Precision Fuel & Hydration Will Be at Your Next IRONMAN Event: What You Need to Know
Precision Fuel & Hydration (PF&H) are now the official global hydration sponsor of IRONMAN. From regional races to the World Championships, PF&H electrolytes will be in every bottle on every IRONMAN course. Since we all should live by the golden rule of “nothing new on race day,” this was our cue to put PF&H to the test. For several months, I’ve chugged, squeezed, and chewed PF&H and am happy to report you’ll be fueled and hydrated at your next IRONMAN event.
How It Started, How It’s Going
A tale as old as time, PF&H began to solve a specific problem. Founder Andy Blow struggled with cramping during his elite triathlon career and, using his degree in Sport and Exercise Science, he identified that his sodium intake was mismatched to his sweat losses. That insight was the start of PF&H.
Electrolytes remain PF&H’s core offering, available in four different strengths (250, 500, 100 and 1,500 mg) according to the amount of sodium they provide. Their PH1000 (1,000 mg sodium per liter) is what IRONMAN athletes will see on course. The wider range—drink mixes, gels, chews—follows the same logic: minimal flavor, clear carb counts and formats that are easy to combine and calculate even while on the run.
Everything is Informed Sport tested. Packaging is clean and functional. Pricing sits at the upper end of moderate. None of this is revolutionary—and that’s the point. PF&H are not chasing novelty. What they are chasing, however, is happy athletes and that includes professionals in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Formula 1, English Premier League and, of course, triathletes including IRONMAN world champion Solveig Løvseth, two-time 70.3 world champion Jelle Geens, and American favourites Danielle Lewis and Matt Hanson.
It’s at Your Next Race: The Ironman Partnership
Announced in December, PF&H will be a major IRONMAN partner in 2026. Building on their established relationship in Europe, PF&H will be the on-course hydration at all IRONMAN events worldwide (energy products will still be Maurten), including Kona and the 70.3 World Championship in Nice. It seems like a big corporate step but, PF&H Creative Director, Dave Colley, says otherwise.
“Our approach has always been to show up where athletes are and try to be genuinely useful—not just visible,” explains Colley. “Partnerships like the IRONMAN deal are an extension of that philosophy. We’d been supporting athletes at events informally for years; this scales it up.”
Despite the scale of that deal, PF&H insist it’s not a philosophical shift. Colley says the partnership formalizes what they were already doing informally at events for years.
“It means showing up at events and helping athletes with their strategies—offering consultations and sweat testing in the expo, having our products at aid stations. We’re trying to be present in the moments that matter rather than just buying visibility.”
Focused on Simplicity
PF&H’s product range can appear limited compared to competitors, particularly in flavor options. Except for their chews that come in a mint/lemon flavor, all of their products come in one not-overly-sweet, slightly citrus flavour. That’s intentional.
“A lot of sports nutrition marketing has historically focused on selling a new ingredient or feature—the next wonder compound,” Colley begins. “Our view is that sports nutrition is actually inherently simple: carbs, fluids and sodium cover most of what matters.”
The variety they offer is more in terms of sizing and delivery, in case you prefer a powder or capsule rather than a tablet to get your electrolytes, or opt for their Flow Gel (that’s a whopping 300g of carbs in one sachet) designed to save you from emptying a bunch of gels into a flask.
“The real key to success is getting the right amounts at the right times for you as an individual,” Colley says. “That’s why so much of our customer service and advice focuses on education about how to use products effectively, not just what’s in them. It’s a different emphasis, and it shapes where we put our resources.”
That philosophy explains why PF&H invest heavily in education rather than product sprawl. Their website hosts extensive learning resources, case studies and planning tools. Most impressive is their free video consultation service, available to any athlete. Within a day, you can speak to a real person who will help you think through hydration and fueling, whether you use, or plan to use, their products. Arguably, that personal service does more to build trust than any sponsorship or partnership announcement.
On-Demand Nutrition
PF&H also offer a subscription service that reflects the same athlete-first thinking. There is no minimum commitment, orders can be adjusted or paused freely, shipping is free, and discounts accumulate up to 20%. Once you reach that level, you keep it as long as you remain active.
It is not aggressively marketed and feels deliberately low-pressure. In practice, it feels less like a subscription and more like nutrition on-demand.
“We wanted to offer a subscription service that we’d want as customers ourselves,” Colley says. “Traditional subscription-first brands can sometimes be a bit ‘pushy,’ which is not what we wanted our subscription service to feel like. Other than sending customers an email explaining the benefits after their second order, we don’t do much to actively promote it. It’s there as a secondary option on the product pages if you’d find it useful. It remains an intentionally niche offering for athletes who value the convenience, rather than a core part of how we sell.”
