Ironman 70.3 Goa

Since June, all my efforts were focussed on the upcoming Goa 70.3 - everything else had been an outing on the way to my Cat A race. Once the Mysore State Cycling Trials were over ( Read about it here) I had just about 3 weeks to my Ironman 70.3. It was fast approaching and to be honest I barely had time to think.

We need to backtrack a little to my Nationals Outing ( Read about it here). I had a lot of learnings from this experience and the first thing I did when I came back ( possibly even before I got back) was that I started working on all the things that I did wrong in an effort to make them right. Proactive is definitely an understatement for me! The first thing was to ensure I replanned my trip so that I reached Goa a little earlier to acclimatise and familiarise myself to the route, terrain and weather. I ensured that I got the crew of my dreams to come and support me - people I could rely on and trust with my eyes closed - the mere sight or voice of whom would give me a boost while I was on the course. And my bane - swimming - I knew I just had to spend time in the pool and as much as I was not so keen to - I vowed to head to the pool at least 5 times a week irrespective of fatigue, work load or other training load.

Truly, I have immense respect for the people who can train for racing the Ironman distance - 140.6 I mean - just the training load of the 70.3 - especially during the 3-4 weeks of maximum volume had me exhausted. Again, racing and finishing are two different beasts - racing means giving your everything out there and suffering for all of the hours you are on the course - finishing on the other hand to me means - having a good time.

Eitherway, having got back from Mysore, I laboured on with my training cycle. Ideally, I wanted to go to Goa at the beginning of the month with 13 days to my event. Initially I had planned to go on the 9th Nov - until the 15th Nov. But, Ahmedabad had taught me that I needed more time to get used to the place. I wanted to drive down so that I would be mobile in addition to the fact that I could stuff the car with the thousands of things that I may want. Now, we athletes enjoy the torture of training - thats how and why we are able to do it day in and day out - so our trips to Goa are very very different from trips that non-athletes make to the same place. Ankush was still travelling and had been offered yet another contract during my event - this time though he knew better and refused to take the contract since he knew he wouldn't hear the end of it. He also convinced me to hang in there for another week so that I didn't have to drive alone and that we would travel to Goa together. So, it was decided - we would head to Goa together on the 5th Nov 2022. The crew too was coming together slowly and surely.

The day that I had registered for the event, I had asked Mum, Dad and Ankush to keep themselves free for the week of my event - I really wanted them there at my debut. As the dates came closer and especially after our interaction through the National Games and thereafter the effort on setting up the bike and the State Trials - the multiple conversations on race strategy we had - Sanjeev Ramki was also invested and volunteered to come on over to Goa. One of my travel buddies from back in the day, Ivan Pena also called me out of the blue to inform me that he will be visiting India around the same time and will make it a point to come, volunteer, crew and spend time with us to watch the 70.3 event. Another surprise was that Kuljeet Singh - who I had been interacting with regularly and is now a dear friend - also, had booked his ticket to come and support me during my event - I was just blown away. Couple of my trainees too wanted to come over and be part of the event. The love, support and faith that I was getting from everyone around me was overwhelming - I just knew that I had too many people on my side, rooting for me for me and sending me their energy for me to not perform. I would have performed purely from the love that was on my side and in addition to that - I WAS READY! I HAD TRAINED!!! AND I was correcting all the mistakes I had previously made.

I had used Ankush's tubulars on Shade for the 20K TT. On my first practice ride is when I had a puncture on those wheels. It is here that I realised that the process to fix a tubular puncture is a long drawn one - also, one that was beyond my current capabilities and one that takes hours - something I did not have the luxury of which, in case of a puncture during the 70.3. So the next obvious order of business was to get my hands on a pair of carbon wheels. And since I plan to be in this sport for a long time now, it just made sense to invest in owning the piece of equipment which I would be utilising in plenty in times to come. So, now began the process of identifying and choosing which wheels to invest in - with a lot of inputs from the regular suspects - we decided that a pair of parcours would be the way to go - the question which was now left to be answered was details of the config of the wheels I would pick up. This is when Ritwik from Velo Studio came to my rescue and offered his team race wheels for me to try out and then Glarish, another fellow cyclist offered her set of wheels for me to try out to gauge which would be a better fit. After this experiment was over, I finally narrowed it down to the Parcours 56-86 config which I would look at using a lot over the next few years. As luck would have it, the wheels were taking their own sweet time and they finally reached Velo Studio late on 5th Nov 2022. Due to this delay, the trip got delayed by a day. Eventually, Ankush and me loaded up the car and head out towards Goa in the early hours of 6th Nov 2022. - It was a sunday.

