Ironman Switzerland 2025 – Race Report
29 August 2025
Ironman Switzerland 2025 – Race Report by Julian Stopps
To celebrate turning 50 I made the questionable decision to return to Ironman racing, I really wanted the kids to experience a full Ironman, so picked a race we could attend as a family (and bolt onto a holiday). I’ll warn you now, this is going to be a long report – if you are looking for a one-line summary it’s “I finished, I loved it, I suffered”, for those willing to endure, get a cuppa and buckle up, this is the Ironman Switzerland 2025 race report…
The Venue
The race takes place in the picturesque town of Thun, which sits on the shores of Lake Thunersee and is a great venue. Like many Ironman venues, the town really gets into the event, the local support is excellent. The Ironman team, fresh from Kalmar and Copenhagen, runs like a well-oiled machine, the event experience was faultless. Thun itself is worth a visit even if you are not racing, the mountain views are amazing, the lake perfect for water sports, the whole town is very easy to navigate and is bike friendly.
The Build Up & Taper
I’d had perhaps my best ever build into this race, lucky to work and holiday in Italy and finalise my prep – including hill-climbing on the bike and lake swimming. I was preparing myself for a hot race (which turned out unnecessary). The taper was difficult, the body not happy with the reduced training load, but I knew from experience this was a good sign.
Race Morning
Up at 3am, a modest breakfast and out the door for 4am. Ironman ran a park and ride system Friday to Sunday, which involved jumping on a bus at 4:30am and a quick 15-minute trip to the race venue. Into transition and what seemed like ages getting tyres pumped up, nutrition in place etc.
The Swim
Lake Thunersee is nestled in the mountains and race day had clear skies with every snow-capped mountain on show. Throughout August the lake had been 24c and risked a non-wet suit swim for the first time ever. However, a big storm on the Thursday brought a ‘melt’ from the mountains and the lake temperature plummeted, 20c Saturday, but race morning it had hit 17.3c: wet suits compulsory, neoprene hats and boots allowed, sleeveless wetsuits banned. As a UK sea swimmer, I didn’t expect this to be an issue, but it was a shock. Oddly my hamstrings kept cramping with the cold, which has never happened before.
Despite Ironman releasing us into the water in lines, there was no real delay between athletes, so the first 500 meters was carnage. I’d been practising swim sprints with the girls all summer so pushed hard (for me) to get some clear water and then settled into my usual 2min/100 pace, hoping the cold wouldn’t bite too deep.
My aim for the swim was to finish it with minimal “drain on the battery”, sight well and keep as straight a line as possible; the great views were visible on every breathing stroke. It was quite boisterous; my swim group had a lot of first-timers (purple hats) and they seemed to take the “physical side” of an Ironman swim to heart (more through inexperience than anything else). I didn’t mind this, as a slower but stronger swimmer I felt I could “own my line” without too many issues; as we filtered back to shore through the marina area it got very physical again, due to the narrowing of the route.
Out the swim in 1:25:07, pretty much exactly what I expected and hoped for, and feeling refreshed but a little cold.
T1
Transition was slow; everyone was complaining about the cold, it was 10c and after the swim hands just didn’t work. I helped one chap put on his helmet and another guy and I struggled to get gloves on.
A 11:46 T1 was slow, perhaps I should have had the soup from the marshals!
The Bike
This is, without doubt, the most amazing bike course. It has absolutely everything (except perhaps flat sections); the views are stunning, the road surface perfect; it has ups, it has downs, it has slow bits and fast bits – you are concentrating 100% of the time. There’s a good reason this course has been voted the best Ironman Bike Course year after year, it is fantastic.
Oddly, and I know this will sound strange for a bike course with 2,200 meters of climbing, but it is not nearly as hilly as I expected; it’s more gradual ascents than “big climbs”, which made it far less taxing. Pro Joe Skipper calls this a “punchy route” and that’s a really good description, it suited all rider types not just climbers. The descents are super fun and super fast, I used the ez gains disc wheel cover for the first time in a race (nod to Will Grace) and it gave lots of speed on the fast sections.
It’s a two-lap course and I was excited to see the girls at the end of lap one in three hours, well above my expected race pace and well within my planned effort. I used an aid station around 120k and the marshal support was outstanding, one gent held my bike, another ran back and forth asking what I wanted, followed by a proper “Tour de France” push to get me going again – fun!
