To Duathlon or Biathalon, that is the question

I am interested in finding an event that would include just swimming and biking AND I am not interested in doing mega miles in either. Would an event like that come under the heading of "duathalon" or "biathalon" or none of the above? Is such an event held in the Bay Area or should I make up my own event and ride around Lake Merritt a few times and then jump in and swim a few laps?
Thanking you in advance.

All the duathlon's in Texas (from what I have seen the past year), were just cycling and running.

Not sure if their are ones that just do swimming and cycling. ???

Do a search on the Internet, you might find one in your area.

Duathlon generally means run-bike-run. Biathlon means ski and shoot, but I have seen events that were labeled biathlon where people bike-run. It is gererally hard to find events with a swim that are not triathlon. I don't think many people are interested in swim events (as in, people who are not competitive swimmers and don't compete in that capacity). It can also be very tricky for a race director to find a nice body of water that is safe for an event. Plus you have to hire lifeguards to work the swim portion of the race. This is why duathlons are ever so popular. You can sometimes find paddle-bike-run triathlons where you use a canoe or kayak instead of swimming. I have yet to see an event (in WI) where you swim-bike or swim-run.

If you want to make up your own event, make sure you do the swimming first for safety sake.

Thanks for the info.

Hi Helga,

not sure if this will help, but you might want to send a note to the lunachix triathlon team in the bay area. If nothing else, you can join them on some of their training events. The lunachix also have a duathlon team in San Diego - and they may have some more info on other duathlon teams in california......

for more info: visit www.lunabar.com/teamlunachix then use the pull down menu to "select a team" -- or email them directly:

bay area tri: bayareatri@teamlunachix.com
san diego duathlon: sandiegodua@teamlunachix.com

Of course you can also ride your bike with the bay area cycling team lunachix that I am associated with: Our events page is located at: www.lunachix.net/events and we would love to have you join us!!!

I'd also been wondering the same thing since I hate running. I also have a bad knee, which I use as my excuse not to run :D But I have yet to see a swim-bike only event around my area.