IRONMAN 70.3 LUXEMBOURG 2025 | RACE RECAP

Here it is — my official race recap of Ironman 70.3 Luxembourg, my second-ever Half Ironman! This one didn’t quite go to plan, but it pushed me harder than any race I’ve done before — and I’m actually prouder of this finish than my first 70.3 in Mallorca.

From the chaos of the swim, to numb feet on the bike, to battling the 28°C heat on the run — this race was all about mental grit, adapting to the unexpected, and showing up even when things felt tough.

Whether you’re training for your first IRONMAN 70.3 or want to see what race day really feels like, I hope this vlog gives you a raw and honest look into the highs, the lows, and everything in between.

Thanks so much for being part of the journey — I hope you enjoy the recap!

Please like and subscribe if you enjoy this video!!
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Hi, welcome back to my channel. Uh, this is Luxembourg race recap vlog. So, if you haven’t already, go and watch my Luxembourg race week vlog. I think it’s a pretty good one, if I may say so myself. And uh, yeah, this is just me recapping the race in hopefully a very short way cuz I want you to to actually finish this video. So, I’m going to get right into it. Um, my overall time for this race was seven hours, three minutes, and 22 seconds. So, this was not my best time. This is my second 70.3. So, my other 70.3 I did was Morer in May and I did that in I think 6 hours, 53 minutes, and maybe 20 seconds or something. So, time wise, Luxembourg time is not as good, but in terms of comparing courses, they’re always different. But when when you see my comparison, this time was not as good. But I am definitely more proud of this race and I feel more worthy of my medal than Morca because my first one I took really easy. This one I really tried to push hard, especially on the swimming bike and it was just the run where everything kind of fell apart for me. But I’ll get into that. So my swim I did in 39 minutes and 50 seconds which was great. I did like eight minutes quicker per 100 meters than Morca. So, I’m really happy with that. I love swimming and I think swimming is such a hard discipline out of the three to actually make an improvement. So, I’m really happy with that new wet suit. Um, I started in the 35minut pen so I got dragged along a lot but then I did start with a huge group of people because I think that’s pretty much like the average kind of time. Uh, so yeah. So, but it was fine. and I I pushed people out the way and I got through. So, it was really good and I enjoyed the swim. It was a lake swim and so really recommend for beginners like really really nice. So, yeah, I started off well with the swim. Came out the water. T1 was 8 minutes and 41 seconds. So, on the long side, but T1 is very big. I think it was like 800 m total from the swim to like the end when I clicked to start the ride. And I didn’t run in T1 once I got off the road to cross from the lake to T1. It’s grass and they put carpet down, but it’s very uneven. I was too scared that I was going to hurt myself if I ran on it. So that’s why it’s quite slow my time there. Um, but yeah, but I was all good after the swim. Uh, somebody like unzips your wets suit on the way out, so it was really easy for me to get my wets suit off, which was great. my bike 3 hours 21 minutes and 12 seconds. So that’s an average of 27.1 km per hour. This is great. Like my time in Morca was like 20 plus minutes um slower than this. So this bike I was really really happy with. Like I pushed hard on this bike and it was rolling compared to New Yorker which just had one hill. Um the first like 35 kilometers was flat and then you started rolling and then the 10 last 10 kilometers were flat. But this course was beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking like what you see and um it’s so nice. There wasn’t I didn’t see a lot of pelatons or like drafting in general in this course um either which was really nice and the referees the aid stations just really really nice um and I really really enjoyed it. And then I think my normalized power was 148 watt compared to I think 134 for Morca. So really good like wattages in terms of what I was able to pull out. And it started to get hot towards the end of the ride. Um the peak temperature was 28 on the day. So it did get a little bit hot but I didn’t really feel that too much on the bike which was good. And I managed to have four out of six gels that I had planned. I wish I had just pushed myself to finish those because it might have helped me going onto the run. So, once I come back from the bike, my T2 was 6 minutes and 39 minutes, which is good. 2 minutes quicker than T1, which is usually like how it goes. It’s always at least 25% quicker. I’d say your T2 T1 cuz it’s just less less faf without the wet suit and everything. Um, but I felt good. I felt good coming on to the to the run. My first K was 620, my second K 625 and then started to settle a bit. But I ended up my time for the half marathon was 2 hours 47 minutes and 2 seconds. So that’s an average of 7 minutes and 56 seconds. For context, 10 minutes of this, which has obviously decreased my minutes per kilometer pace as well. I was standing still talking to my friend who was supporting me um for moral support. Every time I saw her on the laps, I stopped um and I was like, “Don’t let me do this, please. Like, don’t let me sign up for another one.” I just I couldn’t do it. Physically, I felt great. There was really nothing wrong with me. Um, I it was completely mental