Did anyone do this race? It sounds like there was a lot of bad weather, with the swim canceled.
Two friends did it, said the wind and the rain was the worst they had ever experienced. Both finished well before they suspended the race, though. My wife was down there for vacation that week, said the storms were bad / going to be bad, and based on the texts I was getting for beach conditions every morning (automated from Walton County) I knew it’d be cancelled.
One was trying to qualify for Marbella, but with the swim cancelled and a high bib number didn’t have the advantage of a good bike group to roll with.
Sounds awful. Glad your friends finished but bummer about trying to qualify.
I know some folks who went down. It was their third attempt to do a 70.3 and all three races have had weather issues (Augusta 2024, Galveston 2025, GC 2025).
Woof, that’s brutal luck on weather for three races… were they able to finish before the suspension?
There’s still a chance. Four slots in his AG, needs to roll 11 spots. “So you’re telling me there’s a chance”.
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They did finish before the suspension. But two of them have yet to do a swim in a 70.3.
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The swim was canceled in 2022, but the weather was nice. The swim should have been canceled in 2023, but there was a film crew there for the pro race, so they were much less willing to cancel it. That one was brutal. They’ll have to do something about this for long term. I love the rest of the course.
I agree that hey need to do something about this race. Find a better date with more predictable swim.
The summer weather down there is pretty predictable. Fine mornings, afternoon showers. Just have to wait a few more weeks. Could possibly look at moving it into the bay, but why swim in a bay when the Gulf is right there, and you’re calling it Gulf Coast. Moving it earlier, or wayyyyy later in the year may be the better play.
If they move it closer to the summer they’re getting into hurricane season, as well as the fact that every single hotel and short term rental is going to be booked for summer vacation. Oh, and it’s hot as all get out.
No, no no… Ironman please don’t listen to this horrible, horrible request.
This race has been going on successfully for what 40 years. Part of the fun of this race is the unpredictability of the swim. It may get canceled it, it may be choppy, it maybe smooth as ice. There are plenty of races with downriver or lake swims for those that want higher predictability. Moving it deeper into the summer puts into an already highly crowded NA 70.3 race schedule.
They already messed around with Steelhead (a fantastic legacy race) because people complained about the unpredictability of Lake Michigan swim. That led to its decline and eventual cancellation.
The Gulf fought back this year, doesn’t make it a bad thing.
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Yeah, makes total sense. 
Unpredictable swim that gets (or should get) cancelled every other year really helps them bring in registrations. It’s not smart business decision making when 1/3 of the race turns into an annual crapshoot. They have to address it.
Is that race suffering for registrations? Seems like it’s been doing fine for 40 years and swims have been hit or miss for at least 10 years. I get swim cancellations are frustrating but moving it to later in the year isnt a good business decision, unless 1 or 2 weeks would really make the difference in the gulf being more predictable.
Here is the NA race calendar, which weekend would you move it to:
Chatt May 18
Victoria May 25
Start of Hurricane season June 1
Mass June 8
Eagleman June 8
Des Moines June 8
Boulder June 14
Penn June 15
Illinois June 22
CdA June 22
I get that my enjoyment of non-homogenized races is personal and not a serious business driver. The main issue with moving is it reduces the chances of doing 2 early season 70.3s in NA. By having it in early May it’s still possible to recover and race again in one of the races above. Shrinking the chance of people racing multiple times is bad for business. Now if they open up more early races in May and move it cool that could work.
When would you move it to?
I like the date where it is but open to other options if it makes sense. I would be irritated if I drove 9 hours and the swim got cancelled. But it’s out of our control so life goes on.
I would like to bring 70.3 FL back to March/April timeframe.
It’s PCB and they’d inevitably find bed space somehow, but every one of those dates + any in July, except Chatt on May 18th would be up against TN, GA, AL summer breaks. Not to mention a lot of other states, but Nashville, Atlanta, and Birmingham send a lot of people to the Gulf coast every summer. It gets infinitely harder to make the race happen in the summer.
It’s anecdotal evidence, but I’ve been going to those beaches my whole life and as the area has gotten more and more popular, it’s taken less and less “dangerous” surf to bring out red or double red flags. It pretty much has to be still as a pond for it to be a green. So what I’m saying is, that swim may have gone on 10 or 15 years ago.
I like the date too but that early May swim has become too much of a wildcard. It’s going to hurt business. I don’t have a good answer about when to move it but they need to consider other options, IMO.
The December date for the FL 70.3 is also stupid. The race was in May when it was still at Disney. It was hot as balls then. An April or May date in Haines City makes more sense but not when Gulf Coast is on the May calendar.
If they got desperate due to dwindling numbers they could move Haines City to May and GC to November. They could then make it a GC weekend (Full+70.3) like they did with Wisconsin. Either run them on the same day or Sat/Sun. Personally I don’t want that because I like to race all three and i really prefer the bike and run of GC to kick of the season. But it wouldn’t be the worst especially if there were a risk to just outright canceling GC 70.3.
I was disappointed when they moved Haines City to Dec so I’d be good with an April PCB date.
February too early?
The potential for cold weather probably too high.
According to the tracker (my best source), they had half of last year’s registration. Last year the weather was good and the swim happened, but it may be in need of a shake-up of some type.
2022 - 1649
2023 - 1257
2024 - 1523
2025 - 788
My wife and kids like a vacation at that time of year, so the only logical choice is to go to a destination for a 70.3 (of which they totally agree). So i would not necessarily suggest a date change, bc a vacation for Mothers Day is an extremely helpful excuse. However, after 3 years of the course, i could do that 3 lap run course blindfolded. Even an altered shape for the swim course would help.
Those are only finishers there were x2 that starters and even more registered who DNS due to predicted weather and swim cancellation.
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