"Every year, I do a thing that scares me": Ryan tries his first Ironman – with help from Magnesium+ Advanced

“Every year, I like to do a thing that scares me – something that's way out of my comfort zone,” says Ryan Mulholland, a Magnesium+ Advanced subscriber and member of the Cambridge Fairweather Collective, a cycling community that shares our passion for staying active. 

For Ryan, 32, this includes regularly taking the plunge into new hobbies, from learning white-collar boxing to racing motorbikes. In 2026, it was the Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Provence – a 1.9-kilometre swim in a lake by the mountains, followed by an epic 87-kilometre cycle ride with over 1,100 metres of elevation, followed by a gruelling 21-kilometre run through the centre of a very hot Aix-en-Provence. Ryan shares his experience, from start to finish line:

I was in a pub having a deep conversation with a friend about missed opportunities in life.

He was saying, “I'd love to say I've done Ironman, but I know I can't.” So we started looking online, and I just booked a ticket right there. I was like: "Right, I'm in – now you do it.” We spent the next year training together. I've always been impulsive, but I normally follow through on what I say I'm going to do.

I learned to swim for triathlons.

I didn’t know how to swim and started from scratch, and that's been transformative. I’ve got kids on the way, so it’s nice to know that we’ll all be able to go out for a swim together, because dads can swim, right? I can now swim a long distance without getting in a panic.

We had the worst start to an Ironman, ever.

It started super early, and we completely misjudged it. We just brought our wetsuits, and it was freezing. The sun hadn't come up, and we were shivering in the dark, waiting to start. The sun eventually broke above the mountains, and then we were jumping into an ice-cold lake.

The swim in Ironman is very tough. It's like being in a buffalo herd.

There's a lot of touchy-feely, and elbowy-kicky as well. It's very rough, and there are just no manners. Occasionally you see someone get swum over or half-drowned. You just survive the swim. I was grateful to have it behind me and jump on the bike.

Cycling is purely what your legs can do – the bike makes little difference.

I'm not a great swimmer but I love cycling. I don't go up hills very quickly, but in a straight line on the flats I can hold a good speed. Because I'd had such a slow swim, I started off with a lot of slower cyclists and managed to overtake about 1,000 people in the next 87 kilometres, which was an amazing confidence boost.

France is a cycling country, so everyone’s "Allez, allez, allez!"

There are a lot of down-hills with big speed bumps at the bottom that you can bunny-hop over for the crowds, which is always a people-pleaser. I went into the barrier a couple of times, overcooking some hairpins, but it didn't seem to slow me down. I did the bike course in about two hours, 50 minutes. At the end, you see the results, so you know you're up there in the top 20, who are all paid professionals. That’s a good feeling, on a bike that cost just a few hundred pounds on eBay.

I started the run with a really bad stitch, which I didn’t know how to fix.

Everything hurt. It hurt to walk, hurt to stand, hurt to run faster. I was just in a glass cage of emotions, with nowhere to go. Fortunately, the Ironman food stations are well stocked with fruit, and watermelon and pineapple turned out to be the solution. I got back to my normal running speed about halfway through.

As soon as I crossed the line, I realised I wasn’t finished here.

My friend from the Fairweather Collective overtook me in the last 100 metres and officially beat me by a number of seconds, which I'm not bitter about, it's completely fine. But our target was to finish in under six hours, and both of us were less than a minute over. I finished in six hours and 55 seconds. So that's annoying, because it now means we have to do another one.

Taking Magnesium+ Advanced really helped me to prepare for Ironman.

Sleep hygiene is really important for endurance events like Ironman, for the build-up and recovery, and Magnesium+ Advanced was profound for that. I just found it so easy to get to sleep, even when I had things on my mind. If you have sleep issues, then Magnesium+ Advanced has massive value to improve your performance. It just puts the odds in your favour.