This is my race recap for Ironman Florida 2025, my very first full Ironman. I’ll try to add as much details as possible on the conditions of the course, the organization of the race, and how I felt during each leg. I’ll add some details on my nutrition, but for a full break down of that, see my separate post here.

Registration Check-In

I checked in for the race on Friday, the day before, where I also scheduled a race-day tune-up with playtri. The check-in process was incredibly smooth and I got all the swag that comes with a $900 ticket (a bag), as well as everything I needed for race day including bib, timing chip, and transition bags.

This was my first Ironman event that required the use of transition bags provided by them. In previous 70.3’s I’d done, I was able to bring my own transition bag, so this was a bit of an adjustment, but not a big deal and I was able to get everything I needed on race day into the bike transition bag and the run transition bag, and threw a bunch of extra nutrition into the personal needs bags that get dropped off at the halfway point of the bike and run.

Transition bags and my bike were required to be dropped the day before the race, so I headed to transition, found my spot on the bike rack to drop off my bike, and dropped off the transition bags at each of the respective locations.

Morning of Race Day

I woke up at around 4:15 AM, which was around 2 and a half hours before the race start (~6:45-7:00), and had my morning breakfast and caffeine to get the digestion started and make sure I had enough time to go to the bathroom before the start of the race.

I left my Airbnb at around 5:15AM and got to transition at around 5:20ish to get my bike bottles into their holders, setup my bike GPS, and inflate my tires. I put my front tire at around 75psi to just under 80psi, and put my bike tire at around 85psi. According to my very basic research for my tires and weight, that was a good psi to have as having it much higher might increase the risk of a pop if I ran over anything small and sharp. I should probably do a bit more research to make sure I’m not losing valuable watts by having it set to that psi, but it worked just fine for this race.

The temperature was nice and cool, likely in the low 60s Fahrenheit. I brought a sweater with me to wear up until it was time to put on the wetsuit. Went to the bathroom one more time at around 6:20, which was cutting it pretty close to race start so had to kind of rush to the swim start. I threw on my wetsuit, handed my spare clothes to my parents and girlfriend, and pushed my way to the 1hour 10min pace group.

Swim

The water was super calm, despite my worries that the gulf coast winds would make for very rough waters. Athletes were sent out in groups of 3, roughly 5 seconds apart. My goal for the swim was around 1hour 15min based on my pace during practice swims, but I didn’t account for how much the wetsuit would help my pace.

The first lap of the swim I focused on staying calm and going slower than I thought I should be, focusing on my form and keeping the heart rate from spiking too high. The water temperature was perfect, not too warm, not too cold. There wasn’t much collisions with other swimmers, except at the turn buoys since everyone bottlenecks around them. I didn’t feel any current pushing or pulling me when heading out or back, but did feel a slight current (mostly due to noticing my pace slowing down) when at the top of the lap between the 2 turn buoys. To my complete surprise, I finished the first lap in just under 30 minutes (~29:45).

I was feeling really good after that first lap and my heart rate was in a manageable range (~160), so I decided I would try to hit the same pace for the 2nd lap in an attempt to get sub 1 hour on the swim. The 2nd lap was a lot more crowded since their were still people just starting their 1st lap, but that was really only an issue around the turn buoys. Current felt the same the 2nd time around and I managed to get out of the water at 1:00:09. My official swim time to according to the timing chip was 1:04:58, which is way faster than I was expecting. Never doubt the assistance of a wetsuit.

T1

Transition went smoothly, was able to find my transition bag amongst the hundreds of others, made sure I had my nutrition ready and my bike GPS ready to go. T1 time was 3:56 which is about a minute faster than my planned 5 minutes, so can’t complain.

Bike

I was feeling really good coming off the swim and into the bike. I didn’t dry myself off with anything so felt super cold for the first 20-30 minutes against the 65 degree wind, especially my hands, but warmed up pretty quick after that. I was surprisingly hungry coming off the swim and finished my first nutrition bottle in roughly 40 minutes when I was planning on making it last the entire first hour.

Besides rushing that first bottle, which I don’t regret cause I was hungry, every other nutrition bottle was taken in like clock work, finishing them at each hour. I stopped at the halfway aid station to grab nutrition from my personal needs bag, and every other aid station I rode slowly past to grab the water bottles being handed out by volunteers. I made sure to keep my aero bottle constantly filled with water, since that’s what would help with digesting all the carbs I was intaking.

The course itself was really nice overall. Was mostly flat, with the exception of about two 5-7 mile stretches that were a slow incline, but then we would turn around and I could make it up on the decline. There was also 1 stretch of the road that was probably 7ish miles (maybe less) that wasn’t well paved and I was quite bumpy, slowing down my speed a bit. Wind played a small factor on certain stretches, but honestly didn’t slow me down much at all as long as I remained in the aero position.

My goal going into the bike was averaging over 20mph or over 200 watts, whichever came first. I wanted to be conservative to save my legs for the run. I also took the last 30-45 minutes of the bike a lot easier to let my legs recover a bit, which also around the same time that I cut out all carb and water intake to let my stomach digest everything before the run. I’ve had issues with that during training, where if I took in carbs right up until just before the run, my stomach would cramp up bad and I’d have to walk.