We had a pretty good drive and made it to Goa by lunch time. The rooms had been booked at a hotel close to the venue - literally on the run route and possibly 1K odd from the start point. The rest of the day went in settling into the room, unpacking, familiarising ourselves with the surrounding area and getting ready for the next day. I was already suffering from a terrible cold and sore throat so I chose to avoid using the AC to avoid making it worse. I may not know many things in life but the one thing I do know is myself and part of that includes my body. It never has and never will respond well to the AC. More often than not, I end up falling sick after spending a night in artifically chilled environment. I have to give Ankush & everyone who shared the room with me over the next few days a huge shoutout for soldiering on without complaint since they had to sleep in practically a furnace because I just wouldn't allow them to turn on the AC. Yep! it is not easy to be around me. Anyhoo, veering back on track - reached out and made plans with Dinesh Heda - who is from Goa and has done the event in 2019 - to meet the next morning and check the swim route as well as Nirav Patel - of Hawkman fame and had been in Goa since the 1st Nov. The next day is when we jumped into action - the morning called for a meet with Dinesh Heda - the three of us walked together to the beach. There were a bunch of triathletes there already - there was a lead trainer giving instructions. Shady as we are, we quietly went and joined in the bunch. Dinesh Heda then explained the route to me - we discussed quite a bit about the Jelly-fish terror that had taken over and then decided to just jump in. I got my first sea-swim in, yes! off course the numerous jelly-fish gave me multiple stings but once I got out, I realised that it wasn't so bad afterall. There was a slight tingling sensation but that was pretty much it.

This is actually pretty lucky really because Jellyfish can be quite lethal - some of the deep sea jellyfish have the ability to kill a human within 3 minutes of their sting. Ofcourse the ones that we come across in the shallow water are relatively harmless and cause only a burning sensation.But then again, some of the stings are nastier than the others but what we need to realise is that it is not their fault. To begin with they are very simple creatures - really- they do not have a brain so they have no emotions, no vendetta, no nothing - they are just floating around in their habitat and then we humans, as usual, venture into their territory, into their personal space and then get offended when they brush our skin and end up stinging us in that process.

Anyhooo, enough about the Jelly fish, although they were a very real consideration each time we ventured into the sea. After wrapping up the swim, Ankush and me head out to familiarise ourselves with the cycling route - him and me and the GPX - we followed it to the best of our abilities but instead of sticking to the highway, we kept to the service road and veered off-track. Eitherway, we went and did our recce ( one loop only) and came back to the room post a good breakfast. Somewhere around 1pm I head out for an easy run at that godforsaken hour. The whole idea was to get the body used to the heat and humidity of the place at around the time that the body will be going through the same routine on race day. Over the next few days the rest of the support system arrived in one by one and we went for multiple reccces for making friends with the jellyfish ( they just don't reciprocate - very frustrating process this one) and route and weather familiarisation. In addition to this there was communal meals, trying out local goan cuisine ( oh yumm yumm) meeting old friends from across the country and making new friends in the process - meeting a lot of people IRL, having the Brooks family there in person, so much knowledge exchange, more than 2-3 sessions of puncture fixing workshops ( I was laughed at and sighed at - a lot!!!), all in all, very packed and satisfying days to the build-up to the event.

In addition to this it was a lot of fun to watch Miramar suburb of Goa transform into a triathlete suburb of sorts over the next few days with athletes coming down from across the country as well as overseas and being out on the streets in their colorful tri-wear at . Total delight! Time was flying and before we knew it, pre-race shenanigans had begun. Friday prior to the event included going to the pre-race briefing, heading over to the Expo venue and grabbing the race day kit. Ideally, the race day decals etc should have been provided to us here, however for some reason the organisers did not have them yet and we were given placeholders in the meantime. Expos are usually the place where we meet and greet the entire bunch of people and especially with it being the only Ironman Event in India, this was where all the triathletes in the country were at. After a hectic evening, we head back to the hotel rooms. The next thing on the agenda was to get the bike race ready. This included all the stickering to be done, last minute checks on the bike fit, aerobars, tyres, bento box, bottle cages -Thank God forAnkush and Sanjeev - they were more thorough about everything than I ever would have been on my own.

