Hyderabad Triathlon (Oly) – An eventful beginning of a new journey

As a runner, Triathlon always fascinated me. Reason is simple – Triathlons are the pinnacle of endurance sports and there is element of awe associated with a Triathlete even within the endurance athletes.

Read up about likes of Mark Allen, Dave Scott, Jan Frodeno & Alistair Brownlee and you will end up with a massive respect. The kind of records these guys hold are beyond comprehension even for an average endurance athlete.

Since early 2017, I started harboring the idea of doing a triathlon. I was always comfortable with swimming long distances (not sure when and how that happened, or may be, I somehow managed to hold onto my childhood swim endurance). Running was getting better day by day. The question mark was only about cycling. But, I always thought that I would get good at cycling with focused training.

So, I penciled in an Olympic Tri (1.5 Km Swim, 40 Km Bike, 10 Km Run) in my goals for 2018. And, then registered for Hyderabad Triathlon scheduled on 11 Nov 2018. Till mid October, I was on my ultra running plan (Hennur Ultra, 12 hour Stadium Run, Ladakh Marathon, Malnad Ultra), so there was no room for focused Triathlon training even if I wanted to. The only good part was that I was building up serious endurance due to Ultra.

I squeezed in 3 weeks of training for swimming and cycling after Malnad Ultra. Also, managed to do 2 trial Triathlon prior to the event so I was confident about good finish. I drove to Hyderabad (about 7 hours ride) a day before the race day. The drive didn’t take much toll so was fresh on the race day and focus was to enjoy the first triathlon, learn and build base for bigger goals.

Swimming leg started late as organizers were queuing the participants. After endless wait on the pool side, I finally dived, about 40 mins later than the scheduled gun start time. The swimming in a single lane with 3-4 other swimmers was a new experience. Surely a rhythm breaker but not too bad. I came out of the pool atleast 10 mins later than my target time. Transition was cool, so I thought. But, this is where race started to go south for me!

As I was crossing the cycle start line, the volunteer pointed out that my leg tag was missing. Damn, I’d left it in the change room. Took me 10 mins to get back, find the tag and come back to the cycle start point. I was devastated.

I started cycling with some good speed in attempt to make up for the lost time. And, then came the most dangerous 2 minutes of my life. Just before the 5 km mark, I was going downhill at around 37kmph and one motorcycle from the other side directly came towards me at even higher speed. I swerved to avoid collision but it was too late. Bang! it happened and I flew off the bike, took 3-4 tumbles and fell flat on the road. I felt as if someone has knocked the wind out of me and I lied flat on the road stunned. Other participants gathered around me and then came the volunteers along with an ambulance. I got off and assessed the damage. Right ankle hit, deep cuts on right hand and scratches across other parts. I thought my race is over and I walked off to the pavement and drank some water. I inquired about my bike and thankfully it was also fine. The ambulance guy came to me to guide me in. I requested him to give me 5 more minutes. I thought of quitting but then I hate picking up DNFs so decided to continue!

After a little adjustment with the bike, I started riding. The objective now was to solely focus on enjoying the process and not worry about the timing much. Right leg was hurting a bit but I kept moving hoping that it will eventually ‘numb off’. The cycling leg finished without any other major incident and I realized I still did my fastest 40 Km (not considering the stationary time).

Then came running which I wasn’t much worried up. I started slowly and built up the rhythm. Figured out the pace point where the ankle started to hurt and consistently kept running below that pace. 10K run, after all, wasn’t going to bother me much.

I hit the finish line with the net finish time of 4:02! Despite all the s#$% that transpired, the timing was above average and I finished at 33rd position overall. A quick look at the people who finished ahead of me revealed that I wasn’t too far behind. On a good day, I had a great shot at top 5 finish in my first ever Triathlon. But, it was not to be!

Signing off with a hope that I am surely better than what my first Olympic timings says. Next up is Ironman 70.3 at Goa in 2019!