How it all started
Sometime during 2014 I had a kida in my head that I wanted to do a triathlon in 2015. Triathlons are a combination of 3 activities - swimming, followed by cycling followed by running. There are various distance events - sprint triathlon (750 mtrs swim + 20 km cycling + 5 km run), Olympic distance (1.5 km swim + 40 km cycling + 10 km run), Half Ironman distance (1.9 km swim + 90 km cycling + 21 km run), and then the mother of all triathlons - the Full Ironman (3.8 km swim + 180 km cycling + 42 km run)! My goal for 2015 was at least do a Olympic distance triathlon.
Swimming preparation
I had done 1 duathlon in March in Pune and knew my weak point and how to improve that - namely the transition from cycle to run. There was one Sprint and Olympic distance triathlon in Pune in April, but I wasnt comfortable with swimming. It was my biggest fear factor. So skipped that event. The only time I had actually done 'real' swimming was in my 5th grade when I had learnt breaststroke in SP College tank. Even that one was without proper breathing technique. So I had to basically start from scratch on the swimming front. I enlisted my daughter Tosha to teach me swimming in our society swimming pool. She was doing a good job teaching me where I was going wrong in my freestyle and breaststroke and how to improve. Improved a bit from that. Then in summer decided to really learn swimming and so I started coaching class at Solaris Baner. A bad time to start swimming coaching with all the kids' summer break. But hey it was already May and I only had 7-8 months left in the year. Started the classes .. as expected the coach couldnt pay enough attention. But during the time he could I learnt freestyle and improved my technique in breaststroke. Now I could do 25 mtrs to 50 mtrs laps of freestyle non stop. But no more. So at one point I decided to try breaststroke and see how much distance I could cover, to increase my confidence. And to my surprise I could go upto 1 km ... then 2 kms .. then all the way upto 4 kms non stop with breaststroke with a kinda reasonable speed of 2 kms/hr. By the end of June I was confident that I could do a triathlon in open water and swimming wouldnt be a challenge anymore!
Why Hyderabad
But the next challenge was finding triathlon events. Typically there is one in Pune in summer. I had already missed the one in April. I was hoping there would be one more ... but that never materialized. So after scouting for events across the country found Hyderabad triathlon on Oct 11. They had sprint, olympic, Half and 3/4 ironman events (they couldnt call the events IronMan as thats a trademark owned by World Triathlon corp. So they call it Half Iron :)) Now if I was thinking of going to Hyderabad for the event, I would rather to a longer distance than Sprint or Olympic. So thats how I registered for the Half Iron at Hyderabad - one of the tougher courses in India due to the terrain and heat. Especially October heat. I knew I would be killed in the heat. Another big bummer was that the triathlon was on the same day as Pune's marquee running event - Pune Run Beyond Myself (PRBM). Leading upto October I had encouraged almost 30-40 of my friends and colleagues register for PRBM but I would miss the event given the conflict. But hey, so few triathlons in India - beggars cannot be choosers.
Training
Given the Hyderabad full marathon in Aug, I couldnt focus on full time training plan for the triathlon. So did a few Brick workouts to improve the cycling to running transition. Also did the Bhor duathlon full solo (5 km run + 45 km hilly cycling + 10 km run) ... equivalent or a bit more than a Olympic distance triathlon to gain confidence. If I hydrated well and had enough quantity of enerzal and energy bars/bananas while riding, I could carry that energy into running. Also another challenge was legs feeling heavy after the transition to running. Only way to overcome this for me was to practice. So did some interval Brick sessions in the gym - (15 min hard riding + 15 min running at fast pace) times 3. These helped me a lot. Didnt have to worry about the logistics of parking the cycle and moving to running and managing the transition 5-6 times. Gym brick sessions although boring are definitely worth it. Got my legs and my nervous system used to the rapid transitions with these sessions. A few long sessions of road biking of 40-50 kms followed by 15 km run helped with emulating real world transition scenario from cycling to running. One thing I didnt practice at all was transition between swimming to cycling. Mainly due to the logistics issues of managing the transition. This came back to bite me in managing the transition time... more on that later. 5-6 of these brick sessions and then regular running and cycling was my training routing. No formal triathlon plan at all.