I ended up averaging 208 watts at 21.1mph so just what I was looking for. My official bike time was 5:20:09.

T2

The second transition was a little slower than the first, being 5:46, but still pretty good considering the shoe change and making sure I had everything I needed for the upcoming marathon. No issues again finding my transition bag. I made the decision to unzip the top half of my tri suit and tuck it into the bottom half, putting on a running shirt I had in my transition bag. The reason I did this was because of previous training I did, where my stomach felt tight and restricted when running with the top half of the tri suit. I probably need a new trisuit that’s better fitting, but regardless this setup worked well for me.

Run

Coming off the run, my legs felt super good, which wasn’t super surprising because during training, they’ve always felt good the first 2 miles before they realize how much biking they did and they start to deteriorate quick. My plan to combat this late onset leg fatigue was to take it way slower than I wanted to for at least the first 3 miles (around 8:15-8:30 pace) and then re-evaluate before choosing to pick up the pace.

I tried to stick to that plan, but my legs were feeling even better than they had during trainings, and anytime I would try to slow down to a more conservative pace, it honestly felt more fatiguing on the legs. I ended up averaging between 7:30-7:40 pace for the first 3 miles. But then something I didn’t expect happened. I kept hitting that pace. Mile 4, 5, 6, 7 were all around 7:30 pace and I was still feeling really good. And it wasn’t just in my head because I was maintaining a zone 2 heart rate (145bpm).

Because of how good I felt after mile 7, I started doing the math in my head. “If I keep this pace up, based roughly on the my start time, I might actually be able to do a sub-10 hour Ironman!” I started picking up the pace a little more, hitting just under 7:30 pace for the next 2 miles. Then I went back to 7:30 pace for the next 3, stopped at a porta potty to pee, coming into the half marathon mark.

The second half of the run was a little bit tougher. Because of my worry about stomach cramps from digesting carbs, I had only taken in a few sips of water from my running water bottle the entire first half of the run. This left me feeling more fatigued than I would’ve liked, and around mile 14 is when I decided to take my caffeine gel. Mile 14 and 15 were slower, around 8:15 pace, but the caffeine started to kick in and I was able to average 7:40-7:45 pace for miles 16, 17, 18, and 19. This is when the fatigue really started to kick in.

I was still too afraid of taking in carbs and honestly most liquids besides the occasional cup at the aid stations, but this was affecting my energy levels. Miles 20 and 21 were around 8:00 pace, and that’s when the wall hit.

I ended up run/walking pretty much the rest of the way, stopping at every aid station to stuff myself with water, chips, and orange slices to bring my energy levels back up. Mile 22 was 8:43, then it dropped to 10:39 for mile 23, 9:47 for mile 24, and a brutal 11:22 for mile 25.

Around mile 26, I started running alongside another athlete who was on his first lap, and he was a huge help in motivating me, asking me what pace I wanted to hit and pulling me along as I headed toward the finish. Was able to squeeze out a 9:06 for mile 26 as I came down the home stretch.

My legs felt like jelly towards the end and going up the 2 degree incline ramp to the Ironman Arch almost caused both my legs to cramp up on the spot. But we managed to run into the finish, with an official marathon time of 3:34:47 (8:14 average pace), and an official ironman time of 10:09:34!

Post Race Thoughts

Overall, I did way better than I was expecting for my debut full Ironman. I honestly was expecting something closer to 11 hours, but the race conditions were too good not to take advantage of. The temperature, the water conditions, the flat and somewhat windless bike course, and the flat run course allows for some really unexpectedly fast times.

As for improvements to look for in the future:

Swim

Honestly have no notes on the swim, pacing was great, maintained a consistent hear rate, didn’t collide into too many people and had a much faster time than I was expecting. Looking to just replicate this again on my next race.

Bike

I think I nailed nutrition on the bike, especially not taking anything in the last 30 minutes before the run to let everything digest. Honestly, with how I felt coming off the bike into the run, I think I can definitely push the pace on the bike more. I think I can definitely get a sub 5 hour bike split and still feel just as good on the run. If I had known that, I would’ve very likely gone sub 10 hours, but you live and you learn.

Run

I think I was smart to not take any carbs or water in for the first few miles of the run, to avoid any stomach issues. But after those first few miles, I should’ve started taking in my gels, electrolytes and water so I wouldn’t see my energy levels drop towards the 2nd half and especially on those last 6 miles. I think pacing wise, I maybe could’ve played it closer to the game plan and been more conservative in the beginning, but it just felt right and I was able to hold that pace for the first 13 miles. I think nutrition intake is the main take away for the run, and I think I could probably squeeze an average 7:50 pace out of myself on the next race.

Conclusion

Hopefully this post race report was helpful to you for understanding the conditions of Ironman Florida. At the very least its helped me keep track of what went right and wrong, and what I can improve on for the next one. Its a very fast course and I highly recommend it for anyone’s first Ironman. I look forward to reporting on my upcoming races, which will hopefully include a sub 3 hour marathon, a sub 5 hour Ironman 70.3, and eventually a sub 10 hour Ironman!