Killam man wins Canmore Road Duathlon event *Updated*

Brad Borgel from Killam intended to compete in the Miquelon Lake Duathlon this summer, but when it was unexpectedly postponed, he did some looking online for other events he could try.

He found the Canmore Road Duathlon event, in Canmore, and signed up to run the duathlon on Aug. 4. “We figured we might as well make a vacation of it at the same time,” he says.

A Duathlon is similar to a triathlon, where competitors complete three legs of a set course by running, swimming, and biking.

The Miquelon event was scheduled to be a five km run followed by a 40 km cycle, and ending with a 10 km run. The Duathlon sprint distance event Borgel registered for consisted of a three km trail run, a 20 km cycle, and a five km run.

Borgel says that he didn’t even realize the Miquelon event had been cancelled until he invited his brother to join him in the event; when he tried to sign up he found out it was cancelled.

Borgel, who at 39 competed in the 30-39 age category, finished the Canmore event in first place, ahead of the nearest competitor by six minutes.

Borgel says it was fate that brought him here. He ran his first triathlon in 2011 with a group of friends, coming in 13th in his first triathlon ever, and enjoyed training for it so much, he has continued to run on a regular basis.

He didn’t want to train all summer to run another triathlon, so the duathlon events appealed to him more this year, he says. He continued his regular running, and added an hour bike ride with training partner Casey Kelndorfer a couple of times a week.

Borgel said he was really impressed by the event in Canmore, held at Canmore Nordic Centre and Quarry Lake Park, “It was very scenic and a nice event. I quite enjoyed it.”

He says the event has two transition areas between different legs of the race, where he switched from his trail shoes to his cycling shoes, then into his pavement shoes for the last leg. He’s never had a trainer, he says he just uses his own common sense when preparing for an event.

The Canmore Nordic Centre, where the event was held, showed no signs of damage from flooding. Borgel says, “It was a good venue, and organizers did a stellar job on everything. “It was definitely worthwhile to enter.”

Borgel got a t-shirt, and a gold medal from the event. He says he might consider running it again, and he plans to continue running on a regular basis. “I did sports in school, but I’d never run until my first triathlon in 2011.

“I find it [running] really relaxing, it’s very zen-like. You shut your brain off and just run.”

He says he’d love to see events like this be organized in Flagstaff, and he’s heard that some people were trying to get something together a few years ago.

(CORRECTION: Note that in our published story, we reported that Brad biked 12km in error, when it was 20km on the bike. We also reported the name of the event as the XTerra Duathlon, which was running at the same time and same place as the Canmore Road Duathlon, but Brad ran the longer event)