My race day expectation was that I would complete swimming in 1 hour. Cycling in max of 4 hours. Running in 2:30 -2:45 hrs. Add about 15 minutes of T1 + T2 transition times. And I should be able to complete inside 8 hours. If I did cycling a bit faster I could even get down to 7:45 or even 7:30 on a good day. That was the hope.
Logistics
Another thing I was very worried about was logistics of how to carry my bike to Hyderabad for the event. I wasnt comfortable disassembling the bike, carry it in the flight or train and then assembling it in Hyderabad. What if I couldnt assemble correctly and gears didnt work or whatever. So decided to completely avoid that headache for my first triathlon and decided to drive down to Hyderabad for the event with a driver.
The Event
Finally the event weekend came around. Prepared my transition bags. Had to prepare 2 bags and 3 stacks.
The stack on the right was for swimming .. would use that during and before swimming. The stack in the middle was for the cycling leg. The night before the event I would stuff all the food into the jersey and neatly pack the jersey into the bag. The leftmost stack is for the T2 transition bag - cycling to running. (In hindsight I have realized that the food was a bit too much. I think I ended up eating 3 bananas, a couple of Gu gels. couple of enerzals. coffee. Didnt eat any energy bar. So a lot of optimization possible for sure in future.)
On Saturday, started from Pune at 4 am. Road condition is horrible from Solapur to Hyderabad. So took us over 11 hours to get into Hyderabad with very less sleep as had to keep the drive awake by chatting with him! Picked up my cousin Ketki, who was doing her first ever duathlon next day, on the way to the venue for bib collection, reached the expo, picked up the bib by around 4:30 pm. Had an early dinner with Ketki around 7 pm. Talked to Sonali back home as she also had a big day ahead - she was doing her first half marathon at Pune Run Beyond Myself (PRBM) event. Slept early after finalizing the transition bags and putting the bibs on the cycle and the jersey. Slept with butterflies in the stomach.
Got up around 3:30 am ... checked out of the hotel and reached the venue around 5:20 am. Parked the cycle and got my transition items and bags ready. Then got mentally ready for the swim. Met a couple of competitors and exchanged pleasantries - Anjali Bhalinge an elite athlete from Pune, and Manoj Balekar, a professional swimming coach from Mumbai. Hyderabad triathlon swim is in a swimming pool which is not the norm ... so only about 30 triathletes would go in the first batch at 6 am in the swimming pool. Next batch would have to wait till the first wave came out. So next batch would start at almost 7 am... meant cycling and running in much more intense heat. I was lucky to be in the first wave. The organizers gave us instructions and a pep talk and the event was flagged off 25 minutes late at 6:25 am.
There were 10 lanes ... each lane had 3 swimmers. And there was a volunteer per lane who would count the lengths. We had to do 38 lengths of the 50 mtrs pool to cover the 1.9 km distance. My hope was to finish swimming off in 1 hour. I started swimming with a length of freestyle. Did one length freestyle and then as usual was breathless. So switched quickly to breaststroke in the middle of the second length. As I got into the rhythm of the breaststroke, with body warmed up, I started completing the laps at a steady pace of 3 mins/100 mtrs. There were a bunch of guys who were doing freestyle and doing it much faster than me obviously. Some were doing breaststroke like me and I was proud to notice that I was going faster than the other breaststroke swimmers. Some folks were stopping every 100 mtrs or so.
One guy who apparently couldnt swim was running in the swimming pool instead of swimming! :-) Finally the countdown started as I got to 30 lengths and I increased the pace a bit. Completed the 1.9 kms in 1 hr 2 minutes. Was out of the swimming pool feeling reasonably fresh.