The next morning saw me heading out for one quick last swim prior to the event. Came back and Shraddha and me got ready to head on over to the Transition area to get the briefing of the area and the rules and regulations for them all. Once this was done, she and me took a drive on the run route since she had still not checked it out in totality. At the U-turn point we stopped and ended up meeting a whole bunch of volunteers for the event most of whom I knew personally and it just ended up in another meet and greet. I was feeling really good - I knew that I would have a lot of familiar faces along the route and in an event like this - it makes all the difference - your people cheering and egging you on!!! It just adds a spring to your step no matter how exhausted you are. We then made our way back to the hotel, picked up our bikes and head to the transition area to deposit the bikes for the night. We were accompanied by the boys too for this final effort prior to the race. I was welcomed into the transition area by Rushit doing the Bike checks. That too felt like home. After depositing the bikes into the transition, we head back to the room to grab an early dinner. The next step was to get the nutrition and hydration on-point for the race the next morning. So we got our individual race day packs ready. Next was to get the trisuits out and get the race kit ready -goggles, shoes, race belt, transition requirements - anything and everything that you may want and need for race day. After sorting this out, we had nothing else to do but to sleep. So we did.

Just like that, so unlike the Nationals, within 20 minutes of tucking ourselves into bed we were fast asleep - and this time - this was an uneventful, peaceful sleep - woke up to the alarm the next morning. The Transition gates were to open at 5:30 - so accordingly we woke up by 4 so that we could get ready and leave by 5 - giving us ample time to cover the 1K walk to the transition area. As we reached the start point, the gates to the transition had not been opened. We all stood patiently until 6am. With the event slated for a 7:00am start - the crowd of athletes was now getting irate. Sanjeev, the firestarter, started verbalising the irritation - after which the crowd followed. By 6:10 - that gates were finally open to the transition. From this point until the finish line - the story would only be mine to experience - all of these people around me would be there to cheer me forward and motivate me on - but now on, it was me and me alone who had to race through the 70.3 distance - 1.9K Swim, 90K Ride and 21.1K Run - but it was their wishes, advice, motivtion and love which was going to help me power through it all. And with that, we all moved forward individually -Shraddha and me entered the transition, Sanjeev and Kuljeet head towards the Swim start, Ankush, Mum and Dad would join them there before the start. Upon entering, the first thing they did was to give us the right wristband, next was to put the transponder on the ankle and thereafter - Shraddha moved to her bike, I moved to mine.

As soon as I got to my bike, I found the decals placed on my front wheel. I got one of the volunteers to apply the decal onto my forearm before I moved onto doing anything else. Next, I setup my transition area - everything had to be planned right so I didn't miss anything - not the gels, not the bib belt, not the shoes - everything had to move like clockwork. I had planned this setup in my head 100 times ( maybe more) so that I just couldn't get it wrong. And as per plan I had bought everything and placed everything on point. Next was to head to the restroom. Gosh! the porta-potty's were disgusting - they had been in use by all of the athletes and there was no water to clean it up. But at that time, there was no other choice but to suck it up and roll with whatever facilities were available. So, I numbed my olfactory senses and went about my business. When I came back to my bike for one last check before I head to the start point, I saw a random volunteer merrily using my water bottle to apply the decals on another athlete. I immediately told them both off - it is unethial to use another athlete's hydration and nutrition in their absence - you may not give a thought to it but the other person would have calculated their entire race and this tiny mistake could cost them their race. To be honest, I was a little more miffed with the athlete than the volunteer - he knew what he was doing - there is no excuse for it.

Anyway, I took my bottle and refilled it and carefully gave instructions to everyone in and around my area to back-off from touching anything that is not theirs. Post this I moved forward. I had already had my peanut butter sandwich and had stuffed myself with a little more food than usual which made me feel like a penguin waddling towards the start line. But as I crossed the transition, deposited my pump and moved forward, one of the volunteers handed out a banana to me - I grabbed it and continued stuffing myself like a bag of potatoes as I moved forward. I'm going to need all the carbs today. As I moved forward I saw Sanjeev and Kuljeet cheering me on. Already? I thought! wow - this is going to be awesome! I'm getting a cheer for eating a banana - this is going to be a good good day. I still wasn't aware that they would be starting the race over 45mins late. Made my way to the start line. Went into the second corral which had been assigned to me. Stood there for a while - met Vani and some other familiar faces, said hello. Ate my gel - realised it was beyond 7am and it didn't look like they were planning to start anytime soon. They soon made an announcement too. So I settled down and parked my ass on the floor. Shraddha was standing next to me in the other corral ( the faster one obviously). She did the same too.

