This and that ....: November 2016

IM Vineman 140.6 : A race report

This is one of those rare moments when I don’t really know where to start. I have always maintained that your race starts when you first think of doing it. But this was complicated. It was about unfinished business. That need to finish what I started. I first thought about a 140.6 about 3 years ago. Long story short, it was late 2015 and I had come up empty so far after a couple of botched attempts. But those discussions don’t belong here. So let me start in December 2015, when Ironman Vineman was about to open for registration, and I pinged Prakash … “shall we go for it?”. He has always been clear - the money is a small price to pay for the opportunity to book a spot in case things work out right and we did train. I didn’t have much of a counter, and so we booked our places. A knee surgery in May 2015 and frequent and persistent inflammation every time I played tennis or volleyball was worrying enough for me to tack on the $100 insurance for the event. I felt that familiar feeling …. slight goosebumps and palpable nervousness at the idea of attempting this again, excitement of having something to focus on; a purpose to the next 6 months, and the satisfaction of knowing what this achievement would feel like. I fought to suppress that gentle smile from the curving lips … it was still a long way away and a tough road to get there.

Our 2014 attempt at a 140.6 had taught me one thing - that I would get mentally burnt out and physically injured if I started too early, so I hesitantly pushed out serious training to around mid Feb. Meanwhile, I would talk to docs and figure out what was going on with my knee. He said I was stressing out my knee too much and should consider switching to non-impact sports like biking and swimming only. My jaw dropped in shock. I could not believe it could behave so differently before and after surgery - although losing some of your knee cartilage might have a say in that - and I decided to get on a good leg strengthening regimen, something I had kind of skimped on right after surgery - in retrospect, a very poor decision. A few weeks on, and the results were remarkable. All signs of inflammation disappeared completely, and I was a happy camper. Maybe I did have a few more years left … and more importantly, I might finally put this IM thing behind me. A nagging voice in the back of my head reminded me this might be my last chance to get that 140.6. The knee would only probably get worse with time. Now might be the best time.

Mid-march rolled by, and I pulled out Rajeev Char’s training schedule. I was already supposed to be swimming 2000 yds, biking 60 miles and running 11. In short, half IM distances, but I wasn’t fazed, I knew I could catch up quickly. I started pushing in more workouts week by week, glancing casually at the distances I was supposed to be doing and trying to catch up, trying to get to my magic number of 7 - I found doing more than that per week very tiring in 2014. Things went smoothly. I did notice though that I was somewhat slower at everything than in 2014. Prakash and I wondered if we should try to do Wildflower - it would be a bit of a push, but it might be worth it to get back some race experience and a good gauge of where we were. Given we weren’t completely sure, we decided to wait and see how we progressed. March became April and April gave way to May, and it was clear (at least) I wasn’t ready for it, so I skipped it, and he did too. Having close friends visiting from India and staying with me made the decision much easier.

Once May came, it was becoming time to get serious. Exactly 3 months left. Time to put in the training that would matter. Karen kick-started it by saying she would be in the bay area and would like to ride Mt. Hamilton. While it was a bit of a bump from my current fitness, Karen is always such a pleasure to ride with, so we did. It was a good 80 mile ride in about 7 hours - not bad considering all the climbing and the lights. I got back to the drawing board and chalked out everything I really wanted to do. I *love* the planning phase :) Mostly followed Char’s sheet, but added in Stan’s superbrick. Put in enough down (or not so down) weeks, added in the Mt. Dana climb and I was set till July 30th. There were 4 bricks among those, 80/7, 90/9, 60/20 and 100/13 and a long ride of 100 and long run of 22. Finished nicely with two taper weeks, and I was very satisfied with my handiwork. The time for planning was over, now was the time for doing.

I was already doing 2100 regularly in the pool, but my times were dismal compared to where I was 2 years ago. Anything under 55 minutes was a struggle. I had assumed I would quickly catch up to where I used to be and then improve some more. Somewhere along the way, we video-recorded ourselves swimming and OMG, I had ridiculous form. Turning way over on my breathing side and hardly breaking the surface on the other. It is always a great feeling when you find something wrong with your form, because now you have something to pin your hopes on. Very eagerly, I spent the next few weeks trying to fix what was obviously wrong. To my utter surprise, it slowed me down by a good 10%. Add to that, as my swims grew longer, I started getting sinus pain all day at work, and water seemingly stuck in my head till night. I was beginning to worry about my swim. If this happened at IM, I wasn’t sure I could bike and run after that. I wondered why this wasn’t an issue in 2014.

First open water

Meanwhile, we finally started our open water swims in May. Prakash said all he needed was 3 open water swims before IM. I peppered our schedule with 8. Open water is always a nervous proposition for me. Our first one was at Coyote point, and the water was quite choppy. Nice choice to “ease” back in. Still, it worked out pretty well, as it all came back quite naturally quite quickly. Finding a good time to swim at Coyote point can be challenging …. the wind is usually higher in the afternoons leading to chop, and you definitely cannot go there at low tide - I almost cut my foot swimming there at mid-tide levels once - leading to us finally swimming at Gull Park, a place neither Prakash nor I had ever been before. The water was strangely greenish and tasted a bit odd too, and was somewhat warmer than I had expected for the bay. Prakash didn’t like it much at all, but I didn’t mind it much. I would eventually go back there the week before IMV for a final open water swim with Aditya and his friend, Elizabeth.

As the open waters progressed, I had a revelation. Even long open water swims did not leave me with a swollen head and sinus issues. Could it just be the pool water? An eager bit of googling later, the verdict was in. Prolonged exposure to chlorinated water caused many people sinus pains that lasted days sometimes. These are the times when old adages strike you. Wasn’t there something about not meeting trouble halfway because much of it resolves itself before it reaches you? Well, so it was with the sinus issues. I would be free on race day! One problem ticked off. The nose-clip that had found it’s way out as a last resort was tucked right back into hiding. For the other problem, much like the saying “he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day”, I decided to take the easy way out. Even with my terrible form, I was well within the cutoff, doing about 1:50 on my worst days. Fix not what ain’t broken.

This did not mean I didn’t hope to somehow magically recapture my 2014 form and pull off a 1:40 in workouts. Alas, it never happened. There were days when I felt terrific and felt like I was flying and I came in at record pace of ….. 1:45. My best time was 1:45 and my worst 1:49 in the last 2 months. It was incredible … only about a 4% range. On the other hand, there were days I felt like sh*t, so it was good to know there was only so far I could slip. With a terrific transition I could hope to be on the bike in 2 hours, and that would become my goal. The long swim workouts in the end were even more boring than what I remembered from 2014. I just could not wait to get done with them. If I ever do another IM again, I will have to double my swim speed to survive the boredom of the training.