Went to the changing area and thought I would quickly change and get to my cycle. Hmm ... realized my first mistake. I should have swam in my Pearl Izumi triathlon shorts. It takes a long time to get out of wet clothes especially when you are in a hurry. It took me 8 minutes or so to change and wear the triathlon shorts and my jersey! Then headed out to the transition area and put on the shoes, helmet etc. Ate a banana quickly and had the Amul coffee from the can. Ate one Anjeer bar. Another 7 minutes gone! Started cycling quickly. The cycling mat was a km away at the main gate of the IBS univ. Another 2 minutes gone. A total of 17 minutes T1 transition time!! Way too much!! Have to optimize this and get this down to 5 minutes in the future events. Started cycling at 7:50 am or so.
I knew cycling was my strong suite. Also I had studied the cycling route and elevation profile carefully. I knew it was a slightly uphill route but compared to my rides in Pune it was mostly a flattish route. 500+ mtrs elevation gain over 90 kms was more like a regular Lonavala ride. There was one small 2 km climb towards the end near Movie tower hill. And then the steady climb of about 4-5 kms from ORR till Gachibowli stadium. I was hoping that I would complete cycling in 3:30 to 3:45 hrs. Did fast high cadence cycling and reached the turnaround point at 40 kms or so within 1:35. In this patch I overtook 8 competitors. I was out 15th from my wave in the swimming pool out of 30. After the first 40 kms cycling I was now at 7th. Manoj had come out of the swimming pool first I think. And was 30 minutes ahead of me out of the pool. Anjali was 4th or so. And Manoj was 2nd or 3rd. Probably around 10 kms ahead of me - so about 20 minutes or so ahead. It was almost 9:20 am or so. Was very lucky that it was overcast and there was no sun yet. Happy with this performance so far. Ate a quick banana and had gatorade at the aid station at turnaround. Route coming back I kept going strong but speed slowed a bit. No one I had passed was able to catch up with me but I couldnt pass any other cyclists either. I could see 3/4 iron triathletes and the remaining half iron triathletes on the opposite side. Kept on cheering them. Cheering others gives me some additional energy. Completed the Movie Tower hill climb strongly and downhill there was fun. Then the final 6-7 km drag started once I crossed ORR. As I noted earlier it was a steady climb all the way upto Gachibowli. In fact the elevation gain here was more than the elevation gain of Movie Tower hill. Also another thing playing on my mind was that this is the same route I had to run on. So many climbs!! Damn!! I started seeing the triathletes and duathletes from other events into their running and cycling legs at this point. Kept crawling towards the stadium. Finally reached the stadium and completed the cycling leg at around 11:35 or so - 3 hrs and 45 minutes for 90 kms cycling. 5 hrs 10 minutes for swimming+T1+cycling. 7:45 was out of question now but a sub 8 hours was certainly possible and well within sight. I was confident I could complete the half marathon in 2:45 max. Nice.
Took some time to relax a little. Ate a banana, a chikki bar. I had finished almost 1.5 ltrs of Enerzal on the cycle ride so was well hydrated. But still had a couple of glasses of water. Took some time to empty the pockets of excess food I had carried on the cycle ride. T2 transition took almost 10 minutes. This was also way too much. So total of (17+10) 27 minutes or so transition time! Have to get this total transition time down to max 10 minutes.