The event finally started 45mins after the original start time. As the people from Corral 1 headed out, I saw some of the participants from my corral entering the faster corral - Typical! I thought to myself - everywhere jugaad and never follow the rules. Anyway, people were being released 5 in a row with a 10 second time gap between rows. Soon, I was standing waiting for the air-horn to go off. And Boom!!!! Off I went - everything else was noise - first stop - touch water - next wade through it as fast until I can start swimming. Keep sighting buoys as priority and dont get hit - do a little extra ok - but do not get slapped, kicked or anything which will render you useless for the remainder of the race. And so I went - stuck to the outside of the perimeter and kept swimming bobbing my head out every 9-10 strokes for sighting right. Ofcourse I veered off track - but thats ok - I had accounted for it. Before I knew it, I was out of the water, headed for the timing mat before re-approaching the water. I could hear them all - Mum, Dad, Ankush, Sanjeev and Kuljeet cheering me on!!!! As I waded in, I was anxious - I could not see the red buoys which were supposed to be the markers for the second loop of the swim and all that I could see was a whole heap of amateur swimmers kicking and slapping the waves as they came towards the shore. This is going to be interesting thought I as I jumped right into the chaos. I was super alert at this time. If someone was doing breaststroke ( and most of them were) I went far away from them to avoid the kicks - most people had no control over what they were doing. I am not ashamed to say that I even caught a few ankles and moved them aside as I continued my second loop. I had to stop multiple times and bob my head out to figure out where I needed to go - like I said - the marking of the second loop left a lot to be desired. But, everyone was suffering the same circumstances and at the end of the day - in a race you soldier through the circumstances as you make observations - but remember it is a race and there are no excuses - it is only about who suffers the best. Soon enough I was out. Next stop - Transition. Lets go go go!!! My support crew was right there with me - cheering me on as I moved forward. 600mtrs to the transition - running through the sand - I did the best I could. Kept moving. Ran straight through the showers - there will be plenty time to have a bath - LATER - the sun was hot enough to dry me up and I would let him do what he does best. As I reached Shade, I saw Harsh, Glarish and some more known faces (all members of relay teams standing there waiting for their swimmers) - they cheered me on. I changed into my cleats and started moving out when Glarish reminded me of the goggles I had stuffed into my pocket - I threw them into the transition bag and moved forward - running with Shade to the mount line. Yes! I ran with cleats - No! my skill level has not reached the point of flying transitions - not yet anyway!!!

While I am racing, it is truly meditative - there are no unnecessary thoughts which run through my head. And when you are on the road and on your bike - there is just so much going on which keeps you here and in the now - focussing on the road, fellow competitors, ensuring that you are sticking to the rules mentioned, ensuring your hydration and nutrition is on point, ensuring complete bike control especially during the cross-winds - so yes, it is all consuming. As I jumped on Shade, I knew that the event is only going to get better from here on now - I had wrapped up my weakest leg in a fairly decent time and cycling and running both are my strong suits. So off I went pedalling away - priority 1 being safety and priority 2 being - find an ass ahead of you, catch it and then drop it and then repeat - I had done the route plenty of times before and knew it fairly well - so here I was on auto mode and in my head I continuously heard Ankush and Sanjeevs voice - "Chotay, tuck in" or "just pull-through, pull-through". Since I do not have a cyclo-comp - I was riding blind and only with feel - glancing at the wrist was a luxury I could not afford what with so many other riders, rumblers, pot holes, cross-winds and so much more going on - I had one game plan - go as hard as you can!!! And, so I did - Along the way I saw and heard a lot of familiar voices, cheering all the participants on and there is indeed some solace in that familiarity. When you are pushing yourself and you know that in case something happens - they got you - it is a sense of security which lets you go all out.

