Does anyone know when the last one was in the lower 48? Does it happen often?
Do I take from this that no one can recall a non-wetsuit legal Ironman in the lower 48?
or “upper 13” (i.e. IMC)!
Cheers,
Fred.
The Florida Half Iron was not wetsuit legal the year I did it. Not my most impressive swim split. Fresh water, weeds, and no wetsuit.
I doubt it will ever happen in an IMNA race unless there are EXTREME circumstances (that is, the water is 85+ degrees). There are a lot of people who would be scared to swim an IM without a wetsuit, and IMNA will cater to them, even if it means potentially dangerous overheating.
-C
Agreeing with you there. I’d give it about 15% odds for any given year that IMFL will be above the limit, since there have years when it’s only legitimately gotten below 78F when it’s 7-10 days out of the event.
But there’s never going to be a year when they don’t claim to find a 77F somewhere, especially for an ocean swim.