The sun was out in full force in the last half hour of cycling from around 11 am. No cloud cover at all. Temperature had already touched 35 degrees and would later reach upto 38 degrees during the run! I started running in such brutal weather - first ever hot afternoon run! Thought if I could do a 7:30 min/km average pace, I could still manage a 2:45 and thus a sub 8 hour finish. Started well but soon hit the uphill on ISB road and had to walk. On the downhill I kept running upto 3-4 kms or so. But by this point my energy level had already reached a nadir. The sun was really crazy hot making things impossible for me. There was pretty much no shade on the road either. Completely barren! Around 4.5 kms I felt slight dizziness. Body had heated up too much. I decided to take a break on the side of the road. Just sat down where I found some shade. Too many thoughts crossed my mind during what I think was eternity but was only a minute or so. For the first time in such a competitive event I felt that it would be ok to quit at this point. I can come back stronger in the next event etc etc. All the negative thoughts. Then the sane part of my mind spoke ... The event cutoff is 10 hours which was still 4:15 hrs away. Even if I walk the entire remaining 16 km distance I would be able to finish it. And decided to move along. Whew - close call!!
Walked till the next aid station 500 mtrs away. At the aid station poured 3-4 glasses of cold water on my head and body and the cap. This rejuvenated me big time. I felt a surge of energy and felt that I could run. Ran for 1.5 km at slow clip. Came to the ORR by then. Again the energy sapped as body had heated up again. Walked for another km till the next aid station. Poured another 3-4 glasses there and kept on running. Now this was my modus operandi. There was an aid station almost every 2 kms or so. So I would pour 3-4 glasses of water on myself. Drink a couple of glasses of water and 1 gatorade and then power on. I would fill up one of my bottles in my belt with water so I could pour it on myself if my body heated up before the next aid station.
The sub 8 hour finish was a lost cause now. I just wanted to complete it now. Strangely no one I had crossed in my bike ride had managed to cross me yet even though I was so slow. A couple of folks from the next wave in the swimming pool had crossed me though. I kept run walk routine at a pace of 8 to 9 mins/km and the water pouring routine. The IBS road on the way back, as earlier noted, is a continuous climb of 3-4 kms. Walked most of the climbs. Ran a few. Finally last couple of kms left. A half iron competitor from the first wave had crossed me at 12 km mark and was just ahead of me. I kept him within my line of sight trying to catch him as he was also doing a run/walk routine. That gave me something to focus on in those tough patches. I would catch up with him and then he would move on. Finally neared the stadium and ran the last 500 mtrs.
Still finished behind that guy, but was so glad I finished!! 8 hours 33 minutes! No celebrations at the end ... just too exhausted to even do that. I had taken 3 hours 15 minutes for my half marathon, an hour 5 minutes more than my PB for HM! This was indeed my toughest event ever. The 600 BRM is no comparison. Neither is the Hyderabad Full marathon. Satara hill half ultra was nothing compared to this one. All those events seemed like a cakewalk in front of this. A very well deserved medal at the end! A good looking medal as well.
Had a hearty lunch and then finally had the strength to call home and tell Sonali and Baba the good news! Sonali also had finished her first half marathon on that day in just above 3 hours. What a day of achievements for the Sambhus family! :-)
This endurance event tested me physically and mentally. I guess my aggressive target of 7:30 to 7:45 was also partly to blame. Even though I had taken much longer than my expectation, I still had managed to finish in a reasonably good time for my first triathlon. Official timing of 8 hours 35 minutes for a first triathlon and that too a half ironman at that was still good. To top off the fun, I later came to know that I was overall 13th from the entire field. Total 60+ triathletes had started. 36 had completed in time. And I was 13th in that field. And 1st in the 40+ category. Wow! So it was a tough event for others as well, not just me. Happy happy!
Lots of learnings from the event.
1. In half ironman you start the run around 11 or noon. So need to put in some serious practice to run in that heat and sun OR choose some events with more forgiving climate and terrain. Should be able to complete a half marathon in max of 2:30 or 2:45 in the half ironman.
2. My Brick workouts really helped. My legs didnt feel like bricks neither did I get any cramps.
3. Had to reduce transition time down to 10 minutes. I could have easily shaved off 20 minutes from the 8:35 hours if I had optimized transitions.
4. My swimming speed for breast stroke is optimized to 1 hr for 2 kms. Only way to improve swim speed further is focus on freestyle.