because I hadn’t finished my nutrition on the bike. I said to myself, I’m gonna bonk. So, I just convinced myself I was going to bonk even though I felt fine. And then it was hot. I’m too hot. I can’t do this. I have to slow down. I can’t maintain this pace. And on and on and on the dialogue went in my head. And the more I convinced myself I wasn’t going to be able to do this run to the best like to the times that I wanted to. I’d aimed between 620 and 640 per minute kilometer pace and on in the end my Garmin which I think paused when I stopped fully it paused. So it was 7:22. So I was off by like literally a full minute of what I ideally wanted to do and what I could have done unfortunately. So, this race was really mental because my swim and my bike were great and I was really on for a good time, but I just convinced myself it wasn’t going to happen. And unfortunately, yeah, it left me with not a time I wanted, but I learned a lot from this. And I think that’s the most important thing you can take away from these kind of races is just what you’re learning from it. And these races are as much of a mental as they are physical. And the mental is really what I need to work on because I’ve had these problems well these mental fallbacks during training during racing obviously just like both and it’s really what I think just stopped me from achieving my best time in Luxembourg last week and I came 77th out of 90 in my age group. I’m in the 25 to 29 age group and overall 2,100 in something, but I wasn’t last. So, yeah, I wasn’t last, so it’s not the worst thing in the world. Um, so yeah, so that’s in brief how my race went. And then side note, after the race, I felt great, all good. Took my flight the next day in the morning, not too early. Um, I had hydrated, I had eaten, like I felt fine. And then Monday evening, I started throwing up and then started having like diarrhea and I was up intermittently throughout the whole night. Then the next day I woke up and I felt so fatigued. I felt so painful, aches and pains all over my body. Could barely like stand up to make it to the toilet. Um, and I then just got to the point in the afternoon where it was just everything hurt and I could barely move and I just wasn’t even able to feel I couldn’t eat anything like it was just all coming up. Even drinking felt like a bit of a struggle. Ultimately, I ended up in the hospital and they put me on an IV drip and they just obviously pumped me full of like ibuprofen, paracetamol, um, electrolytes, you know, all the fun stuff they put in the IV bags and instantly felt better. And what my fiance Miguel thought I had was exactly what I had. And I’ll put the name here because I’ve got no freaking clue how to say it. It’s not very common. Um but it can happen and it is can be due to events like triathlon. Um but your body just basically starts to to break down. It just shuts down and it can lead to kidney failure ultimately and in some very rare cases it can cause death. So, I’m happy that I had someone looking after me. Um, and I got the help that I needed. Then I feel good now. But it has shaken me a little bit and I’ve ultimately decided that I’m not going to do IMAT Barcelona this year. I’ve officially deferred it to next year. Um, I didn’t want to switch it to another race in 2026, but you can’t do that. So if you’re ever in this position, whatever race you sign up to, you can only transfer it to a race in the same calendar year. So if you pick one at the end of the year, you’re stuck because you can’t if you start with the beginning of the year, like if I had done Copenhagen for example in August, I could have moved it to Kashka 12 weeks later. If I had an injury or needed more time, fine. But me, Barcelona, it’s the second to last I can move to Kashka and two weeks later. But that’s not going to do anything for me. So I had to defer it to next year. I was only get 25% refund, which is obviously rubbish when it comes to the amount of money the Iron Man events are. So I am doing Iron Man Barcelona in 2026. And I’m currently looking for a 70.3 race that I’m interested in beforehand um maybe in mid middle of the year of 2026. So that’s where I am now. So, for the rest of the year, I don’t think I’m going to do any racing. But good news for you. You have another year and a half with me at least with Iron Man content. So, it’s good for you guys cuz I might have done Iron Man Barcelona in, you know, 11 weeks and then been like, got nothing else to do YouTube. I’m not going to do it anymore. So, it’s your lucky day that you’re going to see a lot more of me. Um but yeah, so I hope you enjoyed this um this race recap and I really do recommend Luxembourg 70.3 for beginners. Uh there were loads of beginners there and what I do love about triathlon is that all ages, all sizes or like it literally doesn’t matter. Everybody looks so different and everybody’s at different stages and I think it’s such a beginner friendly race and Luxembourgs is a really beautiful country to go and visit anyway. So if you are interested, I hope I have convinced you now to do it. And uh yeah, I hope you continue following my journey. And if you like this video, please like it. And if you want to subscribe, please subscribe. Um and if I get to 100 subscribers, I’ve said that I’m going to buy a proper vlogging camera cuz at the moment I’m just filming this all on my iPhone. So yeah, if you uh fancy subscribing and convincing me to get a vlogging camera, I’d appreciate it. So yeah, thank you for watching this video and I will see you next time.