Bike rides were falling into place. I was picking up pace and closing in on my 2014 form, but not quite. Again I was about 5-10% slower. Puzzling … Stevens Canyon and Mt.Eden repeats became a staple for a weekday ride, and in the last 6 weeks I actually went spinning in the gym, and to my amazement, found it could be not all that boring after all. The solution was simple … a pair of headphones :) Running, i was more wary about, but the knee seemed to hold up well, and we started doing weekday Rancho Wildcat climbs. And soon we started doubling up on that. We didn’t have much of a goal for weekday climbs, but we were doing good pace anyway. Suhas started joining us by June, egged on by my suggestion that it was good training for his San Francisco full marathon. All this was fine, but the real telling workouts were our long rides and runs.

The day after my long bike ride with Karen up Mt.Ham, we ran 14 miles flat on Stevens Creek trail. It was a good run, and we kept a good 13+ minute net pace per mile. Our plan was simple - At 6:30, we needed just under 15 minute miles. To be safe, we wanted to keep it to 14. We always stopped a decent bit on long runs, so we figured if we ran 12 minute pace while running it would mostly work out fine.

A week later was our second brick - 80/7. Out first one had been a bit of an impromptu 60/5 a few weeks before. I don’t even remember now where that was. For our 80/7 we biked the Portola valley area and good old Cañada road, and later ran 7 from Gunn high towards El Camino and back (or maybe it was 8).. It had been a cold day, and I had finished the ride strong, but it was a painful 7 mile run for me, particularly the first 2 miles. But we settled into a decent though slow rhythm for the remainder. A 17 mile run the following week found us in Hellyer in the middle of the afternoon in scorching Sun, and we faded like spent flowers. I believe I walked the last mile or more. And we weren’t exactly blazing the rest. A week later, for our next brick 90/9 (or was it 10?), we went back to our favorite Uvas reservoir loops. It was now getting predictable. I raced through the first part of the ride, and faded in the sun towards the last loops. We improvised on the run - thanks to Prakash’s GPS watch, we could just run wherever we wanted without pre-marking distances. And so we explored the neighborhood a bit. The novelty always helps keep the mind a little fresh. This time we finished feeling very strong and did, IIRC, better than 14 minute pace overall, with stops. Workouts like this do wonders for the confidence.

It was mid-June. About 6 weeks left. We could count off the long workouts left before the highly anticipated taper. We took a much deserved break climbing Mt. Dana the next week. Fantastic trip it was, but given we only did half of a 5 mile round trip hike, I am not sure it did much for our training. A 60 mile ride we had planned before leaving for Yosemite went for a toss as well in the time crunch.

The weekend of June 19th was a memorable one. Our first attempt to swim, ride and maybe run on location. Karen was to join us from Sacramento but she cancelled at the last minute. Since the damn beach opens only at 10, we decided to ride early, get done and then go and swim. We had plans for a 90 miler, hopefully under 6 hours. Char had promised “it’s a flat course and a good one for first timers”, and Karen had added “there’s just the one hill which you will notice only because it’s at mile 100”. You know what they say about best laid plans. By the time I picked up Shankar and found our way to the Jimtown church where we planned to start the ride, it was well past 9. Patkar, who was doing the half in 3 weeks, joined us. I was feeling the urgency of speeding up proceedings given our late start, and think I took off at a far too optimistic pace. We regrouped often, at turns and water stops. Most of it was the original 56 mile loop with a few subtractions to bring it down to 50, and taking Old Dry Creek road instead of Dry Creek on Shankar’s suggestion that it was quieter and better. We finished the first loop in good form and time, but I was starting to feel a little worn out. By this time the mercury was climbing, and as we went out for a second but shorter loop, I quickly started fading away. By the time we got round to our favorite Carls Jr. water stop in Healdsburg, I was losing it. We were just 7 miles out but our pace had dropped dramatically. We finished around 5pm feeling completely drained. The beach closed at 6, and getting there in time to be able to even take a quick dip was impractical. Patkar had meanwhile done a shorter ride and run a few miles. Shankar had headed straight to the beach in the middle of the second loop - he wanted to do a 100 and run a bit. Prakash and I dragged ourselves into the car and met Shankar at Sunset beach. He was just going to do a couple of miles, but I declined to join him - my confidence was shot and I was totally out of it. If these kinds of temps - high 80s/low 90s - prevailed on race day, I wasn’t sure how we would get out of it. Besides, we were slightly piqued at the course, we felt it was anything but flat! All the nasty rollers came out of nowhere on the second loop!

We had exactly 6 more weeks of training left. Rancho runs were becoming faster and more exciting. That Thursday Prakash skipped and Suhas needed to be back early, so we raced down Wildcat and all the way back to the lot. I believe we did under 9 minute pace for the last 2 miles. It was invigorating and felt good. That Saturday was the famous Stan superbrick. We were both mentally prepared - Prakash and I ie. We set up for 15 mile loops of Cañada road, but the early first loop we went around Portola fearing boredom on Cañada. For our runs we used Mt. Home road and Manzanita way. Loops of 4 miles each. Our plan was 30+8+15+4+15+8. I have to say this ride was one of the best for me. I was feeling in fine form and flying. The second (4 mile) run was my slowest but I still kept up 15 minute miles, but the heat was killing me, even though the entire trail was shaded. Prakash seemed to be enjoying the whole thing way too much. Once the sun went down though after 5, I found myself recovering very well, and scorched the last 8 mile run. All in all, it was a fantastic workout. Both of us have always found Stan’s superbrick easier, though, because of the frequent switch between running and biking. It is doing one activity for a prolonged time that seems to wear us out. My struggles with pain between the shoulder blades I have echoed too many times. While the common wisdom in riding is to get more streamlined as you get more experienced, I was going the opposite direction. A month before, I had taken my bike in for a tune up and asked for the handle bars to be raised. It would make me slower by 5% maybe, he said. Comfort before speed, I said. Besides, I felt I had a little leeway in the bike segment. I might never know how this tradeoff worked, but for sure, the back pain eased off a bit and that was all I wanted.

Super superbricks never come for free. I woke up the next day with a badly inflamed knee. All that racing down Wildcat and scorching the last superbrick run had taken its toll. There was just one big weekend followed by out biggest brick left and then the taper. Just 5 weeks of training. This was absolutely the wrong time for this to flare up. I was frustrated. A quick chat with Char allayed my fears a bit. He said I had enough miles behind me - I should just abandon the runs or walk them instead. And so my run training came to an abrupt end. I was determined to walk the miles, there was no abandoning anything. That is just not me.

