I’ll be doing Ironman Florida this November. This is my first time doing IM Florida. In fact, this will be my first time in the state of Florida.
Any prior participants have any insights to share?
2 loop Swim can rock and roll you all over the place. Short run on beach before second loop shooting diagonal to the buoys. Can be jelly fish and sharks. Sharks won’t bother you but the jellies are mean little shits. Air temp can be 40°, can be 90°. Most likely will be windy. Yes, run a disk. Wind is worse between condos. Bike will be mostly/all aero, yes marshals, yep draft packs, a couple hills around mile 80 before a long straight road back in. 2 loop run is windy through neighborhoods with police stopping traffic, lots of aid stations, Base Performance in the State Park turn around. Crowds are great. Sunset is beautiful. You are an Ironman.
timr is accurate. I have done it four times and the old Gulfcoast maybe 8 times. You never really know what the water will be like until race morning. It can be smooth all week and then suddenly get very rough. There are two types of jellyfish- softballs and stingers. Softballs are annoying but do not sting. They just bounce off you. The ones that sting can really mess up your day. It is usually one or the other, not both. Be prepared to dive through waves, just in case. I have had back problems on the bike because it is a relatively flat course and you are sitting in the same position for hours. Work on your core. Stretch periodically while riding. Hydrate, you are probably sweating more than you think. Let the volunteers put sunscreen on you in transition. If your top and bottoms are not one piece, ask them to put some on your lower back. The wind is usually pretty strong. It will always be a headwind. At no time will you have a tail wind. The run is flat and hot. Really hot.
In fact, this will be my first time in the state of Florida.
Don’t judge the state of Florida off of PCB. Real Florida doesn’t start until you get south of I-4.
are the jellyfish really that bad? Seems like every race report i’ve read, that person got stung during the swim.
are the jellyfish really that bad? Seems like every race report i’ve read, that person got stung during the swim.
While I’ve known people to get stung, I find the jellyfish talk a bit overblown. I raced IMFL in 2014 and 2017. In 2014, while the swim was canceled on race day (only time in race’s history), I did a practice swim on Thursday and only saw a few of the big cannonball jellyfish which are harmless, and most of those were a few feet deep so you pass right over them. In 2017, I didn’t see a single jellyfish in either the practice swim or on race day.
As a terrible non-wetsuit swimmer (a.k.a. terrible swimmer) how nervous should I be about the swim portion of this event? According to this the water temperature in PCB is currently sitting around 86 degrees F
The threat of jellyfish is real with several people reporting getting stung by them two years ago. I saw quite a few the day before and during the swim. Water temp today per NOAA is 83.3. It is going to cool off in PCB this weekend. At some point, you will probably get a headwind on the bike that could be small or large.
are the jellyfish really that bad? Seems like every race report i’ve read, that person got stung during the swim.
Never saw a single jellyfish in 2013 either in practice swim Friday or race Saturday.