That one is tough to answer. I live in South Florida. We have gators. There is no open water swimming here except for the ocean. It is a big ocean though.

There are no hills here at all. You can find some in the central part of the state, north of Orlando. No big hills anywhere, just rolling hills.

There are good roads for cycling here, Well, good in that they are relatively bike friendly.

You will be able to train year round, but it is damn hot about 10 months out of the year. It takes some getting used to. I will let you know when I am used to it. 12 years and counting for me.

I can't say this is triathlon heaven down here. It is nice getting on the bike any time of year though. Trainers stink.

Good luck.

Naples is great, especially if you want to pound out super fast training rides with the group that heads out of The Bicycle Shoppe of Naples. Tuesday and Thursday rides are TTT hammerfests (great for tri training) and they average over 25 mph on those rides. Also, good weather ('cept for the summer, tho that'll get you ready for Kona ;-)) and excellent swimming facilities.

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No sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!

I'd stay out of SFla because of the congestion. Central Fl - Orlando, Clermont is nice, has good groups, but is getting more crowded (and has a couple lakes). Melbourne/Space Coast has some triathlon groups and is not too crowded. St Pete/Tampa has great groups but not many off-road trails. Ocala - lots of trails, not many groups. Tallahassee-great training venue & people, not much for open water (45min drive or The Rez). Pensacola - nice place from all I've seen. Jacksonville - good race series and people, open water, some rural areas to ride nearby. Plenty of other smaller towns outside the main hubs that would suit active retirees well. If anything I'd err on the side of groups for the social aspect and go hang out with the Mad Dogs in the St Pete / Tampa area.

Tallahassee gives you a lot of riding options,most hilly, you can get to Georgia quickly where you will find roads that seem deserted,hot most of year,not to much cold in the winter,i rode all winter,some years it is hard to get a ride in for the rain,seems to be a good tri club,but town is growing to fast so traffic is bad.Randall

FL Panhandle: pretty good weather most of the year- August is admittedly awful, and 2 weeks of winter (daytime high-41) show up some time in January or February. Lots of salt water (Gulf of Mexico) and brackish water (assorted bays) open water options. Bike courses, you can find hills if you're willing to go a bit inland or do a bunch of bridge repeats.

Multiple tri shops and a lot of other general bike shops. Active bike and running clubs, and a master's team over in Pensacola. Tri season running from April to November, and running road race season from about September to June. 10 local sprints, a 1/2 IM and an M-dot race within 2 hour's drive, and you can make the Tampa/Orlando/Jacksonville races a long weekend driving trip.

340 days of sun every year. Excellent restaurants, decent shopping and an improving arts scene. Doing your pool workouts outdoors in December. Living in a place where everyone seems to be genuinely happy to be where they are, and the percentage of adults with college degrees in Okaloosa County is allegedly the highest of any place in FL. Great boating opportunities. Surprisingly reasonable cost of living if you don't Have To be within 200 yards of the beach. (you can get a damn nice house for less than $200,000) Lots of public beaches.

Jeez, forget central Florida or the Space Coast. The beaches are so flat to run on that you miss the slope of the road and will probably get injured. It's hot and windy in the summer, winter, spring and fall. While that might be good for Kona it sucks the rest of the time. It's to far to the Clermont area for hill training (one+ hour) and having an ocean and two rivers to do open water swimming in just gets to confusing to choose from.

'ol people like me will run you off the road but if you can avoid them you can get in a century almost without having a stop sign or traffic light to worry about.

What I'm trying to say is stay away from central florida we have too many people here already. :-)