How fast do these races usually sell out?
I’m thinking of doing the Alabama Coastal Triathlon and the Music City Triathlon…but not sure if I can afford to go yet!
Any experience with these?
Team Magic does an awesome job at their races, they are well organized, well staffed. It is hard to say anything bad about them unless you are really pick about something.
Last year they organized the collegiate nationals and the olympic trials at the same day and everything worked out great.
The races usually don’t sell out until a couple weeks to the race.
It depends entirely on each individual race.
They have Sprint events that swim in a pool that have much smaller participant limits and these are the ones that regularly sell out, sometimes perhaps a month beforehand (in one case…none of the events you listed).
One thing you can do is to use the registration site to keep track of current registrations for each event. If you check them periodically you should have plenty of advance notice as to when it might fill up on you.
Also, if you’re on their mailing list they usually do a decent job of sending out an email warning of fill-up before hand. (although I missed one race last year because they didn’t get an email out).
I’m really, really disappointed with their swim events IN A POOL. Totally lame. There are so many lakes in the area.
I’m really, really disappointed with their swim events IN A POOL. Totally lame. There are so many lakes in the area.
I hear you and understand where you’re coming from but consider that even if you have a good lake you still need an available transition area and viable bike course.
Add to that the fact that holding them in a pool elicits a lot of participation from first-timers and acts as their gateway in to the sport.
Nearly every one of these pool/sprint tris I do I’m successful in recruiting a newby to participate…2 years ago my 14 year old daughter…this year my 14 year old son…a few co-workers…a few people from my swim team (although it wasn’t the pool that gets them)…even one co-worker who did a relay with his 9 year old son who is on a swim team.
I also like the fact that after the pool races we’ve got free run of the pool and can play in the water with the kids until going home.
Of course I’d also like some really cool triathlons for guys like you and me: Sharks placed in the water, rabid pit bulls on the run course…let’s make it a true man’s race! 
The closest I can find to that is Xterra, but I’m still waiting for an opportunity to add combat to triathlon.
Overall they do a good job however the one downside of most (all?) of their races is that they do time trial starts. IMHO, this is kind of silly as starting people at different times kind of eliminates the whole idea of a race.
I’ve always had fun at their races…I especially enjoyed the GJCC race when I still lived in Nashville. The Chattanooga Oly was great too. Everything is very well organized, safe and fun. And comparatively cheap, if I remember correctly. Not that it’s generally that applicable to STers, but they’re generally super beginner friendly as well, which creates a great race day atmosphere.
Halfway decent schwag, too.
I have done the Music City Tri the last two years and will most likely do it again this year. I have been very pleased with the events. This past year the swim was canceled due to the hurricane that came ashore. I believe that I signed up for the race about 3 weeks out, but like someone said above, if you go to their website they state how many have signed up.
Team Magic is one of the best RD groups in the USA, IMHO. The staff and many of the volunteers are triathletes themselves.
They do limit participants on some venues, but that is due to space/safety issues. I have no problem with that. As someone else noted, get on their email list to get updates.
Alabama Coastal Tri anyone? Can’t wait.
I’m pretty exited about it, let’s just hope the rain holds off.