Tried, Tested, and Happy
Nutrition isn’t always the easiest product to review since it can be very subjective. Get it really wrong and it’s a disaster, but over a certain basic standard, it’s personal preference that matters most. So, while I will go through their products, where they truly differ from other brands is their customer service. So let’s start there.
Their electrolyte tablets and sachets are pretty much like every other, but you can select your strength to individualize your nutrition. The gels aren’t too sticky or thick, but they aren’t liquid either–a happy medium–and the one flavour is agreeable. Chews, that come in 30g squares or a 60g bar, aren’t sticky/gummy, and are easy to chew while on the move. The drink mix is easy to measure and customize to carbohydrate needs (1 level scoop at a time) and, thanks to the subtle flavor, you can mix in 120 g in one 750 ml bottle without it turning into syrup.
I still use other brands, particularly for flavor variety, but, on the other hand, PF&H have become a dependable constant partly because the more subtle taste doesn’t wear on the palette (and I wouldn’t want that to change).
Where the company stands out time and time again is its commitment to athletes. Not only in how it offers its products, but how it provides services, including access to detailed and science-driven education along with video consultation.
I tried the free video consultation service and was connected to a high-level sports scientist who researched heat training for his doctoral thesis. I asked him how to execute a heat training protocol but he was also ready to help me figure out how much sodium I needed, how to make a race day nutrition plan, and even how to carry it all on race day. Knowledgable and actionable advice, personalized to my goals and needs, all for free.
As for the subscription service, after many months, I’ve never run into any “fine print” catches or penalties, and can attest that they stand by all their claims on flexibility since I’ve made use of almost every one. I have had my share of delivery problems but, even though it has never been their fault, PF&H have always bent over backwards to solve the issue.
When you call their customer service, a human picks up the telephone right away. When you email customer service, a human replies to your email in a day. On the multiple occasions when I’ve done something and needed their help (even speaking to Colley for this article), they are always there with a helpful attitude–that alone scores them big points in my books and why I’m confident recommending, not just their nutrition, but their company as a whole.
For the Suggestion Box
Before this feels all too one-sided, if I had a note for the suggestion box, it would be to put a login button at the top of the homepage on their website. Knowing it’s a niche service, I kind of understand why it’s placed at the bottom in tiny print and, okay, it’s not like it’s hard to scroll all the way down to the very bottom but, in this modern world of too much convenience, is a button isn’t too much to ask for?
I wonder how the folks at Maurten are feeling about this? Any guesses as to what the innerds of this detail entail?
Thank you for this write-up. Unfortunately, there is a major problem with PFH being on the Ironman courses this year. PFH is a “system” in which their products are meant to work together. Unfortunately, the PH1000 is the only product that will be on the course. Alone, that is not enough, and it complicates the nutritional math with the other products. Additionally, a very significant point is even though it’s called PH 1000 , there will only be 500mg per bottle on the course. Again, this adds to the Nutritional confusion. I am practicing with it and hopefully we’ll be able to nail my nutritional mathematics.
I totally agree, this is so frustrating. I emailed Precision to ask what exactly we were getting and in what size bottles. Here is what they said: IM will pre-mix a huge batch of PH 1000 and then decant it into 750ml/24oz bottles, therefore ensuring that you are drinking 1000mg per litre. So in short, in each 24 oz bottle, you will be drinking 750mg of sodium”
I think it isn’t mentioned in this article, Ironically entitled “what you need to know” because it’s ridiculous.
Precision told me 500mg per bottle. @SKB did you interview them? Do you have somebody who can give us straight answers? There are a lot of us pretty frustrated by this.
Sounds like a different approach from 70.3 World’s. My bottles exploded upon opening. I think the volunteers were just tossing the effervescent tablets into the bottles and closing them up, allowing the pressure to build.
I train a lot with their hydration tablets/sachets and the PH1000 Car/Electrolyte mix. @david is right, it’s best when used as a system, so I hope people realize they are getting practically zero carbs in the bottles they get on course.
It’s a step up from Mortal Hydration, though.
@david Im going to add @_BW_Tri so that you get can the answers to the questions..
We linked the official landing page to the IRONMAN information page in the story.
Here it is again.
