The 36th National Games - Triathlon Outing No. 1

Those of you who have been following my journey will know that the Triathlon has been on my agenda for a very long time now. The first time I did one was the one at Thonnur - in fact that too happened by chance when Ankush went for a ride to Mysore and from there they sent me photos & told me stories of how they went swimming in the lake etc. I got major FOMO and then started asking around only to find out that Ajit Thandur organised the Thonnur Traithlon two times a year and the next edition was not very far away. So, as usual, I got super excited and we started working together to spread some more news about this event, make it bigger and this time even got Finisher Medals sponsored for that edition. So that was the story of my first triathlon - obviously, I had zero training for it at that time but did know basics of swimming, cycling and running coupled with a fair amount of endurance to complete this event.

Post this, 2014 bought with it, another set of challenges with my injury and all ambition of sport had to be put on hold. Eventually, in 2015 I started cycling and in 2017 I started running again. However, even at that point, as soon as I would increase my mileage in running, I would keep getting some niggles which prevented me from training hard. So, later in 2017, I went back to Thonnur and did another edition of the Olympic distance in Triathlon. Post that, work took me on the road for the next year and thereafter I was based out of Delhi and Mumbai for a while - during which time I focussed on getting stronger and working on my run. Fast forward a few months and I moved back to Bengaluru in May 2020. The next 1.5 years through COVID comprised of my focus on setting up coaching services and building a base here in Bangalore after being missing for the last few years. Come Dec 2021 Anjana - who has been one of my first trainees and is now a dear friend insisted that we go and participate in the Half distance at the Goa River Marathon. I had not been training for any races per say but her enthusiasm was hard to say No to and we signed up for that race more as an outing and an excuse to party post the event than anything else.

Just like that, unknowingly she had kickstarted the racing season for me. Starting with Goa River Marathon I started my training block towards a racing season ahead. As we head into 2022, I signed up as an Athlete with Brooks Running India. Going into the season - I sat down to chalk down goals for myself for the year. I am possibly the most reluctant racer there is.This is simply because of the demands that racing needs out of you - maintaining fitness is one thing but performance demands an exceptional amount of discipline, an ability to say no to all the noise around you and an insane amount of focus on your goals. Training is not the 1-3hours that you are out on the field - it is a 24/7 routine from your sleep, to nutrition, to the thoughts in your mind, to what you watch and what you read, to the way you speak to yourself, to the energy you surround yourself with - and especially endurance sport - it can get really lonely.

I have a tattoo on my left forearm - it is an Ouroboros ( blind serpent/ dragon eating itself - this is an Egyptian & Greek symbol representing cyclicality, with the snake continually eating itself whilst being reborn representing eternal renewal, death, rebirth and infinity) with three infinity circles. One circle has a Runner ( when I did my first FM) , the next a cyclist ( when I did my first 200K ride) and the final one a swimmer ( whenI did my first 3K open water swim). The idea was that once this is complete I would go on to do triathlons and etch that journey as a sleeve on my arm. Another reason for this tattoo was a reminder for the journey that I have had, my growth and the trajectory I want to head towards. This tattoo was completed in 2017 but since then there had been no further movement on it. So like I keep saying, this is the power of goal-setting, with that tattoo sitting in front of my eyes, it was very hard for me to ever forget my ambition of doing triathlons. So, in April - post Bengaluru Marathon , I decided that this would be the year that I would finally sign up for the Ironman 70.3 event - since it would be my first, I thought Goa was a pretty good bet - its close to home and I could have all my loved ones around me at my debut. One of my other goals was to do an Ultra and I had signed up for Vagamon Ultrail on the 9th June 2022 - this meant that I could actually focus on my tri-training only post that. So, just like that even the training block for 70.3 had been defined.

