30/05/2026
A huge thank you from us all at Pembrokeshire Triathlon Club to Karen Wood and her husband Julian for kindly donating €360 to the club following their volunteering at Ironman Westfriesland. 💚
Karen has written this lovely report about their experience:
In June 2025, at the end of a 3-month road trip across (mostly Northern) Europe covering over 8,000 Miles, 16 Countries, exploring connection, culture, and community, we finished in the best possible way, volunteering at Ironman Westfriesland, a special place we have stayed at and raced previously.
Having taken part in triathlon events over the years, including Ironman races, we decided it was time to bring our volunteering experience into the Ironman world and volunteered together at Ironman Westfriesland.
What was supposed to be “just half a day helping out” somehow turned into four full days on-site, proof that once Ironman gets hold of you, there’s no escape! Despite the long hours (and very sore feet), it was an incredibly rewarding, inspiring and genuinely fun experience.
We had the chance to work alongside an amazing local volunteer crew and see first-hand the huge effort that goes into making an event like this happen. Race day itself was brilliant, cheering athletes on, sharing in their emotions as they crossed the line, and even helping hand out medals to some very exhausted and wet (they were hosed at the finish 🙃) finishers.
As part of the volunteer programme, Ironman made a donation of €360, which we were delighted to direct to Pembs Tri Club. Considering we mainly survived the weekend on coffee, snacks, and adrenaline it feels nice that something positive also came back to support the club!
Our volunteering this year, which started with the awesome Outlaw team in Nottingham, will include France, the Netherlands (with Dutch friends we have made), Tenby, Nottingham (which has become a regular fixture!), and a couple of completely new events, venues and experiences for us too.
We would absolutely encourage anyone to give volunteering a go if they get the chance, home or away, short or long. You’ll come away tired, inspired, and probably wondering how you accidentally signed up for four days instead of one.
May see some of you out there somewhere!
Julian, Karen and Skip
