I have to sneak this important thing in first: Parking near the main venue is very scarce. I highly recommend finding accommodations within a mile or so from there. Think about getting your bike and all your stuff back after the race! Just a thought.
Okay, I got here on Monday and the weather was perfect. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday showed us all different kinds of weather: Temps from the 40’s to the 80’s, humidity from dry to 100%, rain, wind, and sun (just in this week!). Although Saturday was predicted to be quite good racing weather, clearly the weather here can and does change rapidly. This was my second full Ironman here. The first one had a cancelled swim due to offshore storm and unsafe conditions, the bike was started in 30’s temperatures and gusty winds. So if you have any preconceived notions that because this is Florida the weather will be perfect, you better think again. That’s all I’m gonna say about weather except we really did have nearly ideal conditions this year. Just that wind, it seemed like we had 80 miles of headwind, I don’t know why.
Okay, the swim course:
The water temperature at the beginning of the week was 76° and it was shaping up to be a non-wetsuit legal swim. By the end of the week the water temperature dropped 6°! If I do this race again, I’ll probably bring a sleeveless wetsuit. The water is clear and clean. The course is two loops with a short sandy run between each loop. It’s a wave start of course. The only creatures I saw out there were swimmers and jellyfish. I only saw about five or ten jellyfish. They seemed to be about 5 feet below the surface, I even touched one with my hand during the pull stroke. But they are either of the non-stinging variety or I got lucky because I felt nothing.
Transition is only a couple hundred yards from the beach, chaotic but organized, if that makes sense.
The bike course:
The swim was really quite nice, but the bike course shines. It starts out in the city and take you along the coast then it turns inland and meanders through the countryside. Mostly flat, there are some rolling hills. But it is only something like 1900 feet of climbing on the bike. Anyhow, the road surface is in pretty good condition over a vast majority of the ride. Once you leave the protection of the countryside, around mile 40 or so, you get exposed to the wind. It gradually builds to a nuisance, if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky it might suck the life out of you. Around mile 68 you finally turn around and head back to town with a lovely tailwind. But don’t get too excited because that tailwind soon turns into a sidewind. Strange as this sounds, I honestly think there was about 70% headwind and sidewind, 15% downwind, and 15% no wind. Transition was more controlled chaos.
The run course:
The run course is two out-and-backs. You start out along the coast and then meander through the neighborhood, and head toward a park at the end. You only spend about a mile on the park trail before you turn around and head the same way back. I would say the surface conditions of the run course are average: there are some curbs, ruts, and potholes. But let us not forget that they are still recovering from a recent major hurricane. Did I mention the weather here?
The Finish:
Well, the finish is every bit as spectacular as an Ironman should be, it never disappoints!
Would I do this race again? It is one of maybe two (out of the ten) I’ve done that I absolutely would do again: I love ocean swimming, I love the bike course, wind and all. And the run course is also “fun” (><)
It’s a fantastic location for couples or families (or solo, like me!), with plenty of food options, grocery, and a gazillion miles of the cleanest, softest, white sand beaches you could ever imagine.
Aloha y’all.
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