Effective May 2022, I signed up with a pool - and although I had signed up to head to the pool - reality still was that I hated swimming and it took the will-power of an elephant to even get me to head to the pool . Ankush - my cycling coach - had been given the heads up as soon as I registered for the event that post 9th June we would go into an extremely structured training schedule in prep for 70.3. The weekend post Vagamon was a local cycling race - Namma Nandi - and on Ankush's insistence I went for the race anyway. This is what I tell everyone as well - when you head out to race - go and give it a good effort - the results are immaterial as long as you go out there and are honest to yourself in the effort that you put out. There were a few races post this outing and you can read all about them in the other blog posts with key being that I was heading out for outings as training races for the 70.3.

While in this training period, somewhere in August there was news of Triathlon State Trials being held for the National Games to be held in Ahmadabad. Since I was training for a tri later this year, I thought I would go and attend these trials just for fun to see where I stand in the larger scheme of things. So as per instructions, I registered with ITF and then early in the morning on 13th Aug - I head out to Old Madras Road as per instructions for the trials. When you pursue sport like we do, having a strong support system is key and I have been blessed to have the most supportive and encouraging family. The morning of the trials, Mum and Dad accompanied me to the trials. Our Trials were a little unconventional. Since we have a crazy amount of traffic in Bangalore, it was key to have wrapped up the bike and run leg before it gets too late and since we do not have any open water swimming option, the swim was slated for later in the day at a swimming pool. The first part of the Trials was a duathlon and then later was the swim leg. I did well in the ride and run but the swim leg at the trials gave me a confirmation of the fact that I had a lot of work to do. Since I had gone in with zero expectations, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually qualified to represent the State and just like that, I was suddenly going for the National Games. Of course, the reality of this didn't sink in till much later. I was also not sure if the Federation would actually shortlist me to head to the Games simply because I am about 18-20 years older than the average athlete at the National Games. The trials themselves comprised of just a sprint distance - 750mtr swim, 20K Ride and 5K Run which honestly is still too short for my comfort zone.

Since I didn't have much clarity and was focussed on 70.3 distance I didn't really push or prepare specifically for the National Games. However, the one thing that was clear was that my swim was extremely weak and it is here that I reached out to Coach Daniel Rodrigues to assist me with my swim technique to improve my swim timings. We continued as per my regular training schedule but he started incorporating specific drills and some technique correction into my routine.As we got closer to the event, there was a sudden flurry of action with us designing the trisuit, booking flights etc. I was still under the impression that the individual event would at least be the Olympic distance but either way with Goa as my main event - I was in no mood to taper or train specifically for shorter distances and stuck to my game plan. As we moved closer to the date of travel, I started freaking out a little. I had managed to get myself a hard case bike box ( courtesy Sangram Jena And Ravi Mishra) but that required me to dismantle the handle bar and pack the bike etc. In all of these years, I have never had to be hands on with my bike because I always had Ankush around to assist me ( or rather do it for me) - but this time around I didn't have a choice but to upskill my familiarity with Shade. Ankush was travelling for work and was super busy to handhold me through the entire process virtually and more importantly even if things were done for me in Bengaluru, I would still have to fend for myself in terms of setting the bike up in Ahmedabad - so truly, there was no other option left for me.

Things usually fall into place. It has always happened to me that when I am in situations like this where I cannot see a way out - someone or the other always steps in to help me out - maybe its karma, maybe luck - I do not know - but what I do know is that I am very very grateful for this assistance. So, at this time Sanjeev Ramki - who used to be an excellent runner and then conveniently made a shift to being just as good a cyclist - really helped me by patiently answering and resolving any mechanical questions I had with the bike - at the same time, even Naveen Raj was super helpful with the bike setup and the minor changes that I needed to make on the bike. Remotely, they helped me as I spent the weekend prior just dismantling the bike and setting it back up again. I cannot even begin to explain the stress levels I was going through this entire process.