5. My cycling speed can improve a bit. I should have been able to shave about 15-30 minutes if I had kept the intensity high all the way till the end.
6. Dont give up! Even though I felt like shit in the middle of the run, I was able to figure out a way and complete the event.
7. I am not ready for a full ironman. This event took all the physical and mental energy I had. I can possibly do a 3.8 km swim followed by 180 km cycling. But no way I can do a full marathon in 6 hours after the 2 events. Typical cutoffs for full ironman are 16 or 17 hours. And with my current half ironman timing I wouldnt be able to meet that cutoff. I need to be comfortable with a full marathon distance and should be able to finish it in 4:30 or 4:45 or thereabouts. Hopefully in SCMM. Also I should be able to do a half ironman within 7:30 to 7:45 max in Indian climates to hope for a successful finish at a Ironman.
Overall I feel I can easily shave off 20 minutes from transition time. Then another 30 minutes or so from the run if I practice runs in the afternoon. And hopefully another 10-15 minutes in cycling. So I can shave off 1 hour with some effort and target a 7:30 hour finish for the half. There's a half, 3/4 and a full iron event in Chennai in December. Maybe I will attempt another half iron then to see how and if I am able to apply some of the learnings. Fingers crossed.
Sometime during 2014 I had a kida in my head that I wanted to do a triathlon in 2015. Triathlons are a combination of 3 activities - swimming, followed by cycling followed by running. There are various distance events - sprint triathlon (750 mtrs swim + 20 km cycling + 5 km run), Olympic distance (1.5 km swim + 40 km cycling + 10 km run), Half Ironman distance (1.9 km swim + 90 km cycling + 21 km run), and then the mother of all triathlons - the Full Ironman (3.8 km swim + 180 km cycling + 42 km run)! My goal for 2015 was at least do a Olympic distance triathlon.
Swimming preparation
I had done 1 duathlon in March in Pune and knew my weak point and how to improve that - namely the transition from cycle to run. There was one Sprint and Olympic distance triathlon in Pune in April, but I wasnt comfortable with swimming. It was my biggest fear factor. So skipped that event. The only time I had actually done 'real' swimming was in my 5th grade when I had learnt breaststroke in SP College tank. Even that one was without proper breathing technique. So I had to basically start from scratch on the swimming front. I enlisted my daughter Tosha to teach me swimming in our society swimming pool. She was doing a good job teaching me where I was going wrong in my freestyle and breaststroke and how to improve. Improved a bit from that. Then in summer decided to really learn swimming and so I started coaching class at Solaris Baner. A bad time to start swimming coaching with all the kids' summer break. But hey it was already May and I only had 7-8 months left in the year. Started the classes .. as expected the coach couldnt pay enough attention. But during the time he could I learnt freestyle and improved my technique in breaststroke. Now I could do 25 mtrs to 50 mtrs laps of freestyle non stop. But no more. So at one point I decided to try breaststroke and see how much distance I could cover, to increase my confidence. And to my surprise I could go upto 1 km ... then 2 kms .. then all the way upto 4 kms non stop with breaststroke with a kinda reasonable speed of 2 kms/hr. By the end of June I was confident that I could do a triathlon in open water and swimming wouldnt be a challenge anymore!
Why Hyderabad
But the next challenge was finding triathlon events. Typically there is one in Pune in summer. I had already missed the one in April. I was hoping there would be one more ... but that never materialized. So after scouting for events across the country found Hyderabad triathlon on Oct 11. They had sprint, olympic, Half and 3/4 ironman events (they couldnt call the events IronMan as thats a trademark owned by World Triathlon corp. So they call it Half Iron :)) Now if I was thinking of going to Hyderabad for the event, I would rather to a longer distance than Sprint or Olympic. So thats how I registered for the Half Iron at Hyderabad - one of the tougher courses in India due to the terrain and heat. Especially October heat. I knew I would be killed in the heat. Another big bummer was that the triathlon was on the same day as Pune's marquee running event - Pune Run Beyond Myself (PRBM). Leading upto October I had encouraged almost 30-40 of my friends and colleagues register for PRBM but I would miss the event given the conflict. But hey, so few triathlons in India - beggars cannot be choosers.