@david Call me if I can help at all brother
Thank you . . . I’ll have it sorted out by race day. I just received my order of PH 1000 to start trying. These are tablets, as you know, and the question is how exactly are they going to be served. 2 tablets are one serving in 1 liter of water = 1000. I figured 750 ml bottles with one tablet = 500. Is it defizzed? Or, likely, will they have industrial-sized on the course pre-mixed to fill bottles. We are all a bit neurotic about our nutrition plan. Thank you as always for your help and guidance and steering the conversation. Any chance you will be at Oceanside?
I and @ironclm and @chanthony will be at Oceanside.
If I was racing.. I would figure out what 1 tablet and what 2 tablets tastes like in a 750mm bottle cause zero chance the volunteers are going to get it right every time. That way you can sort of gage how much you are getting in a bottle. If that makes sense.
I would be assuming they are premixing at the right concentration, and then decanting into 750ml bottles which would give you 750mg sodium per bottle.
I’ve been a nuun user for decades, either alone of by adding to carb mixes, but did recently try the precision. Note that 1 nuun is 300mg.
In my half a fortnight ago I tried a new nutrition strategy leaning on the precision carb mixes. Slightly oddly I added two nuun tabs to each bottle of triple scoop carb only precision mix to give me 750ml an hour that was 600mg sodium and 90g carb on the bike. In training I’d gone up to 5 scoops in a bottle and was still perfectly drinkable, albeit getting pretty strong. This is where something like infinit had the edge where you can/could dial the flavour strength right down.
So for IM then it’s perfectly possible to get your cals for the bike into 2 bottles, and then use the aid stations to pickup 4 bottles of hydration as you go (assume you start with 1 on bike).
One last thought. IMNZ 2013/14 they didn’t mix the bottles properly. Pored the powder into the big barrels and added the water, but didn’t stir. So most of us ended up with essentially water instead of carb mix for middle third of ride which wrecked a lot of races. I don’t blame the volunteers, just say this to stress that relying on course nutrition is a gamble. Carrying your own is a good mitigation for that after all the months of training. I got caught out another year where they changed flavour of the electrolyte the week before the race and so I didn’t have chance to test it. I turned out to be alergic to that and so the run was a complete shit show. Literally…..
So my strategy would be to use the electrolyte from course and add some concentrate carbs into that from my bike bottles.
Great! I am excited to see you all there!
Unfortunately something came up and I now have to fly back on the Friday, but if anyone is around Tue/Wed/Thur evenings, I’ll be in Del Mar.
Thanks @SKB for the write-up, we’re glad you’ve had a positive experience with our subscription and customer service!
@david
The reason we’ve chosen to put PH 1000 on-course is that separating your fueling and hydration can be beneficial during an IRONMAN® or 70.3®, as it means you have the flexibility to adjust each one as needed. For example, if it’s hotter than anticipated, you’ll want to drink more to stay hydrated. But if every bottle and cup has lots of carbs in it, you risk overdoing it and experiencing GI issues.
Our products are indeed designed to be used together, but if you are wanting to rely primarily on the on-course products, then using PH 1000 for hydration and Maurten’s on-course products to meet your energy needs should work well and it sounds like you’re doing the right thing by practicing your strategy in training.
Quite a few of our squad will be at Oceanside (unfortunately I won’t be there as it’s kiddos spring break and we’re away, but I will be at Little Elm 70.3) and it’d be great to meet in person if you want to drop by the PF&H stand and meet the team.
@juniormint was correct, IRONMAN should be pre-mixing PH 1000 and decanting it into 750ml (24oz) bottles on the bike. So, each bottle should deliver 750mg of sodium.
@Th4ddy I’m sorry you had an exploding bottle situation in Marbella! A few people mentioned this to us at the time and we fed that back to IM as it does indeed sound like the proper mixing instructions weren’t followed in that case. We have provided educational material on how to mix PH 1000 correctly to IM and have been on the ground at a number of European and Oceania races over the last few years to help ensure things are done well and, in our experience, this has usually been the case.
If anyone has any further questions, happy to help. As are our Athlete Support team, who are reachable at hello@pfandh.com, or, like @SKB mentioned, or a free video consultation which you can book on our website.
Thanks everyone and good luck with your training!
Brad,
Thank you so much for following up and getting back to all this. That was a good clarification. I have been doing this a long long time and kind of have my formula down pat. I was able to adjust to the mortal and perform at a very high level and I assume I will be able to do that with PH.
Too bad we will miss seeing you at Oceanside, but hope you have a good spring break. I will stop by and talk to your folks.
Thank you,
David