{"id":802121,"date":"2026-05-17T04:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T04:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/802121\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T04:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T04:45:15","slug":"volunteers-help-keep-first-ever-ironman-jacksonville-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/802121\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers help keep first-ever IRONMAN Jacksonville moving"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 As athletes continued racing Saturday in Jacksonville\u2019s first IRONMAN triathlon, volunteers from across the region stepped in to keep the inaugural event running \u2014 directing traffic, shuttling spectators, and helping finishers in the final stretch.<\/p>\n

Organizers registered nearly 2,000 athletes for the long-distance triathlon, which includes a swim, bike ride and run, all to be completed within a 17-hour time limit.<\/p>\n

Volunteers filled a wide range of roles, from transportation and food service to greeting guests and assisting athletes to and from the finish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people showed out and we\u2019re taking them back and forth, so it\u2019s been a good interaction for everybody,\u201d said Jelani Osborne, a volunteer with EZ Event Ride, describing shuttle operations moving people around downtown.<\/p>\n

Others said they volunteered to support friends and family competing in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my dearest friends, Amy Hill, is competing in the IRONMAN, so we came down to support her,\u201d said Laurel Brown, who traveled from South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Brown said her volunteer duties put her right at the finish area, helping athletes as they completed the grueling final miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we help take their chip off,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThere is a chip on their left leg that has been tracking them the whole day. We take that off and give them their medal and their swag and tell them well done and make sure they can walk in a straight line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some volunteers said they\u2019ve competed in IRONMAN events themselves and wanted to give back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done one IRONMAN and four half marathons, so this was special because you want to pay it forward,\u201d said Carlos Irene, who volunteered alongside Martha Irene. \u201cAnd I couldn\u2019t do this unfortunately, so I decided to volunteer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The triathlon brought significant road closures and heavier traffic downtown, but volunteers and law enforcement helped manage congestion near the course and key intersections.<\/p>\n

Osborne called the traffic challenges \u201cgrowing pains\u201d for a first-time event, adding he expects \u201ca lot of lessons learned\u201d that could make the race even smoother in future years.<\/p>\n

IRONMAN\u2019s schedule included an early morning swim start at Metropolitan Park, with the finish line area operating downtown through the evening as athletes continued to cross.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 As athletes continued racing Saturday in Jacksonville\u2019s first IRONMAN triathlon, volunteers from across the region…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":802122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,182481,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-802121","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-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116588100109933841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802121","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=802121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}