A quiet week found us at our last but one big training weekend. An 85 mile ride and a 22 mile run. We had nothing clearly planned for our 85 mile ride, and very last minute we decided to go to Napa and ride Silverado all the way. I thought this was an amazing training route. We started at Trancas/Silverado (Union downtown), after wasting lot of time getting ready - mostly mentally - and went up to Calistoga for a 56 mile round trip. St. Helena at 18 miles up was a perfect watering hole. We went back to St. Helena for another 36 miles to round up a 90-92 mile ride. Through the entire stretch we had just one stop light and very few cross roads. Perfect training setup for an IM. It was great weather, staying mostly cloudy and in the low 80s, though personally I would love it to be in the high 60s. One thing was amply clear. I do not like the heat. There was a lot of headwind on the way back. Strangely I suffered some leg cramps - the first time since Death Ride in 2013. I didn’t think too much about it, slowed down a bit, and we finished the ride in good cheer and good form, though I was more tired at the end than I wanted to admit. The headwind on the way back had been very taxing. Sunday, we parted ways - Prakash plotting his 22 mile run, and I, instead, opting to do a tough, fast hike with Suhas in the Pescadero Creek Park. There was quite a bit of climbing, and we were in a bit of time pressure given we started a bit late and lost our way a bit on the trail. It did nothing to dull our spirits though and we enjoyed a beautiful hike done at a fast enough pace to make it challenging and a good workout. All in all, 20 minute per mile pace even with all the climbing. Hiking, in my mind, was not running - you did not pound your legs every step - and I fully expected my knee to

cooperate with this completely. Well, of course, it didn’t - by night it had inflamed badly and left me completely puzzled. I knew the drill …. RICE …. plus, I added Ibuprofen. Sigh ….

By now they had finally published the athlete manual, and I read it end to end, and made a quick reference sheet of cutoffs and pace we needed to keep.

Pace guide

One more quiet week of swimming and a bit of spinning late in the week, and we were at our final brick - the Big Brick, the 100/13. Determined to set things right, we went back to the Vineman course. We parked close to the school this time - yes we got that part right for sure - and did the exact 56 mile loop. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Dry Creek was, IMO, a much nicer road than Old Dry Creek to ride. Much less rolling. Knowing what to expect is always such a huge advantage. The course was familiar and less intimidating, even felt flatter if I may say so. While it was tempting to go for 112, we stuck to 100. We rode down to Johnson beach to check out that part of the course as well, coming back through Healdsburg directly to Windsor. Riding to Johnson beach felt ridiculously hard with all the headwind, even though it was mostly downhill. We did recover very well though on the way back and I finished the 100 feeling exhilarated, racing through the last 20 feeling stronger than ever. This was exactly how we wanted the real ride to go. In retrospect, it was probably cooler that day, but we were surely getting better at dealing with the heat too. We ran 4 miles on location, feeling quite energetic, and then drove off to Santa Rosa. The Vineman 70.3 crowd was all here. That’s right - Vineman 70.3 was the next day, and we had planned around it. Do our training on Saturday, airbnb it locally, cheer the squad on Sunday, and once they were off riding, swim on location, go back to the run course, see them all finish and drive back to top off a classic weekend. We met briefly for dinner with them, and then tried to finish off the remaining 9 miles of our run. Running even the first 4, I had been very cautious. I had decided not to run at all coming in, but I can never seem to resist the temptation to see a workout through. We found a decent neighborhood, put on our headlamps and started running slowly. We found a good 1.5 mile stretch that we could loop around for 3 miles. After about 2 miles, I felt a twinge in my knee and decided promptly to switch to walking. I tried to keep a steady fast pace - after all this might be what I would be doing on race day and I needed to know how well I could do it. I clocked myself doing about 18 minute miles, and I was practically speed-walking! No way I could keep this up for 10 miles let alone 20 or 26. Still it gave me a baseline: about 7:50. Prakash completed his 13 much faster than if I had been running with him. We made our way to our airbnb and called it a night. We had booked the exact same place we were using for race weekend so we were getting a sneak peak, and we really liked what we saw :)

We had an early start on Sunday. To see our swimmers off, we had to be there by 7:00am, and it was a 30 minute drive and parking wasn’t going to be easy. I will skip talking about the event, but it was great fun for us, and we even put in a little spontaneous volunteering along the way. Our highly anticipated swim happened right after everyone left for the ride. Our first - and now, our last - training swim on location. What can I say - it went as well as I could hope for. The water was just the right temperature, and having the banks on both sides made it feel safer than Lake Tahoe or Aquatic Park. Prakash wanted to do about a mile, but I was happy to call it off earlier. What with him racing off at a great pace, it worked out just like that and we came out together feeling very very good about the swim leg. The rest of the day was spent happily cheering and volunteering in the calm satisfaction of having finished our biggest workout and topped it off with a great swim. My knee had withstood the little running from the previous day very well too. All that was left now was a couple of taper weeks. Just the thought of that sent chills down my spine. We were finally there, at the verge of finishing an IM, a complete 140.6. It was time for goosebumps and butterflies ….

The last two weekends went by quickly. I had been spinning regularly for a few weeks now, and kept that up. I pushed myself to keep up the swimming - only 2 weeks more after all. Prakash was out in Montana the next weekend, and I did a super fast 60 mile Canada ride in 3:50, followed by a 10 mile walk in LGCT. The last weekend we planned our classic Lucky’s to Los Gatos downtown via Mt. Eden and back and then out to Alpine Robert’s market and back for a 56 mile ride, but Prakash had a fall and a nasty scrape on his knee, so we cut that short, and I walked 7 miles the next day in Baylands, and we were really done with all our training!

Part 2 : The week before ….

The excitement was beginning to build and planning was in full swing. It seemed surprisingly easier than the last two times we had been at this. The experience surely helped, but it being local helped more, as we could just take whatever we wanted. We took Thursday and Friday off, and left around noon Thursday - just the two of us. My mum, sister and brother-in-law were to come on Friday evening with Raghu. We got there about 2:15, and headed straight to Windsor school. We caught most of the last information session of the day, got our few questions out of the way, met Rajeev (Shankar) who came in just around the time we did, and finally checked in

Yes, our names finally in print

and picked up our bibs, timing chips, and goodie bags. I have always been in awe of how absolutely fit everyone at triathlons look … and also how relaxed almost everyone is. Were they just way better than us, and so sure of meeting the cutoffs that they felt no stress? Or does it come with experience of having done a bunch more? Even Rajeev had skipped out of the briefing saying “same old thing anyway”. I, on the other hand, was very worried we had missed the first 15 minutes - what if some important course announcement had been made? Like how they switched the run course from 2 loops to 3 loops just a week ago. Some day, I will be like him. Like them. Some day.

We made a quick stop for groceries - bread, eggs, cheese, veggies - basically for meals till race

day. Our airbnb was pretty remote and we didn’t fancy wasting time going out for dinner. We got back home and had a sumptuous dinner - if I remember correctly, packed by mom from home, though Prakash had asked me to bring poha and he did cook something - was that Friday dinner? Hmm…. Anyway, we ate heartily and then decided to finish doing the now famous IM 5-bag sort of our checklist items into Morning, Bike, Run, Bike special needs and Run special needs bags. It went a lot smoother and faster than the last two times. After we had pored over the list and sorted our things to our satisfaction, we tagged our bikes and helmets, labeled the bags with our bib #s and affixed the run bib to the tri-belt, and made a brief list of what was left to take care of. Very neatly done, even if I should say so myself. There felt like scant little left to do on Friday. All the better. We picked our rooms for the night and crashed with no plans of getting up early. After all tonight was the last night we could expect to sleep really well. I had in fact slept quite well all week long. Stan would be proud of me.

