Apple Duathlon=World Championship Qualifier=Team USA

The Apple Du was May 24, 2008, in windy Sartell, MN. It was one of seven Short Course Duathlon Age Group World Championship Qualifiers. The Apple Duathlon is a 3.1 mi run + 20 mi bike + 3.1 mi run. The top 2 in each age group are invited on to Team USA for the age group World Championships which will take place in Rimini, Italy, on September 27-28, 2008. I placed 1st in my age group!

I really wanted to do well here so I did a little homework. Fortunately, they post a sign-up list prior to the race so I was able to research it over the last couple weeks to see who would be in my age group. Clif Owen, who took 1st in my age group at Oakdale would be there. Since the bike was longer than Oakdale I thought I would be able to overcome his sub-18 minute opening run throughout the bike section. There could be others in our age group that could beat the socks off of us, but I had to work with what I knew. Anyway, Clif ripped up the run and was pretty much out of my site by mile two. His opening run was 1:07 faster, and T1 was 20 sec faster than mine--that put me 1:27 behind him by the time I was on the bike course. My plan going into the race was to try and catch my age group leaders (likely to be C.Owen) by mile 10 on the bike. I caught Clif at about mile 8. Strangely, I caught another guy at about mile 15 who had our age group on his left calf. Could he have started in the wrong wave??? Anyway, by the time I was off the bike I was about 3 minutes up on Clif. He would beat my final run time by 57 sec, but wouldn't catch me on the final run. I took 1st in my age group by about 1:30. Clif took second. We will both receive an invite this week to join Team USA for the World Duathlon Championships in Rimini, Italy in September. Of course, it's an invite--not full financial support.

Anyone have any ideas on how to obtain financial support, grants, or anything like that? I am going to check with my sponsors and the health club I instruct at and see where it gets me. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and would be a great privilege to join Team USA even if for only one event...