Eitherway, 7th Oct was the slated day for our reporting and it was on the 7th morning that the bunch of us met at the airport - Prerna and her dad Sravan ( who is also multiple time IM finisher) , Vinod with his mother - our final team member, Yajat - had already reached Ahmedabad the day before with his father and coach. As soon as we reached Ahmedabad, I took one of the cabs assigned for us to the hotel that was booked for us by the National Games Organising Committee. Prerna & Vinod went to another hotel which their parents had booked closer to the venue. In hindsight, it was a much better idea - simply because the hotel us athletes were put up in was 30kms away from the venue - IIT Gandhinagar. As the cab driver and me chatted I was amazed to see just how well the entire city was branded for the National Games. Upon reaching the hotel, I saw everyone setting up their bikes in the hall assigned to the athletes by the Hotel. Entire State Teams were there together and I was already feeling a little alone. Eitherway, I made my way to my room and started setting up Shade. Yes! remote help was there for me throughout - only a phone call away - be it Ankush, Sanjeev or Naveen and that in itself was an incredible amount of psychological support to get me through - at least, the first evening. In the evening I made my way to the restaurant for dinner and that is when I felt really lonely. Everyone was sitting in large groups in their Team uniforms and chattering away excitedly while I made my way to sit alone on a table. Eventually I was joined by Bijen - a super strong triathlete from Odisha who is also part of the mini-orange team. He was waiting for the Services team to turn up. We made small conversation as we had dinner - soon after, I made my way back to my room.

8th Oct was the day of our briefing with route familiarisation, 9th Oct was the individual event, 10th Oct was relay team briefing and 11th Oct was Relay event and 12th Oct was the flight back home. Our briefing was meant to start at 9am - for that we had to be on the bus to the venue by 6:30am. The Organising committee had sent us a tempo for the bike transfer. I, for one was not at all comfortable with sending Shade in a tempo. So, I took a call and hired an Ola auto to take Shade and me to the venue. I took her front wheel off and put her in the auto - and we made our way to the venue. The route was so pretty and quiet - in fact, I saw quite a few peacocks and peahens walking around as we drove to the venue. As we inched closer to the venue - IIT, Gandhinagar - I saw an increase in the branding and signage to confirm that we were on track. Upon reaching the venue I set her back up and hopped on her while following the directions to reach the reporting point. I was advised to place Shade in the transition area and then have a look around the venue as I waited for the briefing to start.

I walked in to see an absolutely gorgeous Olympic Size pool and Yajat swimming in it. The Karnataka Team manager, Santosh was also there and insisted that I jump in. Now, I was PMSing and wasn't in the best of moods but the gorgeousness of the pool beckoned and almost immediately, I just had to jump in and get a few laps in. Post that, still dripping wet, I moved to the briefing area since we had both been so absorbed in doing some sprints that we missed the start. We reached just in time to get instructions on the rules of T1 - transition from Swim to Bike. Post this we all were to jump on our bikes and head for a route recce. So this was it, all the best Triathletes in our country were here at the briefing - I was chuffed to see them all including the exceptional Pragnya Mohan - the strongest & fastest female Indian sprint distance triathlete who has represented the country at the Commonwealth. Anyway, we all rode as a group and also started chatting with each other. Post the ride we were given a briefing on the rules of T2 - transition from Bike to Run and thereafter we moved to the run route. It was a slight drizzle so we took our bikes on the route and wrapped up the recce real quick. This wrapped up the first half of the day and we had a second session slated for 3pm in the afternoon. Since it was 12pm already - it just did not make any sense to head back to the room so I decided to rest under the shade of a tree. The rest of the Karnataka Team joined me as we decided to while away time at the venue. It was a good move to get used to the heat and humidity of Ahmedabad. The athlete briefing session comprised of a theory session encompassing all the various rules & regulations, the route, cut-offs, mechanical issues, penalties etc for the individual event. We then moved onto the complete the event-stickering and bike-check counter. We were meant to deposit our bikes and stack them at the Transition area - but since rain was expected through the night, the organisers gave us an indoor room to deposit our bikes. After wrapping up these formalities we all were meant to make our way back to our respective rooms. I was one of the first few people to deposit my bike and since I did not want to wait until the entire bunch of athletes got done, I grabbed an auto and head back to the room.