Friday morning turned out bright and warm. We got up as late as practical, and had a good

breakfast. All we had to do today was pack the food for the run bag - the only one we could not

All checked in

get into on race day - and then go and check in our bikes, bike bags and run bags, and then pick up a few last minute things for tomorrow. It really all felt way too relaxed compared to previous times. We left around 9:30 to Johnson beach - T1. Luckily our airbnb was in an unpopular direction from the beach and we had an easy drive with very little traffic and found good parking. We met Karen at bike check-in and exchanged a warm and long embrace. Always so wonderful to see her. Check in went smoothly, and we headed to the water for the customary day-before swim. Prakash opted out to avoid any issues with his knee-wound. I switched to wetsuit and got in. As expected there were a lot of people in the water. I did barely 500 yds and got out - somehow I didn’t feel the need to do anymore. The water was comfortable and just about the right temp. Maybe a couple degrees lower at 7 would be even more perfect. As I was changing outside I heard a couple of guys chatting. One asked the other how the water was. The other said “Oh, you will sweat your ass off if it’s like that tomorrow. But I’ll suffer the heat and take the buoyancy of the wetsuit”. Hmm… clearly a different breed!

By 2 we were done checking in our run bag at Windsor school, and had even leisurely checked out the expo. I tried every flavor of mini cliff bar they had, most of them were really quite good! I remember the days of my first marathon - Coach Char would tell us to stay off our feet, don’t tire them out etc. It’s odd how we are so conscious of that in our first marathon, and yet here, when we were doing significantly longer distances, we didn’t pay much regard to it. We did have plans of a nice afternoon siesta though, before readying the rest of our food for race day. Besides, my mom had to come and prepare her awesome lemon and curd rice … and there were a few things left to pick up as well - Prakash wanted a sandwich for the transition, and I was toying with putting an espresso shot in mine for the kick-start to the bike - hat tip to Rajeev Shankar for the idea. I finally did get Starbucks’ double espresso. I also needed to get my favorite buttered jalapeno cheese bagel for race day breakfast … something I looked forward to eagerly. It has become a race day tradition for me. We grabbed lunch at subway in a nearby mall, and Prakash decided to drop in to an urgent care to quickly check on his knee and any last minute advice. The doc there took FOREVER and a bit, and I was getting really anxious now that our afternoon siesta plans were shot. If I was this touchy I must be nervous after all. We were finally done, stopped at a bagel shop in Sebastopol to pick up my favorite bagel plus a plain one for Prakash, and raced home for our nap. It was well past 4, and I could barely sleep at all. 6 struck and I called off the napping attempt. Soon afterward Raghu arrived with my sister, BIL and mom. Lemon rice preparation started immediately. A couple of hours later, we had packed all the food, placed them in appropriate bags, made notes for the few things to take care of in the morning, and were just chilling when we had surprise visitors …. Suhas and Deepti had come to stay the night and cheer us on in the morning! We chatted awhile, and then decided to retire for the night - get as much sleep as possible.

We had planned our morning backwards. We had to be out of transition at 6:00, we needed 15 mins for wetsuit and porta-potty projects, and 15 mins to stuff food in our bike/bike bags and drop off the special needs bags. That was 5:30. We probably needed 30 mins for the drive and 15 mins extra just in case .... 4.45. Which meant, for me, getting up at about 4:15. Alarm set. Window cracked - I like it to be cool enough to need a comforter, to sleep really well. Biking jersey and shorts laid out, ready to don. To-do list for the morning on the table. Everything was taken care of. And so I lay down. But sleep would not come! I checked the time every half hour give or take. I could hear every single cricket from outside the window, and the clocks ticking. It was ridiculous. At home, I barely had my head on the pillow before passing out. Was I really that nervous? The later it got, the more panic I felt. Which made it harder to sleep. Gosh, this was becoming a nightmare. I reckon I got at most 2 hours sleep all night. This was the least sleep I had ever had before any race. I got out of bed at 4:00 finally, feeling it pointless with 15 mins left anyway.

Part 3 : … Race day

Getting to the start line

When things don’t go to plan, I get cranky very easily. The sleepless night left me right on edge; nervous and antsy, but I wasn’t feeling sleepy. My mind was racing. I told myself to forget about it. This is why we train so hard for months. One sleepless night can’t ruin it all. I started getting ready. Brush, coffee, restroom and donned the armor. Rubbed my hands at the thought of my jalapeno cheese bagel …. only to find Prakash had accidentally eaten mine and left the plain one for me!! I started losing it. I could barely swallow the plain one and soon dumped it on Raghu in great annoyance. After 10 minutes of cursing everything I took his suggestion of rotis and yogurt and made a breakfast of it. It wasn’t bad after all. We left pretty much as per plan, Raghu driving us there. Suhas and Deepti to bring my family later. It felt like old times, the 3 of us “Florida boys” off for an adventure of sorts. My mood lifted and I started feeling happy and excited again.

We found easy parking less than half a mile away and headed to the transition area to get marked. The special needs bag drop was right outside and we found our bins and rid ourselves of them. Body marking was quick. Our numbers were right next to each other - 1651 and 1652, a consequence of our last names being Iyengar and Jalan and so our bike rack spots were right next to each other too. We put what we needed to on the bike, pumped up our tires once more, dropped the food in our bike bags, and were ready to (wet)suit up. It was already 6:00 and we were just feeling a teeny bit of a rush now. The porta-potty lines were getting tremendously long. We quickly changed, applied the necessary body glide and tri-slide, zipped up the wetsuits, dumped our morning bags in the truck, and got in line. Maybe 10 minutes later, we were both out and racing to the beach to find our friends and our places in the swim chute. We found everyone - Suhas, Deepti, my mom, sister and brother-in-law had arrived and so had Shashi,

Venkat and Sumit. Those 3 had gotten up at

All set!

3:30 and driven up from the South bay. We took a ton of customary before-race pics. We just couldn’t stop smiling. Hope and anticipation in the air. I was way more relaxed than I had imagined. Eventually we hugged everyone in sight, and worked our way to the 1:30 corral. I expected to take at least 1:45, but Prakash would likely come in closer to 1:30. In any case, we thought it best to get a bit of a head-start. I had always wondered - with so many people swimming in such a narrow river, we ought to be able to draft behind someone or the other all the time; thus we should expect to be a bit faster, and so the 1:30 made sense, didn’t it?

