PANAMA CITY, Fla. Saturday marks the return of the Visit Panama City Beach Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast triathlon.

This event more than four decades in the running, and once again it is expected to host well over 1,500 competitors.

Thursday registration opening up and the Edgewater Beach Conference Center, which is the host headquarters once again, a very busy place.

Athletes from all across the country and the world converging to sign up. And on the way in and out can do a little sport-specific shopping.

The man in charge of overseeing the race once again is Ben Rausa and we caught up with him during registration early Thursday afternoon. “We’re here at the first day of registration, the 43rd year of the Visit Panama City Beach Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast race.” Ben said. “Very excited to have everybody, welcome everybody to town again. Typically we’ll have more than 45 states represented. We have 18-hundred athletes that will be racing on Saturday. And everybody’s ready. I haven’t tracked the numbers down specifically, but yes a lot of countries are represented throughout our event. ” Ben adding this year’s race will not feature any professionals, so it’s all about the age groupers, many of whom are beginners since the course lends itself to first time racers in this distance. ”It’s relatively a flat surface, bike and run. The ocean swim, or the Gulf swim is definitely different, a little more challenging for them if they’re coming from our local five state areas. The Alabamas and that. Really excited to be dedicated to our age group athletes and the average person just coming out here to prove to themselves what they can get done in one day.”