They’re reporting some high levels of red tide in St. Andrews Bay at Panama City. Red tide is a type of algae bloom that tends to kill off fish and shellfish, and cause enough respiratory distress to make humans in the area uncomfortable.
It is safe to swim in local waters during red tide events. But breathing the air while you’re in and around the water can cause wheezing, red eyes, a burning sensation in the lungs, and dry eyes.
Considering how IMFL is mapped out, potential problems aren’t so much from the relatively short swim time, but from the 3+ hours someone will be spending on the nice run course that runs very close and parallel to the beach.
Hopefully, we get some winds that come through and break up the red tide event before race day, but if it doesn’t Claratin and the like are supposed to reduce the symptoms.
We get red tide out here in SoCal sometimes. We had it for a good 2 months in the summer of 2005, and I surf nearly every day and it had no effect on me and most of my fellow surfing buddies, but probably 1 in 10 people I knew would have a reaction to it in the form of stuffed up sinuses, runny nose…basically allergy-like symptoms.
In 1985 (I think that was the year) the Texas State Championship race was changed to a duathlon because of red tide.
We were lead to believe that it was serious enough to warrant canceling the swim. There were tons of dead fish along the beach in Corpus Christi so swimming in the bay was not something anyone relished.
We got red tide blooms a couple of times in the days when we lived less than 100 yards from the Gulf. For the most part, no big deal, but there were always a couple of days when running ended up being unpleasant for both me and the sherpa because of the lung wheeze factor.
The bloom is offshore, so it is not too big a deal. Now the dead fish “chum” washing ashore and what it attracts…could be another story. I’m doing a sprint on Saturday…I’ll let you know.
Interesting, thanks for the info. Is it very likely to stay around until race day? It seems to me that three weeks is an awfully long time for something like that.
It’ll be long gone by the time IMFL arrives, as the water temp will be 15 degrees cooler and a couple of cold fronts will have churned things up pretty well. It’s an advertising selling, none news worthy story, kind of like the weather channel grasping onto a 40 MPH windstorm classified as a tropical depression with Jim Lantori or whatever his name is, standing in front of a misting fan on high speed in a “Columbia” jacket with a Palm tree in the background.
It’ll be long gone by the time IMFL arrives, as the water temp will be 15 degrees cooler and a couple of cold fronts will have churned things up pretty well. It’s an advertising selling, none news worthy story, kind of like the weather channel grasping onto a 40 MPH windstorm classified as a tropical depression with Jim Lantori or whatever his name is, standing in front of a misting fan on high speed in a “Columbia” jacket with a Palm tree in the background.
I rode the course tuesday with a friend and we both had coughing bouts near the end of the ride. Neither of us could figure out what caused it but have been red tide fumes, which I’ve experienced before in south florida. But it should be gone. It’s was about 15 degrees cooler last night.
I rode the course last Friday, I didn’t experience any coughing or wheezing issues.
Regarding the roads, there is a small amount of construction going on at the bridge over the intracoastal waterway, but it wasn’t an issue going out or coming back on a friday morning. The rest of the road between the beach and the bridge was clean. They even started building a bike only path leading away from the beach, which I got suckered into taking, only to find out that it dead-ended about a mile and a half up the road, so I had to jump back onto the shoulder.
The 20 was nice and smooth the whole way. The 231 was also clean and smooth, but for a short section through town, the shoulder dissappears and it gets a little tight. I actually slid into the gutter as a truck passed me and put a nice sidewall puncture in my front tire that I had to boot with a dollar bill. Luckily it held up for the next ~55 miles
Camp Flowers was awfully bumpy, cracks in the road every 10-15 feet it seemed like. Same with the out and back portion of the 388. Also, so many damn dump trucks on those roads get real annoying. Otherwise, no complaints, it was a great ride and huge confidence builder going into the race. Also cool to occasionally spot one of the faded “IRONMAN” mile markers on the pavement along the bike route. The markers seemed 6 miles off until I finished the out and back on the 388, then they aligned with my computer (I’m guessing that they changed the out and back portion of the course at some point recently?)
388 has been rough for years I’ve been doing gulf coast tri since 1996 always been rough.
sometimes we get some patch work pre race that helps.
Imf every year except last year… Some patching over the last few years but 388 will be rough…
Gulf coast says they may have to alter bike course due to construction next may wonder if that will affect florida
As for as red tide I think almost every year talk of red tide comes about this time so nothing new.
Seems to be jelly fish ever other year as well. But they scatter once the swim starts…
water temps dropped to 78 79 today were 81 82 last week so thats postive(monitor on pier just up from swim start).
Of course daylight savings time is extended extra week this year so what used to be 6:00 am is 7:00 now sunrise is like 7:06
not sure but think civil twighlight is 6:50 or so… Earlier for sure(Share bait? big mako I heard caught over near destin this week).
Oh well just got to make sure not last or first(not going to happen) swimmer.
Good news is extra hour of daylight so sub 11 you can finish just before dark this year and earlier start could mean wind shift later part of bike will be later which could be good under normal weather patterns…
I just did a tri there this past weekend and the red tide is mild at best. My throat was sore/burning until late into the afternoon, but that was about it.
Also be super careful riding your bike pre race, this following accident happened right in front of the Boardwalk, the host for IM Fla. The hit and run happened just before the race I did on Saturday, about two blocks away: http://www.newsherald.com/headlines/article.display.php?a=3914
Thanks for the input!
Does the red tide tend to be less of a problem as the water temp drops? Is there anything that we can do to relieve the iritation if this is a problem?
I don’t think there is anything to do to prevent the effects from it. But like I said, it was very mild. Some people that did the race didn’t notice it at all. I would not worry about it. Keep your worring to normal stuff like your taper and what to put in the special needs bag