The line moved super slow, and by the looks of it we wouldn’t make it out by 7:00. It was unclear why we were just inching forward. But it did give me more time to think about where we were, and the long road, starting years ago, and the crazy attempts in 2014. I felt goosebumps. But there was less nervousness and more excitement. I kept going over in my

mind some rules for myself. Do not rush out
over-zealously. I remembered the feeling of suffocation in my first half IM. I did NOT want that happening again. Focus on a good rhythmic stroke. Keep the head low when sighting so as not to disrupt the streamline form. And so on and so forth. I had donned a brand new pair of goggles and hoped I wouldn’t have to adjust them in any way. It was comforting at this time to know though that the water was at most only 7 ft deep and 4 ft at places, so I could stand and adjust the goggles if needed. I hate treading water when I can’t use my arms ...

The swim leg

After what was an eternity we reached the start arch. The moment was here. Raghu was knee deep in the water taking pics. Quick pose and then back to the race! I waded in and started swimming with everyone. People talk about how intimidating an IM swim start can be with 2000 other folks jumping in with you. People get run (swum?) over, elbowed, kicked, tickled,

Finally starting

slapped, and so on. Yes, all of that happened, but personally, I don’t get too bothered by all that - maybe riding Bangalore buses in peak hours has helped - if anything I always feel safer in a race with so many people in close proximity. Safety in numbers? Having said that, there was a moment when one guy had me in a stranglehold as he was brought his arm forward over my head. Swimming in a crowd also takes away most of my need for sighting … trusting that most people are headed in the right direction. In this narrow river, it was a little hard to not. The course winded upriver for 1.2 miles and we were soon past buoy number 4. I was doing mental math wondering how spaced apart they were and how many there would be. We had missed the swim part of the information session. Having no watch, I had no idea how fast I was going. We had been warned that there would be shallow sections on the course, and it wasn’t hard to know when you were coming up on one. Bumping into someone’s butt was a small hint. I took it. The water also got muddier with all the people walking raking up the sand. Eventually I got up and started walking too, but the ground was uneven and had a lot of stones. I worried about cutting myself like Shashi did in the IM 70.3 three weeks ago. This experience was to repeat at a number of places along the course, at least 4 times just upstream. Walking was clearly much slower but some places it was barely knee deep and I almost cut my hand trying to swim through it. Even in less shallow zones, you had to weave through lots of people walking and it was no fun. I took the opportunity to ask someone how many buoys there were, and he said he thought 8. Turned out they had 11. Hmmph. Clearly some others were just as clueless as me, and didn’t care. Some places the river was really narrow and one of those I strayed from my line enough to bump directly into an oncoming swimmer. We both stopped, came up and looked around dazed. The raft guy looked on right next to us nonchalantly. Wasn’t it his job to keep us from straying into oncoming traffic? Hmmph.

Finally, I made it to the other end and turned the final buoy amidst loud cheers from the volunteers. The second half was downstream and I was looking forward to it. The tough part was supposedly over. The crowd was also thinning now. All the good swimmers had left me. I looked to the other side - there were still people as far as I could see. I was relieved I wasn’t even close to last. There was room now to swim continuously and and to get into an actual

View from the bridge

rhythm. I was still feeling strong and good. So much so, that I skimped on sighting until I ended up right in front a tree once. I stopped and realized the river had curved a bit and I was already climbing the bank! But for the most part, the rest of the swim went smoothly except for the few walk breaks - fewer now with not many people to bump into walking ahead. Finally the overbridge was in sight. I knew we were close and started pushing a little harder. The finish arch was also in sight. In no time I was at the finish buoys, and found my footing. After gaining my balance, I started running up the ramp. I saw Raghu first and then the others behind him. The clock read 2:15 or something like that. I had no idea how much into the race we had started, but I hoped it was under 1:45. My plan had called for being out of transition 2 hours from my start. All our friends were cheering raucously - always such a boost. Innocent spectators must be excused for thinking we might be leading some category in the race, when in reality we were probably in the 10 percentile range. It says less about our abilities and more about their excitement and support.

All in all, I absolutely enjoyed the swim leg. The mass entry, swimming with people all around you, getting kicked every now and then … felt like being part of a school of fish ... or an army … somehow it was a grand spectacle that I thoroughly enjoyed!

T1

Swim in

One of the most anticipated events was finally at hand. The wetsuit stripping!! For once in life I didn’t have to fight with that thing. You lay down and the tug of war ensues. She won in seconds, and I picked it up and ran for my bike bag. The ever present Chakri had appeared on scene and mentioned that Prakash was in the changing tent. I was surprised - I thought he would be on the bike by now. Maybe drafting had helped my swim more than I had realized. The changing tent was dark and muddy and crowded. I didn’t waste time trying to find Prakash. Opening up the bag and spilling the contents seemed to take an eternity. I finally got my jersey on along with the arm sleeves. The weather, if anything, would get really hot, so I didn’t pick up anything else - though I had packed all kinds of warmers just in case. I gobbled down the lemon rice and curd rice I had packed. Plus the Ensure and starbucks double espresso shot - that

Bike out

felt really good, mostly because it was nice and sweet :) I

put on my socks and shoes, stuffed everything back into the bike bag, and rushed outside. Handed off the bag and ran to my bike. There were still quite a few bikes on the racks, which made me happy. The whole Asha contingent and my family were right next to our bike rack. I noticed Prakash’s bike still there … I had passed him in transition. I grabbed the bike off the rack, made sure the brake pads were positioned well, turned around to our Asha crowd, who, by now, were hooting, grinned ear to ear, gave them a big flying kiss, waved wildly, and ran the bike out. My heart was light. I didn’t have any of the stuffy head feeling after long pool swims, so the chlorine bet had worked out. I was feeling, to put it plainly, in fine form, fresh and strong, and eager to roar off into chartered territory.

The bike leg

Venkat was waiting for the customary bike out pic. A quick hi-five and I was out on first street. I went out at a fast pace, mostly the adrenaline, and maybe the espresso. River street went by in a breeze, no headwind, cool weather and not many riders left. I kept overtaking people most of the way and soon reached Westside. Remembering our first training ride here, I tried to keep myself in check. Westside has all these rollers that had felt really hard on the second loop. Still, I felt great for this section and breezed through till I got to Kinley - our first water stop at 18 miles. The restroom urge was too strong to ignore now. It was impossible to push hard on the pedals for fear of … well, you know what. Whoever coined the quote “the more the merrier” clearly never stood in long porta-potty lines. It took very close to 10 minutes by the time I was done with that and my water refill and a little munching. I headed back out trying to quell the urge to make up for lost time. Dry Creek went very smoothly, and before I knew it I was on Canyon … our other climb of the loop, but this was gentle enough that I preferred powering through it to the top. Half way up, I heard a familiar voice behind me - Prakash had caught up, but he declined to move ahead and fell back again. I raced downhill and turned on Hwy 128 to the second water stop. We were about 28 miles into the ride, a quarter of the way done. From what I could make out on my relic of a bike computer, I was doing very good pace so far in spite of the restroom break. And I was feeling well warmed up and even better now. I had been drinking decently and ate something quickly and raced off. It was quite uneventful (and I don’t mean it was boring) till I got to Chalk hill and waterstop 3 around mile 40. I stopped very briefly and headed to tackle Chalk hill. The rollers before the hill felt great, and were well shaded too. Chalk hill didn’t pose any problems at mile 45 - it was just the first loop after all. Then it was another 12 miles back to the school. Fought Rd., Old Redwood highway, Fulton Rd, Airport Rd and then that crazy little out and back off of Airport rd where they had the bike special needs and waterstop 4. This was my only planned longer stop in the first loop. I got off the bike and the volunteer handed me my bike special needs bag. They were extremely organized and fast. I polished off the lemon rice and curd rice and some of the spicy Indian mixture that we had packed for that special touch to fire up the belly. Somehow it wasn’t as appealing here as it had been in some of our training rides. The sandwiches didn’t feel too appetizing either, so I just stuffed them all in my back pockets and got back on the course. It was beginning to get a little warmer now and I started my routine of drenching myself in cold water, not wanting to risk heating up. Back onto Airport road, Skyline, Shiloh, and then Windsor. I was feeling just as strong if not stronger than when we started as I raced towards the school. 56 was in the bag. Halfway there. I had taken about 3:30 so far. It was past noon, maybe around 12:30 by now. Even if I took 4 hours for the second half, I would have 7 hours for the run. It all seemed to be coming together.

