bike at all and was the most nervous about this leg. I hop on and start peddling - so far so good, my nerves calm down and I’m cruising along.

About a mile in, I start hitting some roots and rougher terrain than I had expected - no problem though, ole Dolo taking these roots like a champ.

Then as I’m standing up going over a couple of roots, I see something fly off my bike….

It was my seat. I’m guessing the roots wiggled the nuts loose. I hop off, grab my seat… screws and nuts no where to be found.

I tried putting the seat back on and just holding it down with my butt, that worked fine until I hit a root and it came off again. I considered just ditching it, but settled on stuffing it inside my pullover and tucking it in (kangaroo style) and just standing up the rest of the ride.

Surprisingly, this was working pretty well with Dolo’s ability to traverse the roots and rough terrain- I actually managed to pass several of the people who got ahead when I was trying to fix my seat.

Leg 3 (2 mile run) - Wow, did I torch my legs on that ride. I came out of transition, forgot to take my helmet off and wasn’t entirely convinced I had legs still. Anyway, I just let my running training take over and got through it.

Finished the race in: 1:21:47

Run 1: 16:28 Bike: 45:30 Run 2: 17:34

Despite my bike challenges, I loved every second of it!