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Attention Tagaman racers, beware of the scrunchie
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Posted on Apr 13 2005
Organizers of the 16th Annual Tagaman Triathlon are expecting over a hundred participants in this year’s endurance challenge, and while many of the adrenaline junkies are returning from races past, a cast of newcomers is poised for the swim behind the Pacific Islands Club, the island-wide bicycle course, and the central Saipan run to the finish.
While the 2,000-meter swim course will be rather easily distinguished with buoys in the Saipan Lagoon, the 60-kilometer bike and 15-km run course will be littered with a combination of orange pylons and traffic directing members of the Department of Public Safety. Though trickery is not on the agenda for the race day organizers, runners will have to have their wits about them toward the finish if they hope to end the race without incident.
The American Memorial Park will be abuzz with the excitement of the annual sweat-athon, and a crowd is sure to gather near the finish line to catch a glimpse of the triathletes as they complete their journey, as well as to take part in the Flame Tree Arts Festival.
Due to both of the major events operating in such close proximity to one another; the run course has been altered a bit from those of years past. From the second transition point, runners will take off running south along Beach Road until they near the turnaround point close to Microl Toyota. From there, the runners retrace their steps northward and hang a left onto Micro Beach Road. Though the finish line will be in sight, the runners will have to forego the temptation to continue on and turn right at the maintenance shed. Volunteers will be present to direct the runners along the course, and once there they will have a scrunchie put around their wrist, and continue the course through the park. The path to the finish goes through the park and out to the finger-like projection at the marina, back to the main road, down to “Mount Puerto Rico” and back to the flagged circle. From there, the runners will take a right onto Micro Beach Road and continue through the finish.
Runners without the scrunchie will be sent around the park section again, so it behooves the multi-sport competitors to keep track of the popular hair restraint.