I found Chakri and Deepa cheering loudly as I sped by the school and soon came upon cameraman Venkat. I yelled wildly to all of them, felt my energy levels surge and raced even faster. Turn on Windsor River road and then on Eastside. I loved Eastside road - it was beautifully tree lined and shaded with no rollers. I passed the 60 mile marker as I came up to the only small hill on Eastside ... and waterstop 5. It was more flat or downhill after that all the way to Wohler. The chill in the morning air that made for very comfortable riding weather was long gone now, and the day was getting hot. I stopped briefly to drench myself again before continuing. Up the hill on Wohler and past the bridge and back at Westside. If I got past the rollers on Westside, the only real challenging section would be Chalk hill area.

At the end of the first loop

It was just around the mile 70 marker that I felt the first sign of trouble. My right quad cramped and I quickly pulled to a stop. Bummer - I had been feeling in fantastic form. I tried to stretch but even lifting my foot made it worse. Barely a minute later my left quad started cramping too. I got off and and gingerly walked a bit and stretched slowly. About 10 minutes later, I tried to get back on, but even clipping in the shoe triggered more cramps. I finally got back on, and rode very carefully but cramps kept firing every few strokes. I struggled my way to the mile 80 water stop on Kinley. I stopped and took another longish rest with more stretching, and felt decidedly better. Maybe I hadn’t been drinking enough. I took some more salt and started drinking in earnest, willing the cramps to go away magically. I was now doing okay pace, but I couldn’t really push like I wanted to. Thankfully Dry Creek was mostly flat - I really needed that now. My bike computer told me I had been averaging about 17 mph till mile 70, and now it had dropped significantly, I later found out I did about 12 mph the rest of the way. I didn’t need to worry much yet. 5:30 was still a long way away. I climbed up Canyon without any incidents and felt better, and got to the water stop on 128, but the heat was really getting to me now. I poured a few gallons of water on me and continued. Somewhere on 128, Prakash caught up with me, we exchanged a few words of encouragement, and he went ahead. He was looking very smooth on his aerobars. It was around now I suddenly started feeling hunger pangs. It took me a minute to figure out what it was - I don’t ever get hungry on a bike - but what with all the focus on the cramps and the heat, I had omitted to eat since mile 52, and we were just past 90 miles. I munched on some sandwich but the hunger didn’t go away. The uneasiness increased, and the empty feeling got worse. I caught Prakash stopped and stretching on the side, but he waved me on. I tried to push the unease aside in my mind and ate some more sandwich. The second loop of Chalk hill was finally upon me. Prakash caught up right at the water stop and went on ahead. After another round of drenching myself with cold water, I set off to tackle the last climb. I was tempted to start pushing harder, but the muscles threatened to cramp again. Chalk hill the second time did feel a bit tiring, but I was done with 100 now. By the time I got to the flat stretch before Faught, my stomach had got worse. I was feeling quite nauseous, and I stopped for a bit. The hunger pangs just weren’t going away. I quit the sandwiches, and ate a pro-bar - these were specialty bike food, and should digest faster.

There wasn’t much to do but trudge along and hope for the best. Discomfort was fast increasing. I tried to keep eating every chance I got. I was feeling a bit dazed but the remaining - now 10 miles - was all flat, and I went through the motions. As I came upon the intersection of Chalk hill and Faught, I caught my mom, sister, brother-in-law, Thillai and Raghu waiting and cheering people on. It was great seeing everyone on the course. I thought they would have gone sightseeing and would only show up at the transition. Turns out they were so excited by the spectacle that they decided to stick around instead! As I rounded up on Skyline, I saw Shashi running down cheering us stragglers. It was a big boost. I started pushing harder now, and found Sumit cheering wildly - if that can be said of Sumit ever - at the corner of Shiloh. He had said he would leave early to return to the bay area … a very pleasant surprise to see him! I felt new energy, and started turning it up. It was 2 miles away now and I raced it in. Everyone was there at the bike in cheering for us. Someone said Prakash had gone by some time 10 minutes ago. I handed off the bike to the volunteer, and grabbed my run bag. I was quite shocked to see the number of bags still sitting around.

T2

I was all smiles as I headed into the changing tent. Unlike T1, the tent was completely dry and quite empty, and it was easy to find space to spread oneself out generously. It was also easy to find Prakash, who was still in the tent, probably cleaning up his wound and re-dressing it. It was about 4:45 pm. My stomach was still in turmoil and I didn’t really know what to do. I was also starting to feel a little dizzy. As I changed into my running gear, I tried to decide if I was in bad enough shape to consider pulling out. Normally I would not consider starting a full marathon in this shape. But we had already done all the swimming and biking. Economists will call it sunk cost, but there was too much at stake here :) I knew I could do at least a few miles. Not even trying was out of question. And so I donned my run shirt and cap, and tried to wear my shoes. Never thought pushing the heels in would be so hard, but every push caused my legs to cramp again. Finally got them on somehow, packed up all my bike stuff and handed the bag in. I ate all the curd rice and lemon rice. I had also packed an Ensure and drank it, but most things felt somewhat revolting. Every time I ate something, I felt more nauseous, felt like throwing up.

The run course was 3 loops of 8+ miles each. I had about 7 hours now. Walking the whole thing, even at my best pace - 18 min/mile, as seen in training - would take me 7:50. A more realistic pace of 20 min/mile would take me round about 8:45. So, I had to run at least half of it for sure. The logical move was to walk the first loop, and give myself a chance to feel better but this would put too much pressure on me to run the last loop in its entirety. At that point I’d be a lot more tired, and my knee might be the worse for wear, maybe making it impossible to run. No, I had to do what would give me the best chance at finishing. I would run the first 2 loops as best as I could and try to save up time for the last loop. If I could go in with close to 3 hours left, I could even pull it off by walking it.

