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I leave the transition area to begin the bicycle leg of the 12th annual Wilkes-Barre Duathlon on June 21.

Nearly 30 years ago, I participated in the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, or THON as most people know it today.

My dance partner and I took pledges and then danced for 48 straight hours to raise money to fight pediatric cancer. To this day, that dance marathon remains the most physically challenging thing I have ever done.

Trust me, it was brutal.

However, if you would have stopped me during the second run of Wilkes-Barre Dualthon a couple of Sundays ago, I might have had a different opinion.

I planned on using the race as an indicator of my fitness as I prepare for the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon in September. I did not plan on waking up the morning of the race with a nasty cold.

But I had written that I was going to compete in the event, so there I was standing on the starting line on a damp rainy morning not knowing what to expect.

What I found out that completing a duathlon is much different task than competing in the 5K and five-mile runs I have been doing throughout the spring and summer.

In those events, I have never concerned myself with keeping a certain pace. In a 5K or five-miler, I generally start out running as hard as I can, knowing that I will still be going reasonably well when I reach the finish line.

As I learned a couple of Sundays ago, this isn’t a good idea in a duathlon.

I went out in the first run of the event, which was accidentally shortened by race organizers to 2.5 miles, in a pace that would have seen me set a personal best for 5K, finishing the run in just a shade over 22 minutes.

I then spent an hour completing the bike portion of the event, but as I climbed off my bike in the transition area, I knew the final 5K was going to be rough. It took me over 45 minutes to finish that last run.

Still I finished the race, in 2:13:01.2 to be exact, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Now, thanks to finishing the duathlon, I feel for the first time since I started this crazy quest that I might actually be on track to finish the triathlon.

And, hey, I did finish the duathlon in 45 hours, 46 minutes and 8.8 seconds faster than I finished THON.

UP NEXT

My next event is Saturday’s Bernie’s Memorial 3 Mile Run at 8:30 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre.

Online registration, with a $22.50 fee, ends Monday. Registration opens at 7 a.m. on Saturday at the Wilkes-Barre YMCA. Race-day registration cost $25.

Former Times Leader and Weekender staff writer Sara Pokorny promises to be on hand for the run. She’s going through her own training regime to complete a half marathon in October. She is also under the mistaken impression that she has a chance of beating me.