I pushed on with lap two and everything was on track, then I took a gel and half of it pretty much “came straight back up” and my stomach started cramping – hmmm, that wasn’t in the plan. I’d practised my nutrition carefully leading into the race, I knew exactly the carbs and fluid my body could handle (90g/750ml per hour), so this was a surprise. For 30 minutes I tried to fuel, but my stomach would cramp, so I accepted I’d have to abstain from food or drink until the run. With an hour and a half of riding left and it warming to 28c, I knew this was going to come back and bite me.
Off the bike with a time of 6:16:05 I was well chuffed; I’d beaten by expected time by well over half an hour and felt pretty good.
T2
Another slow transition due to a prolonged toilet visit, in hindsight this was an early indication of dehydration. A few quad cramps putting the shoes on and I realised I might be low on salts, so took a salt tablet (nod to Lin Roberts’ advice from 10 years ago!).
T2 done in 9:14, slow but all boxes ticked.
The Run
My run plan was that I wasn’t running a marathon, I was doing 4 x 10k and “a bit”. I planned to take the first 10k at an easy pace (6min kms), assess and see how the second 10k felt at nearer race pace. I’d trained for this and knew my run legs were good, despite the hard bike my legs felt fresh.
The first challenge was getting some fluid and gels in, try as I might, the stomach cramps remained, and I faced the fact I was in for a hard low-energy run. The second challenge was holding the body back; I run with a power meter and aimed to hold 210w. I did this, but the splits were far too quick, it took 5k to get on-pace. I ticked the first 10k of in 57 minutes and, despite the inability to take on fluid, thought I might get away with it – no such luck! After lap one the inevitable started, the impact of low fluid hit, I quickly tried to hydrate but could only drink if I walked – the splits tumbled. At the end lap two I was a shell of the triathlete that had started the race, the support of the girls at this stage was all that kept me going. I can’t overstate how important it is to have this support in these races, it’s what makes the difference between a DNF and a SBF (suffered but finished).
They’d been clear in the race briefing about avoiding medical incidents (“there’s always another race, there’s only one you”); if you looked sick they’d pull you from the race. At 28k I crawled to a stop. I took on as much fluid as I could and headed to the “fast athletics track segment”. Barely moving, I spotted some shade next to a high jump crash mat and lay out starfish-style (I didn’t do a high jump).
Several athletes asked if I was ok, I gave a thumbs up and hoped there were no officials around. I needed a plan, I’d come here to finish an Ironman and show the girls what this event was all about, from the highest highs to the lowest lows, I needed to find a way through the last lap. What I came up with was the “orange cola solution” (I’m trademarking that!).
After a few minutes I rolled over and dragged myself up, only to see two marshals on the edge of the track sitting watching me, I gave them a thumbs up and got moving as best I could, aware the next aid station was about 2k. The girls met me half a km later and tried to encourage me, I was beyond faking I was ok – they got to see what an Ironman can do to you. At the next aid station I had as many orange segments as I could and hit the coke, I just threw fluids in. I walked 2km to the next station and did the same again, slowly the body started to wake back up.
I timed how long it took after drinking for my stomach to settle and decided I needed to switch to a 2 min walk, 2 min run strategy – and just like that I was moving again! Physically, the legs could easily hold a 5:40/km pace for 2 mins, then the stomach would cramp; my splits settled to 7min/km, more importantly I was lucid and gaining energy. I enjoyed the commentator’s third rendition of “happy birthday Julian” running through the town – I’ve no idea why, it wasn’t my birthday – the crowd seemed to enjoy it though 😊
Hitting the red carpet was amazing, the support from the town was vocal and enthusiastic for the whole run course but extra special here. I stopped for a kiss from the girls who’d found a great spot at the finish line and then soaked up the “You are an Ironman (again)” experience.
What a race!
Run finished in 5:14:50, well beyond my hoped for 4:30 but with a total race time of 13:17:02, well within the 14 hours I’d put in Training Peaks and the 13:30 I had personally hoped for.
The Aftermath
I wasn’t in great shape after the race, the dizziness and sickness hit again and I was proper sick. Ironman didn’t mess around so I had to do a medical tent visit to show I was ok and didn’t need an IV. I was forced to lay on a stretcher, which the girls found hilarious.
Summary
Ironman Switzerland was an amazing race, it had everything, I enjoyed the highest highs and the lowest lows, I don’t think I would have got through that run without the girls there supporting me. I left a bit of myself on that race course, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing – we race these races to find experiences you can’t find anywhere else, to “meet triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same” to be an Ironman 😊