Yet again, I passed Prakash in transition. This was getting funny!

The run leg

The run started quite ominously. I rushed out to the other end of the field where the volunteer stopped me and asked “where’s your bib?” I gasped … I had forgotten to wear my tri belt! I ran back on the double and directly into the wrong tent … when I heard a voice say “this is the ladies’ tent”! Ugh … I rushed out and looked around. Clearly I had completely missed that I passed the ladies tent when I ran out of our changing tent! Hawk-like focus! This time to the right tent, and to my seat and found it right there. Phew! Trying to get my bag back now would have been likely a nightmare. Now, all set for real, I started my run. I had not planned to carry a run bottle, and stuck with the plan. I had some gu gels, some cliff blocks, and a couple of bars, enough to actually see me through 26 miles. And, of course salt tabs. The one thing I had not neglected to take through the entire ride, on the dot on the hour.

It has been well established that I love biking way more than running. But one thing has to be said for running. It is a much more social activity. After spending close to 8 hours alone, it is nice to suddenly have people milling around you in both directions, even if you don’t actually talk to any of them. Most people were running with somebody and having unending conversations. Not just with their running buddies, but with many of the volunteers at the water stops. So much going on. So much activity. It helped get my mind off myself as I eased into a slow jog out of the park and onto Windsor River road. The course was simple. Windsor River road till the end, a right on Eastside, and a left on Old Redwood highway and then retrace back. There were 4 waterstops one way outside of the start point for the approximately 4.3 mile section. Pretty nifty. It always takes me a good mile or more to get into a comfortable running rhythm after the long bike leg. At every waterstop I made it a point to drink whatever electrolyte they had on offer - in this case gatorade, I believe. That didn’t feel too bad to the tummy actually. My nausea and dizziness persisted for at least the first couple of miles, but I tried to focus on the gorgeous views off of Eastside and what was bound to be a beautiful sunset. I realized now that I hadn’t spent nearly enough time admiring the beautiful bike course. What a pity …

After about two miles, I took a gu gel. This seemed safest given I generally like the taste of gu, and I had bought a selection of my favorites. I could barely keep it down - my stomach started churning and I thought I would throw up. So, gu gels were out. After a bit I tried a cliff shotblock and it felt equally revolting. But there was still that hunger pang. It was all quite confusing. They had an array of things at the waterstops, so I tried everything I could find. The chips felt really good, and I carried a pack with me. In retrospect, the constant sound of chips bouncing with every step was super annoying and I quietly put it back at the next waterstop - unopened. I tried the mini-clif bars - same as what I tried at the expo - and they actually gave me the least grief of anything so far. I guess you just have to adjust and find whatever works. Normally, I would never have thought of eating clif bars :) I finally took a bathroom break and realized this was the first pee break I had taken since mile 18 of the bike! Not a good sign. I didn’t wait for Prakash who had caught up and also in a porta-potty - he would catch up anyway. As I approached the turnaround, little by little I felt things getting better. The dizziness had gone and the nausea was tolerable.

It is absolutely unfair to have a course with repeated loops. So disheartening seeing boards that

say 22 miles when you know you are actually on just

Stud Shankar blazing the course

your 4th. Not to mention these people loudly exclaiming “Yay, just 4 to go” or “Home stretch now”. I felt like I was still forever away. The golden rule I usually follow is to never think about how much is left - that never helped ... but these mile markers weren’t letting me forget! Still, I managed to keep up my spirits and a good jogging pace. I forget now when exactly I met Karen and Rajeev, but I think it was in the first loop. Around my mile 5 and their mile 4. Prakash was with them. They were, of course, in their second loop already. Karen caught up with me by mile 6-7 and ran with me for a bit. I convinced her to abandon that and go for the Kona spot. Too much guilt running with her, and I didn’t want to risk hurting my knee by going fast. But I still did good pace, and constitution-wise I was getting slowly but surely better. I kept up the drinking and eating relentlessly, irrespective of how my stomach felt. Till the end of the race, every time I ate, I would feel a bit like throwing up. After the first couple of times though I got used to the idea that it would not actually happen. Prakash and I had talked about drinking coke to get that sugar and caffeine boost, and I tried it on the last water stop on the loop. It felt super awesome! Venkat was waiting at mile 8 and so were my family and Raghu and Thillai a little further down. All of that gave me the lift I was looking for heading into the park, and I quickly hit the roundabout and headed back for loop 2. Deepa and Chakri were also there now and I asked Chakri the time. Almost exactly 7 pm. 2 hours for 8+ miles - that was quite well done I thought. This time as I headed out on Windsor River road, most of the folks coming back were on their last loop and about to be done. Quite disheartening :/ But … you gotta do what you gotta do. The second loop went very similar to the first, if not a little better. I was clearly gaining in strength and getting into that nice rhythm you feel in the middle part of a marathon. The runner’s high, no weariness, no cursing wondering how you got suckered into signing up for this … AGAIN …. etc. I had followed trail running principles most of the way - walk the uphills and run downhill and flats. But I had cheated in running a few uphills too when I felt good about it.

The first loop had still felt a bit hot in the first 3-4 miles. But now in the second loop the sun was going down and it was bound to be cold coming back. Still, I had decided to pick up the run special needs in the last loop. I had an extra shirt and my headlamp in there. The rest of the second loop was relatively uneventful. I had clearly developed a working MO and stuck to it. This time on the way back, I decided to experience red bull for the first time. I had heard mixed reports about it, but honestly it was quite nice. Had a very odd taste to it. Venkat was still waiting at his post, but my family had fled the scene. This was all too cold for them. Just as I was entering the park, I heard a familiar voice behind me saying “nice jersey” - Prakash catching up. We got to the turnaround and found Ami, Adwait and Shashi waiting for us. After a few hugs and words, we rounded the turnaround and picked up our special needs bags. I still didn’t feel like eating anything I had packed there, so I just got my shirt, headband, and headlamp and wanted to move on. Prakash stopped to sit down and eat heartily :) Since we don’t get our special needs bags back, I grabbed everything left and decided to hand it all to Venkat on the way out. Feels so good not to waste anything :) My leg was beginning to feel just a wee bit heavy and I was worried that my knee might be getting slightly inflamed and tight. Had to keep it moving. It was 9pm. Another great loop. I had my 3 hours for the last loop. It had all gone beautifully to plan. I decided to take it a little easier on this loop, no point in taxing the knee more than needed. I was in no doubt of finishing now. Just a matter of time and some patience. Prakash soon caught up, suggesting that if we ran a 13 minute pace, we would finish under 16 hours. I let him carry on without hesitation. The course was now quiet quiet. Very few people going out, and not many coming in either. We were given glow tubes to wear for light. It was really getting pitch dark by the time I hit Eastside this time. I could barely see the cones marking the course. I just mostly followed people ahead of me with fluorescent dresswear. The group at mile 3 of the loop with the big tent and the loud music was, incredibly, still there. I forget now what they were advertising. All I remember is there was this absolutely cute guy dancing there and giving hi-fives, that I couldn’t take my eyes off. Thank god for small mercies. It lightened the heart and quickened the step. I let the girl convince me to do a step or two with her and danced on. This was really so much fun now … now that I was in not racing the clock anymore. About now I saw the SAG vehicle approaching, Shashi driving it! He asked me if I was doing alright and offered to get me a blanket for warmth or pizza if I wanted! Wasn’t this against the rules? Outside help and all that? Luckily it wasn’t a choice I had to worry about. I gave him the thumbs up and continued. I definitely did a lot more walking in the last loop. The knee felt a little more tight than before. I finally found my way to the turn around, “yay”ed silently and turned around with a little pep in the step. Finally the boards saying 22 miles etc. were for me!