Training
Given the Hyderabad full marathon in Aug, I couldnt focus on full time training plan for the triathlon. So did a few Brick workouts to improve the cycling to running transition. Also did the Bhor duathlon full solo (5 km run + 45 km hilly cycling + 10 km run) ... equivalent or a bit more than a Olympic distance triathlon to gain confidence. If I hydrated well and had enough quantity of enerzal and energy bars/bananas while riding, I could carry that energy into running. Also another challenge was legs feeling heavy after the transition to running. Only way to overcome this for me was to practice. So did some interval Brick sessions in the gym - (15 min hard riding + 15 min running at fast pace) times 3. These helped me a lot. Didnt have to worry about the logistics of parking the cycle and moving to running and managing the transition 5-6 times. Gym brick sessions although boring are definitely worth it. Got my legs and my nervous system used to the rapid transitions with these sessions. A few long sessions of road biking of 40-50 kms followed by 15 km run helped with emulating real world transition scenario from cycling to running. One thing I didnt practice at all was transition between swimming to cycling. Mainly due to the logistics issues of managing the transition. This came back to bite me in managing the transition time... more on that later. 5-6 of these brick sessions and then regular running and cycling was my training routing. No formal triathlon plan at all.
My race day expectation was that I would complete swimming in 1 hour. Cycling in max of 4 hours. Running in 2:30 -2:45 hrs. Add about 15 minutes of T1 + T2 transition times. And I should be able to complete inside 8 hours. If I did cycling a bit faster I could even get down to 7:45 or even 7:30 on a good day. That was the hope.
Logistics
Another thing I was very worried about was logistics of how to carry my bike to Hyderabad for the event. I wasnt comfortable disassembling the bike, carry it in the flight or train and then assembling it in Hyderabad. What if I couldnt assemble correctly and gears didnt work or whatever. So decided to completely avoid that headache for my first triathlon and decided to drive down to Hyderabad for the event with a driver.
The Event
Finally the event weekend came around. Prepared my transition bags. Had to prepare 2 bags and 3 stacks.
 |
| Transition bag items. Right stack for swimming. Right + Middle are T1 transition bag items. Left stack are the T2 transition bag items. |
On Saturday, started from Pune at 4 am. Road condition is horrible from Solapur to Hyderabad. So took us over 11 hours to get into Hyderabad with very less sleep as had to keep the drive awake by chatting with him! Picked up my cousin Ketki, who was doing her first ever duathlon next day, on the way to the venue for bib collection, reached the expo, picked up the bib by around 4:30 pm. Had an early dinner with Ketki around 7 pm. Talked to Sonali back home as she also had a big day ahead - she was doing her first half marathon at Pune Run Beyond Myself (PRBM) event. Slept early after finalizing the transition bags and putting the bibs on the cycle and the jersey. Slept with butterflies in the stomach.
Got up around 3:30 am ... checked out of the hotel and reached the venue around 5:20 am. Parked the cycle and got my transition items and bags ready. Then got mentally ready for the swim. Met a couple of competitors and exchanged pleasantries - Anjali Bhalinge an elite athlete from Pune, and Manoj Balekar, a professional swimming coach from Mumbai. Hyderabad triathlon swim is in a swimming pool which is not the norm ... so only about 30 triathletes would go in the first batch at 6 am in the swimming pool. Next batch would have to wait till the first wave came out. So next batch would start at almost 7 am... meant cycling and running in much more intense heat. I was lucky to be in the first wave. The organizers gave us instructions and a pep talk and the event was flagged off 25 minutes late at 6:25 am.
