We are close to announcing a new bike course for IM Florida that takes out the rough out and back section. We have to dot a few i's and cross some t's before the new course is announced! Keep your figures crossed that we can get this done! Z

Sounds awesome ... Hope so and thx for the info 😃!

Tom, great to hear. I did IMFL twice and that 10 mile stretch of road is just god awful.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

That's amazing if they make changes in that course,the last time I participated in 2014 Iron man FL for which I was hardly prepared, I was totally exhausted and was barely able to complete the race but that was a good experience.I was a newbie that time,but now in November in IRFL I'll give my best besides that I am also preparing for NY Tri Expo and this Iron man will prove to be a good practice.Get more info on NY Triathlon at http://nytriexpo.com .

Will the change make it no longer a flat boring draft fest? ;-)

Hoping for a 2 loop course.

The new roads that we will use are still located in Florida, so they will be flat. But we do have a number of great IM events in North America that have some nice hills on the bike courses. Most of these events are still open for registration for 2016! Z

Sorry, Bike course will still be one loop at IM Florida. We have a number of other IRONMAN events with two loop bike courses that are open for registration! Z

Love one loop. Wish more runs (Kona is the only one that comes to mind) were one loop.

Worst is Tahoe: 20 miles for first loop, then 6.2 miles. That's torture: coming that close to the finish after 20 miles of running and then having to head back out. Ofcourse, you could always just lose your chip and skip the 6.2.

Don't be sorry, one loop is good. Horribly rough road at mile 90 is what is bad.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

I'm quite certain the bad out-and-back section everyone is referring to here is the one that occurs around mile 50 or 55, where SN was. BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...every second.

There was another out-and-back around mile 90, but I don't remember it being bad. Nowhere near as bad as the earlier one.

Yes - that is the section that we are replacing with the new course. The special needs spot will change on this new course. Z

At least you could have your pick of everyone's nutrition bottles scattered all over that bumpy road

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Yellowfin Endurance Coaching and Bike Fits
USAT Level 1, USAC Level 3

Ahh, the course has moved quite a bit since I last did the race what feels a lifetime ago. It used to come back on what I think was 388, had a 10 mile stretch that hit you about mile 90 that was rough as hell. Smoother is almost always better.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Hey, it's not totally flat; there's the bridge over the Intracoastal.

It is official! New IM Florida bike course is on the web site!

One year too late. ;-)

So you took out both east/west out-and-backs. This is a good change!

It's been a few years since I did Florida (2010) but looking at the map the course is essentially the same with the exception of moving the out and back from Steelfield Rd. to north on 79. Is that correct?

http://www.ironman.com/...20tbt%20version1.pdf

The removal of the shitty out and back in the middle of the course is the major change.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

And a good change IMO, considering I flatted there last year. :|

I assume they will be added later, but the H2O stations and Special needs are not marked on the map.

Compared to the 2014 course, it appears they made two changes:
1) Removed the out-and-back on the crappy road (Hwy 388 at mile 50 in the new course map)
2) Removed the out-and-back on the way back in (Steelhead Rd, which was around mile 88 on the old course)

The distance was made up by the new out-and-back on the northwest part of the course. That's a very nice smooth road.

Yes, but with the addition of the new miles heading north, we were able to get rid of the other out and back that we had on the "dump" road heading back to the beach. Z

Correct - the aid station locations and special needs location will be added to the map soon. We wanted to get this up right away, for athletes training on the course. Z