I had been planning on doing the Mayflower international Triathlon pretty much since the day the race was unveiled. It was held in my hometown on the roads I grew up on. The bike course goes right by the spot where I waited for my school bus in middle school as well as going past my high school.
Unfortunately, other occasions got in the way, my brother’s bachelor party was planned for the day before and eventually the party plan got extended into Sunday, which meant I couldn’t do the race. It was an unfortunate turn of events, especially since I wanted to use this race to audition the organizers and the course for potentially doing my first Ironman at the race next year.
As it is though, I couldn’t do the race. I swung by early on Saturday to pick up my packet and schwag (I did pay for it after all). Packet pick-up was at 9 but unfortunately, the registration people were running late. Normally I would have waited, but I had a bachelor party to get to and when it turned out the registration people wouldn’t be there until 9:45, we left, schwag-less.
As a result, I had no first had experience to evaluate this first year race on for next year. Fortunately, my good friend Nicole did the Olympic distance and was able to provide some trusted insight.
The swim is along the jetty in Plymouth harbor, making for a very calm ocean swim. It also provided the added benefit of allowing for a spectacular spectator viewing area. Her mother was on the jetty and was able to watch her for almost the whole swim. The bike course she was surprised to find was very hilly. Plymouth is right along the ocean so a lot of people probably expected it to be less hilly. having grown up there, I know better and knowing where the course goes it's no surprise that Nicole said "If you weren't going up, you were going down". She didn't have a lot to say about the run course as I recall, but there was nothing particularly negative. Overall she had been surprised at the lack of shoulders on the road and the amount of traffic.
Being the type of person who wants as much information as possible, I've also been scouring the triathlon messageboards looking for info and race reports.
KathyG at BeginnerTriathlete.com posted a great race report from her experience doing the race as a relay, she did the bike leg.
Patrick on Slowtwitch.com did the full IDT, his race report was very helpful as well since he did all three disciplines. Apparently the bike course was short when police pulled an out-back spur. Nothing the RD can do there. JoeO also had a review of the run on that same link.
Now that i know a bit more about the race, I'm having a tough time deciding which race I want to do, IMAZ or the IDT. i'd like to make the decision before I get to Arizona. If I wait until I get there, I'm going to get caught up in the atmosphere of IMAZ and register for it.
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