There were 10 lanes ... each lane had 3 swimmers. And there was a volunteer per lane who would count the lengths. We had to do 38 lengths of the 50 mtrs pool to cover the 1.9 km distance. My hope was to finish swimming off in 1 hour. I started swimming with a length of freestyle. Did one length freestyle and then as usual was breathless. So switched quickly to breaststroke in the middle of the second length. As I got into the rhythm of the breaststroke, with body warmed up, I started completing the laps at a steady pace of 3 mins/100 mtrs. There were a bunch of guys who were doing freestyle and doing it much faster than me obviously. Some were doing breaststroke like me and I was proud to notice that I was going faster than the other breaststroke swimmers. Some folks were stopping every 100 mtrs or so. One guy who apparently couldnt swim was running in the swimming pool instead of swimming! :-) Finally the countdown started as I got to 30 lengths and I increased the pace a bit. Completed the 1.9 kms in 1 hr 2 minutes. Was out of the swimming pool feeling reasonably fresh.
Went to the changing area and thought I would quickly change and get to my cycle. Hmm ... realized my first mistake. I should have swam in my Pearl Izumi triathlon shorts. It takes a long time to get out of wet clothes especially when you are in a hurry. It took me 8 minutes or so to change and wear the triathlon shorts and my jersey! Then headed out to the transition area and put on the shoes, helmet etc. Ate a banana quickly and had the Amul coffee from the can. Ate one Anjeer bar. Another 7 minutes gone! Started cycling quickly. The cycling mat was a km away at the main gate of the IBS univ. Another 2 minutes gone. A total of 17 minutes T1 transition time!! Way too much!! Have to optimize this and get this down to 5 minutes in the future events. Started cycling at 7:50 am or so.
Took some time to relax a little. Ate a banana, a chikki bar. I had finished almost 1.5 ltrs of Enerzal on the cycle ride so was well hydrated. But still had a couple of glasses of water. Took some time to empty the pockets of excess food I had carried on the cycle ride. T2 transition took almost 10 minutes. This was also way too much. So total of (17+10) 27 minutes or so transition time! Have to get this total transition time down to max 10 minutes.
The sun was out in full force in the last half hour of cycling from around 11 am. No cloud cover at all. Temperature had already touched 35 degrees and would later reach upto 38 degrees during the run! I started running in such brutal weather - first ever hot afternoon run! Thought if I could do a 7:30 min/km average pace, I could still manage a 2:45 and thus a sub 8 hour finish. Started well but soon hit the uphill on ISB road and had to walk. On the downhill I kept running upto 3-4 kms or so. But by this point my energy level had already reached a nadir. The sun was really crazy hot making things impossible for me. There was pretty much no shade on the road either. Completely barren! Around 4.5 kms I felt slight dizziness. Body had heated up too much. I decided to take a break on the side of the road. Just sat down where I found some shade. Too many thoughts crossed my mind during what I think was eternity but was only a minute or so. For the first time in such a competitive event I felt that it would be ok to quit at this point. I can come back stronger in the next event etc etc. All the negative thoughts. Then the sane part of my mind spoke ... The event cutoff is 10 hours which was still 4:15 hrs away. Even if I walk the entire remaining 16 km distance I would be able to finish it. And decided to move along. Whew - close call!!
Walked till the next aid station 500 mtrs away. At the aid station poured 3-4 glasses of cold water on my head and body and the cap. This rejuvenated me big time. I felt a surge of energy and felt that I could run. Ran for 1.5 km at slow clip. Came to the ORR by then. Again the energy sapped as body had heated up again. Walked for another km till the next aid station. Poured another 3-4 glasses there and kept on running. Now this was my modus operandi. There was an aid station almost every 2 kms or so. So I would pour 3-4 glasses of water on myself. Drink a couple of glasses of water and 1 gatorade and then power on. I would fill up one of my bottles in my belt with water so I could pour it on myself if my body heated up before the next aid station.
