Jenex/Patagonia Duelathon

We hosted the 7th Annual Jenex/Patagonia Duelathon on Sunday, a combined running/rollerskiing race. The Duelathon was created by Marty Hall in 2001, back before duathlons were hip and no one knew what to call them - hence the unusual name. In past years, the race has begun with an interval start rollerski leg, followed by the running leg on the Bradley Pond trails. However, due to a strong grassroots campaign from race fans, we decided to hold the running leg first as a mass start. For various reasons, it made sense to use the Mt. Ararat High School XC trails for the run, and then transition to rollerskiing along the usual course.

The race started under clear skies, and John Swain of Colby quickly took the lead. Swain is a legitimate runner, almost as fast as John and Colman, and by the time he reached the sandy, open trails around the midpoint of the course, he had a sizeable gap on the field. Nat was leading the racers on his cyclocross bike - he's a pretty accomplished rider, but the loose sand on the trails was too soft for a cross bike, so he ended up throwing the bike over his shoulder in true cyclocross style and running like hell in a desperate attempt to stay ahead of Swain. It didn't work, but it was quite an effort - I wish I had a photo. Anyway, Swain ended up coming into the transition with nearly a minute lead, but his teammate, Matt Briggs, put up a great rollerski leg to close the gap and win by 11 seconds. On the women's side, Ingrid Knowles of Bates was several seconds behind teammate Kirsten Gill at the transition, but smoked the rollerski phase to win easily.

Overall, it was a very successful day. The team did a nice job running the event - it went flawlessly, and we got great feedback from the racers. Everyone seemed to enjoy the new format, which would not have been possible without the help of Mt. Ararat XC coaches Diane Fournier and Stu Palmer (Class of '86). We were also lucky to have generous sponsorships from V2/Jenex and Patagonia, which allowed us to give away some great prizes, including ski poles, gift certificates, and several fleece vests and jackets. Over half of the racers walked off with a prize of some sort, which is nice, but hopefully we can increase our turnout a bit in the future.

I know that there are some race photos out there somewhere - ski team alum Jeremy Huckins took several, and perhaps there are others. If anyone reading this has photos, please send them my way - I'll post them as soon as I have them. NENSA will be posting the results shortly - I'll link to them when they're up.