Plymouth Rock IM distance

I'm finishing up my race report and will post it tomorrow. Our results aren't up yet

It was great for a first time race but some issues could be worked out.  Race directors want to make this a great event in MA.

Good:
Very well organized
Very thoughtful and top notch with details
Amazing power point pre race meeting...very well done
Adjusted and made things better as they realized they had an issue
Very safety focused..had 3 dive teams, 3 dive platforms, and medical area with Dr. in swim
Easy for family/spectators to see you with 4 loops on bike and 4 out and backs (8 views) on the run
Finish you could watch them 1/2 mile away up on this hill go down the steps and see them cross finish line with time to spare
Plymouth is great venue
Medical tent manned by IM finisher Dr.
Race Director has done 10+ IM
Ice cold drinks on bike/run course
Fans were great
Volunteers were great
Way more relaxed and easy to do than MDot..not so much walking, waiting and stuff like that

Bad:
Bike coures roads were high traffic and only 2.5 miles plus stretch of the course was closed to traffic. Most road had little or no shoulder, 4 loops of what was supposed to be 27 miles
Out and back for run you did 4 times, roads were open with no shoulders..boring?
Only 75 people did IM..finish over 13 hours and you were out there with just a few folks, who knows if fans/supporters would still be there
Times got messed up for some with no splits for a few..check out cool running for results to see..they have finish times but no swim or no bike or run splits
Bike course was not 112 miles but short
T-shirts and finisher t-shirts were not great..we all want to wear our cool IM distance finisher stuff with pride often..tech t-shirts would have been nice
Finish line party atmosphere was okay..fans were great

My thought is I'd do it again as a relay or as IM aquabike they plan to have next year to train for IMFL, but wouldn't do it as my A race just due to the small size and being a BOPer I'd be out there alone much of the day.

Having grown up in plymouth, the high traffic on the bike course is not unexpected.

However, I do wonder, you mention "Attention to detail" as a positive, yet the heavy traffic, and absence of shoulders on those roads is a detail that should not have been overlooked, nor the similar issues with the run course.

I asked the RD directly about road closures and safety. He said they wanted more roads closed but the town would only agree to so much. His hope is in time with the success of the event the town will be more open to closing more roads.

On loop 3 of the bike it was tough to get by the cars as they were backed up at the lights due to police directing traffic and they were to far to the right so no room for us to pass. Within the time it took for me to get back there they had cones out and had made a bike lane to keep space for us to pass the cars if they were backed up. I was impressed that in less than 90 minutes they made that change in 3-4 places on the course.

An interesting fact is that the race is all in one town so it was easier to work with town officials to get permits and everything approved. Plymouth is one of the largest towns in area in MA. At the race I saw many officials who looked like they were high up police and fire officials at the race in different spots or driving around checking on things. It appeared that race directors and town officials had good relationship and all parties wanted this to go well. Interesting as Labor Day weekend is low tourist weekend for Plymouth thus great weekend for triathlons.

Actually, labor day weekend is usually a pretty big tourist weekend in Plymouth (or at least tourist traffic), my family made sure to leave town every Labor Day weekend (or just stay in the whole weekend) to make sure we avoided it.

I'm kind of surprised they didn't send the course through Myles Standish state forest.

That said, it sounds like the race went off reasonably well aside from some technical difficulties (and the registration guys showing up late). Especially for a first year race.

Our results are up and I finished my race report ..not sure if it will be any more help than what has been mentioned already.

The local triathlete buzz in August was everyone was saying they wanted to see how it went this year and then maybe do it next year. Registration was after all the M Dot IM registrations so many folks were financially tied to doing another race. Now that folks know about it more will plan on registering. I suspect the number of participants will increase. It is hard to know by how much.

There were about 105 individuals registered and only 79 raced plus the 10 relay teams. Cap is set at 450 individuals and 50 relay teams. 

Race Director asked us to share things with him they could do to improve via email. They have a list of things but we as athletes may have seen other things they could improve.