The swim portion of Ironman Florida begins on the beach behind the Boardwalk Beach Resort in Panama City Beach. The course is a 2.4 mile two-loop swim in the Gulf of Mexico. The first loop heads out about half a mile off shore, turns left for 100 to 200 meters, and then another left turn back toward the beach. Everyone exits the water and does a turnaround on the beach. The second loop begins with a diagonal path back to the first buoy and then repeats the same path as before. At the end of the second loop everyone runs up the beach toward the hotel and on to the transition area. Based on the rules for this race, the water temperature has to be 76.1 degrees or cooler to be wetsuit legal. The last several mornings have had a water temp in the low 70's so it should easily be wetsuit legal. As long as it can stay in the 70's I'll be happy with that. If it drops into the 60's then I'm going to have a harder time adjusting. Another rule for this race is the time cut-off. If anyone doesn't finish the swim portion in less than 2 hours and 20 minutes then they are not allowed to continue in the race. Even taking a cautious and conservative approach to the swim, I don't expect this time cut-off to be an issue. The one issue I have read about recently is the possibility of jellyfish being present in the water. Apparently a few previous years have had them and others have not. I'm not looking forward to getting stung, but at least I'm aware of the possibility rather than it coming as a surprise.
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