Half of mile 23, Shashi stalked me on his golf cart. Felt like something out of a horror movie. He finally drove up and asked how I was. By now I was actually feeling really good. I seemed to have righted my constitution, but I was taking it easy, running/walking slowly. He almost seemed disappointed when I said I was fine. Or maybe unbelieving. I wonder if he got to help anyone as SAG. He accosted me a couple more times and enquired the same thing. By the time I was on mile 25, there were barely a light or two coming from the other side. I wondered if they would make it. Even if they rushed. There was this lady who had been with me since like mile 20. She was only walking - no running at all, but she was beating me hands down now. The last water stop was out of both coke and red bull by the time I got there this time :( I had been really looking forward to it. Oh well, it was just another mile and a bit now. I starting running everything, uphills and whatnot. I picked up pace as I crossed Star Dr. and entered the park. Now I was outright sprinting. They had an elaborate setup to get you to the school. It felt like we were running circles around the place. My family and Raghu and Thillai were waiting somewhere along the way for a last sighting, and then I turned the corner and saw the finish arch.

Finish chute

As always people were lining the entire finish chute (or whatever it’s called). My mind suddenly went back to that day 6 years ago, if I remember correctly, when I saw Chakri and Mouli run through the same stretch, finishing their first full IM, and how I had felt - the goosebumps and feeling resolved at the time to become a triathlete. Even then I had never dreamt of a full IM, it seemed so out of reach. Even a half IM distance had seemed formidable. And yet, here I was, finishing a full IM now, feeling in great shape, giving hi-fives to everyone in the crowd and sprinting through to claim my rightful title as Ironman. I completely missed the announcement this time, but it didn’t matter. I waited patiently as the guy congratulated me and handed me the medal and T-shirt.

Laukik and Sampada had arrived on scene. Deepa and Chakri were already there. The family, Raghu, and Thllai had made their way there too. More photos took place. Prakash had finished some 20-25 minutes earlier, well under 16 hours. I took 16:16:08 to be precise. About 1:33 for the swim, 7:47 for the bike, 6:31 for the run, 0:13 for T1 and 0:10 for T2. I am still convinced the swim course could not have been a full 2.4 miles. There is no way I do a 1:33 for that. But I’ll take it! After what was a very long day, we had put to rest our IM demons from 2 years ago. I still didn’t feel like eating anything. We picked up our bikes and bags and headed back home, happy and tired. Good tired. With good aches.

Part 4: Post race ...

That night I got barely any sleep again. I was too sore. It was hard to believe that it was just 24 hours ago I was tossing and turning right there. Felt like so much had happened since. The next morning I woke up ravenous, and ate probably everything that had been packed for lunch. Things started feeling even better after that. Eventually we wrapped up and headed back, stopping by the expo at Windsor school on the way, to take a quick peek at merchandise and what we might buy when they started selling them for a pittance, a year from now :) We were back in the bay area by late afternoon, and I woke up Monday morning feeling fresh and good and …. quite recovered. Isn’t this what Char always keeps talking about? It’s how fast you recover that tells you how well you did or well you trained for a race. The medal found its rightful place on my wall. It was finally a closed chapter with a happy ending. I can’t imagine how I’d have felt now if I had had to pull out. To do this all over again just to get that first IM would be so stressful. Pressure would have been so high. Luckily none of this even occurred to me on Saturday evening, and my decisions had been made with clarity and reason. Now I suddenly had this empty feeling. That feeling of purposelessness. One had to find new challenges now. There is no dearth of them in life. There is no dearth of examples and inspirational people around me either, thanks almost entirely to the incredible people I have met in Team Asha. Naming a few will really mean not naming so many others, but still I have to mention as always, coach Char, for being an amazing example, mentor and friend. I have said this before - he helps turn dreams into reality. Then there are the horde of Asha Ironmen and super athletes who inspire me and make me feel like maybe I can do this too … people like Chakri, Mouli, Chandrika, Karen, Raghu, Rajeev (Shankar), Vinod, Reshu, Stan, Mani … And Vivek and Vikram, my triathlon training classmates - it’s like your graduating class. So many others who challenged me to be a better biker and runner … Naresh, Aditya, Praveen, Laukik, Anshu, Vijay, …. And finally Prakash, my IM partner in crime - spread over 3 years and 3 IM attempts - training for a full IM is really no joke, and having someone to train with is really amazing. We had our moments of annoyance and disagreements, but in the end, he was great company, and training for it would have been immensely harder without him.

Getting to 140.6 is a bit like doing a PhD. It usually takes years of building up a base in each sport, until you finally can put them all together. You don’t suddenly plan to do an IM. It’s hard to even fathom that. You start small, and build up through half and full marathons, 100K and 100 mile rides, pick up swimming, and then it suddenly creeps up on you. You realize you are ready for a small tri. And then you dream of more and before you know it, you look at 140.6 and wonder if you can do that too. Almost everyone I know who has done a full IM said at some point “There’s no way I’m doing a full. I’m not crazy”. And then for the actual race, training every day means taking 6 months out of your social life. It is a lot of hours to be doing repetitive things, so you had better want it badly or enjoy it a lot or both. Strong motivation, discipline and focus are essential. As are sacrifices and prioritization. There is as much mental fatigue as physical. But on the flip side, among other things, it does teach you patience and perseverance and gives you numerous hours to introspect on whatever you please. Not to mention the fitness and bragging rights. But most of all, you get a deep sense of achievement, of satisfaction and of pride. And you get to call yourself an Iron(wo)man, which, as of now, less than 0.005% of the world can. Maybe in a while I won’t care as much, but for now, that feels real sweet.

It is a long road, but it is not hard. Anyone can get there, including you. Never doubt that. All you need is faith and patience and the will. The rest will take care of itself. Enjoy the journey, and the goals will happen along the way to a great extent. I, for one, have enjoyed this journey tremendously.

Here’s to amazing challenges, and the even more amazing ability of the human mind and body to adapt and grow to extraordinary strengths.

The prize

This and that ....

Monday, November 28, 2016

IM Vineman 140.6

IM Vineman 140.6 : A race report

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