Before I knew it, suffering of loop 1 was over - in my head the second loop was the one that I was actually dreading - to keep up the pace for an equal amount of time in the heat and humidity of Goa - but thats what the truth is right - the only way to get over your fear is to face it head on. The second loop was definitely tougher - not just because of the fatigue setting in but also the changing weather conditions and the winds - the cross-winds were crazy - in fact, I felt my bike shift sideways multiple times and it took all my core strength and stability to keep it on track while still pushing on the speed. And again - the focus was staying tucked in and pulling through the brutal heat and that hilly course - pushing up the climbs till those identified landmarks and then slight respite as I pushed again through the course. This is how I managed to wrap up my second leg of the event.

Now to move into the final leg of my event - the sport that is actually my jam!!! the final 21.1K - the Run leg of the 70.3 - 3 loops of 7K in the scorching heat of Goa - but, I had something that was incomparable - I had an entire team of cheerleaders spread across the route who were rooting for me, screaming for me as though each stride of mine was being taken by them. Special mention to my crew - Sanjeev - he had become an official volunteer and was on the course at the aid stations providing incredible support to all of the runners - be it ice, coca-cola, water - I remember clearly he himself slipped while giving me a cup of cola that I wanted - he fell but didnt let that coke fall and ensured I got it before he went down. I could see the helplessness in Kuljeet's eyes as he saw me run and just could not do anything but cheer for me; because I know that if he could he would have run that entire leg for me. Ankush, mum and dad were screaming their lungs out - I had given them very clear instructions not to come anywhere close to me - since Ironman rules clearly state that any outside help will lead to immediate disqualification - but, I could hear the pride in their voice as I ran past them. I heard Anjali screaming her ass off, the volunteers that I met, some of whom had been my trainees at different points in time - screaming out my name with that sense of ownership - they were all racing that event through me - it was hard for me to pull through in the run leg - but it was much much harder to let them down - so I did the best I could!

The first loop saw me walk up the small climb - but then halfway through it I decided that I had not raced so long to finally walk and then off I went - as much as my legs could support me - the aid stations were incredible - with sponges soaked in cold water, volunteers throwing water on us as we crossed them - that water indeed was a slice of heaven - and just like that - one step in front of the other -I continued on - pushing the pace on the downhills and the flats and conserving energy as I climbed uphill. There were a few instances of me running straight into runners coming from the other side. This could have been avoided with better management of the lanes - but no complaints. After racing for these distances, by the time you get to the run leg there are many a times you are on auto-mode and don't know what is happening so even though I was screaming for the oncoming runners to give me way, they continued and ran straight into me - Personally, I didn't have a choice as on my left was the slower runners I was overtaking , on the right I had runners from the opposite direction and straight on I had the delirious runner - so I moved as much as I could, took the hit and continued on my merry way inching to the finish line. Caitjin ( who was the only other woman ahead of me ) and me kept crossing paths - we kept giving each other high-five's each time we crossed. The first time I saw her, she had a 25min lead over me - by the time I finished, I had bought this difference down to 10mins - definitely something to work on for the next outing. But, I really enjoyed it - chasing her, cheering her and both of us pushing ourselves - she told me later she too had to continuously push herself because she knew I was running really strong - and THIS is the beauty of competition - it pushes you to be better.

Before I knew it ( no! i'm lying - I knew it well and good because reaching it had been an excruciating journey) I was on the red carpeted finishing stretch of my first ever Ironman 70.3 - I sprinted my heart out as I ran towards the finishing arch - I could hear the announcement as I crossed the finish line - " Congratulations TimTim, You are now an Ironman!!" I had wrapped up my first 70.3 in 5Hrs 23 mins - I had expected a 5:40-5:5:45 finish - I had bettered my own expectations by 17-22mins - I was 10mins behind the lady that finished first, I had come in first in my age category and I was India's fastest female Ironman 70.3 finisher - it had all been worth it.

No! I didn't fall at the finish line, No! I didn't cry - I have now been waiting to cry at the finish line for so long that I have just given up on it. I felt good, I felt strong, I felt like all the sacrifices I had made and the focussed training I had put in had come to fruition - I felt like all those people who had taken out time to be with me had crossed the finish line with me and were all part of my happiness and the journey. They are all reason for me being who I am - the support system matters!!! Thank You

Good things don't come easy - if they did, everyone would have them. Put in the work, you will get the result.