{"id":802001,"date":"2026-05-17T03:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/802001\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T03:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:30:17","slug":"jacksonville-hosts-first-full-ironman-triathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/802001\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville hosts first full Ironman triathlon"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Nearly 2,000 athletes took on Jacksonville\u2019s first full Ironman triathlon Saturday, pushing through scorching heat and a grueling 140.6-mile course that tested even the most seasoned competitors.<\/p>\n

Pedro Gomes of Scottsdale, Arizona, crossed the finish line first with a time of 8 hours, 30 minutes and 41 seconds. <\/p>\n

Jennifer Sylva of Jacksonville was the first woman to finish, with a total time of 9 hours, 42 minutes, and 14 seconds.<\/p>\n

A course that demanded everything<\/p>\n

The race covered three legs: a 2.4-mile swim in the St. Johns River, a 112-mile bike ride making two loops through Duval County and St. Johns County, and a 26.2-mile marathon to close it out, covering three loops through downtown and Riverside.<\/p>\n

Athletes described the conditions as unforgiving. \u201cI felt like it was really, really hot,\u201d one competitor said. \u201cIt started getting really, really hot in the middle of the bike. It was windy. The finish line never came close. It felt like it was never ending. So it really plays mind games with you. But yeah, it was challenging. It was a lot slower than I thought it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years of preparation for a landmark event<\/p>\n

Jacksonville\u2019s ability to host an event of this scale has been years in the making. Saturday marked the city\u2019s first time welcoming a full Ironman \u2014 a milestone that officials say required extensive planning and coordination.<\/p>\n

The city has secured the event for at least two more years.<\/p>\n

Traffic snarls draw biggest complaints<\/p>\n

The loudest criticism of the weekend centered on traffic. Road closures created hours-long backups for residents across both Duval and St. Johns counties.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan acknowledged the frustration and said she plans to address the traffic concerns after gathering feedback from athletes, Ironman organizers, and community members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wait to get the reviews from the actual athletes, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m waiting to hear,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cAll we\u2019ve heard so far is really positive stuff, but I want to get all the feedback and then we\u2019ll see, but so far it seems like it\u2019s going very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor defended the disruption as a worthwhile tradeoff. \u201cI know some people have been a little upset about some of the traffic issues, but as I always say to them, events like this are always going to be a little disruptive for one day, but the return on the investment we get for that is tremendous,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll try our best to make sure we\u2019re communicating, but I think that one day of disruption is so worth what we get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Nearly 2,000 athletes took on Jacksonville\u2019s first full Ironman triathlon Saturday, pushing through scorching heat…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":801880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,182481,7310,14638,144128,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-802001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-duval-county","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-ironman","tag-jacksonville","tag-st-johns-county","tag-triathlon","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}