I had a very similar question a while back. Raced day on sunday, arrive early on friday since check in and registration has to happen be EOD friday. Need to set up transition areas and bags saturday, plus drop the bike.

It probably depends how far you have to travel, but at a minimum for MDOT events it seems you need to be there early on Friday. I hope others with more experience will (re)confirm this for you.

When I did IM FL I arrived on Thursday morning. There are a lot of things going on so I wanted to be there for it all. Might as well experience the most for your $$

Yeah, make sure to know the packet pick-up details, they like to get it done early. If it's a place I haven't been to before, I like to get there early enough to scout the course and try it out and take in all of the things going on with the event.

I would say 3 days before...so if a Sat race, I would say get there Wed afternoon. Gives you plenty of time to register, relax and not feel rushed...feeling comfortable and relaxed is very important....

Both of mine were Saturday races and I arrived by noon the day before (4 hour drive). Not ideal, but necessary. You become very rushed, but the positive is there is no time to sit around and stress over the race.

If I remember correctly, you have to arrive at IMFL at least by Thursday afternoon to pick up your race packet. Then bike check in is on Friday.

Overkill! [i]Except for Florida[/i], all others have [u]day-before[/u] check-in, packet pick-up, big and T1/T2 bag drop-off. So, arrive on Friday, check-in/drop-offs Saturday, race Sunday. It's not nearly as complicated as it looks on paper.

Previous thread:

http://www.trifuel.com/forum/20893/im-weekend-bag-check-arrival-qs

I took a typical Ironman pre-race schedule and marked-out all the BS stuff on the schedule.

The weather is nice and so is the beach if you bring the family.

Hey, think twice about bringing the family for a vacation in "nice" weather. 2006 IMFL: temps in the 40's on race morning! All triathletes were wearing wetsuits and socks (beach sand in 40 degree weather = the same as standing on an ice floe), peeling off and tossing their socks into a 55 gallon drum as we entered the water.

I was there in 2005 and it was warm and the water was comfortable, but it can change year to year

I got there the week before for my first 70.3 and I was a bag of nerves. The second one I did friday and I was much better rested and had had much better nutrition and waaay less stress. I get pretty amped up for stuff, so I do better being at home and not surrounded by it and not tempted to go out and test myself on the course. Stay after so you can be surrounded by it then and enjoy your accomplishment.