Well, a reading of this article revealed only the issues that should be familiar to anybody who reads the comments board over at
Duathlon.com. The issue is this: While triathlon is experiencing explosive growth both in the numbers of participants and the numbers of events, duathlon is suffering a decline. The reasons cited:
-- Not as sexy as triathlon.
-- No marketing effort by USA Triathlon.
-- Expansion into the spring season by Sun Belt race directors, which undercuts duathlon's traditional season.
-- More punishing event than triathlon.
-- Poor scheduling by USAT and RDs, with events cannibalizing each other.
(For the record, USAT tells IT that it adequately funds all of its disciplines, but does not provide any specifics. Ooookaaayyyy.)
A vicious circle builds--sponsors want to be where the numbers are, and the money brought in by the sponsors builds triathlon at the expense of duathlon. The most the duathlon can hope for is to piggyback onto an existing triathlon. But for first-timers in multisport, that just reinforces the notion that triathlon is the favorite son and duathlon the step-child--the first-timer getting his or her feet wet, so to speak, in duathlon sees the huge numbers in the simultaneous triathlon and decides that's where he or she wants to be.
I've never been of the opinion that duathlon was going to succeed by attracting triathletes away from triathlons. My feeling has always been that our best bet as a sport will be to attract crossover from bicycling, and to a lesser extent, running. Aggressively marketing to the "permanent category 4 riders," the ones who finish as pack filler week-in, week-out, will demonstrate that there is more reward and less risk in finishing 11th in a duathlon compared to sprinting for it in the bump-and-grind of an advanced-beginner peloton. That sort of marketing has to begin at the grassroots. Duathlon RDs need to be leafletting the cars at bike races in the months before a race and putting out notes to bike-race email lists. I also believe another grassroots approach to promoting duathlon is to encourage clubs to hold low-key "practice" duathlons on a regular basis, pitched as organized brick workouts, to help build duathlon. A triathlete who has experienced a duathlon on a low-key basis is a potential future duathlete. A third approach is marketing to RDs--demonstrating that organizing a duathlon is less complicated than organizing a triathlon, and that a duathlon frees you from the hassle of finding an aquatic venue.
These are just some thoughts based on the strengths of duathlon. I'm not trained in marketing, however, so it will be up to the USAT or (should it come to this) a new duathlon federation to work this out.