The sub 8 hour finish was a lost cause now. I just wanted to complete it now. Strangely no one I had crossed in my bike ride had managed to cross me yet even though I was so slow. A couple of folks from the next wave in the swimming pool had crossed me though. I kept run walk routine at a pace of 8 to 9 mins/km and the water pouring routine. The IBS road on the way back, as earlier noted, is a continuous climb of 3-4 kms. Walked most of the climbs. Ran a few. Finally last couple of kms left. A half iron competitor from the first wave had crossed me at 12 km mark and was just ahead of me. I kept him within my line of sight trying to catch him as he was also doing a run/walk routine. That gave me something to focus on in those tough patches. I would catch up with him and then he would move on. Finally neared the stadium and ran the last 500 mtrs.
Still finished behind that guy, but was so glad I finished!! 8 hours 33 minutes! No celebrations at the end ... just too exhausted to even do that. I had taken 3 hours 15 minutes for my half marathon, an hour 5 minutes more than my PB for HM! This was indeed my toughest event ever. The 600 BRM is no comparison. Neither is the Hyderabad Full marathon. Satara hill half ultra was nothing compared to this one. All those events seemed like a cakewalk in front of this. A very well deserved medal at the end! A good looking medal as well. Had a hearty lunch and then finally had the strength to call home and tell Sonali and Baba the good news! Sonali also had finished her first half marathon on that day in just above 3 hours. What a day of achievements for the Sambhus family! :-)
 |
| Mandatory selfi at the finish line! ;-) |
This endurance event tested me physically and mentally. I guess my aggressive target of 7:30 to 7:45 was also partly to blame. Even though I had taken much longer than my expectation, I still had managed to finish in a reasonably good time for my first triathlon. Official timing of 8 hours 35 minutes for a first triathlon and that too a half ironman at that was still good. To top off the fun, I later came to know that I was overall 13th from the entire field. Total 60+ triathletes had started. 36 had completed in time. And I was 13th in that field. And 1st in the 40+ category. Wow! So it was a tough event for others as well, not just me. Happy happy! Lots of learnings from the event.
1. In half ironman you start the run around 11 or noon. So need to put in some serious practice to run in that heat and sun OR choose some events with more forgiving climate and terrain. Should be able to complete a half marathon in max of 2:30 or 2:45 in the half ironman.
2. My Brick workouts really helped. My legs didnt feel like bricks neither did I get any cramps.
3. Had to reduce transition time down to 10 minutes. I could have easily shaved off 20 minutes from the 8:35 hours if I had optimized transitions.
4. My swimming speed for breast stroke is optimized to 1 hr for 2 kms. Only way to improve swim speed further is focus on freestyle.
5. My cycling speed can improve a bit. I should have been able to shave about 15-30 minutes if I had kept the intensity high all the way till the end.
6. Dont give up! Even though I felt like shit in the middle of the run, I was able to figure out a way and complete the event.
7. I am not ready for a full ironman. This event took all the physical and mental energy I had. I can possibly do a 3.8 km swim followed by 180 km cycling. But no way I can do a full marathon in 6 hours after the 2 events. Typical cutoffs for full ironman are 16 or 17 hours. And with my current half ironman timing I wouldnt be able to meet that cutoff. I need to be comfortable with a full marathon distance and should be able to finish it in 4:30 or 4:45 or thereabouts. Hopefully in SCMM. Also I should be able to do a half ironman within 7:30 to 7:45 max in Indian climates to hope for a successful finish at a Ironman.
Overall I feel I can easily shave off 20 minutes from transition time. Then another 30 minutes or so from the run if I practice runs in the afternoon. And hopefully another 10-15 minutes in cycling. So I can shave off 1 hour with some effort and target a 7:30 hour finish for the half. There's a half, 3/4 and a full iron event in Chennai in December. Maybe I will attempt another half iron then to see how and if I am able to apply some of the learnings. Fingers crossed.