I was feeling very anxious by now and was just trying everything to keep my mind calm - be it breathing exercises or talking to friends or just going completely silent. None of it was working. I finished dinner early and tucked myself into bed. Our event was meant to start at 7:00am but we had a tonne of things to do prior to that - which included, travelling 30kms to the venue, moving the bikes to transition, getting the bib numbers applied on the arms and calves by the officials, timing chips on the ankle - so this meant we had to leave our hotel by 3:30am. This required me to wake up by 2:30am. I'm not sure what the cause of anxiety was - maybe the distance, maybe the fact that it was a National platform, maybe that I had turned up completely unprepared for an event of this magnitude - I'm not entirely sure - but this was the case and I barely got any sleep that night. After tossing and turning till late - it must have been way past 12 when I actually dozed into something of a slumber. But before I knew it, it was time to wake up and get with the programme.

RACE DAY WAS HERE!!!

I didn't even need the alarm to wake up for the event - I was so anxious that I just jumped out of bed on my own about 5 minutes before the scheduled alarm. I knew that I was not in the best shape for this particular event but hell I was going to give it my best shot any way. So off I went about my race day rituals - and by 3:20am I was at the lobby ready to board the bus. Other athletes trickled into the lobby as well. There were buses there to ply us to and from the venue - we were each assigned our specific bus and we loaded ourselves into it and as per schedule adjusted to Indian Stretchable Time - we were on the move by 3:45am.

We managed to reach the venue by 4:30am - the first thing on the agenda was to take the bikes and set up the transition for the event, next stop was to get the number markings done on the arms and legs followed by getting the timing chip setup on the ankle. Soon it was time to start. There were 32 participants and we were divided into 2 waves of 16 participants each - an olympic size 8-lane swimming pool meant that each lane had 2 participants each. I was in the second wave - we all stood outside and watched as the first wave started - it was a joy to see the brilliant swimmers in action. and thereafter them getting out of the pool and running to the transition for the next leg. As the last swimmer got out of the water - we were all ushered in and sent to our respective lanes. With a sound of the air horn, it was time for our race to begin - As I dived in, my only focus was to finish the swim leg - focus on my own race and give it all that I got. So I did - with each lap my only thought was one less to go! 750mtrs passed by pretty fast for me - As I pulled myself out of the pool, I realised I was second to last to get out. It didn't matter to me because it was only going to get better from here on. I made my way along the carpet to the transition area. Next stop was to get my helmet on, riding shoes on, run to the mount line and start the bike leg. And so I did.

It was a rolling terrain with a slight head-wind on the way back - 20K is too short a distance for me to get comfortable but I gave it my best shot and quite enjoyed spotting a rider ahead and then chasing her until I caught up with her and then dropped her. I made a couple of mistakes in my U-turns wherein I overshot one and didn't take another one in the best way that I could have. This continued for the entire ride until it was time to dismount. One of the biggest mistakes I had made was that I had not given any thought to the transition. As I dismounted, I uncleated and ran to the transition area in my cleats. Got ready for my run leg and made my way to the run leg. After running out for about 200-250 mtrs towards the start of the leg is when I realised that I had forgotten to put on my race belt with the running bib and since that is a pre-requisite - I had to take a U-turn and go back into the transition to retrieve the bib and then get back to my run leg. I did waste quite a few precious moments getting to the run leg - but I couldn't really do much more about it so I did what I do best - I enjoyed my race. The final leg was a 1.3K loop which we had to do 4 times for our 5K change Run leg. I picked up my pace and cruised as best as I could continuing to chase carrots. Each time I came to the finishing point, I had the commentator exclaiming how awesome my run leg was going and the the spectators all were standing there - from the first lap I asked them to start cheering as we crossed by. They responded and how - at each lap I had all of them screaming out my name and it bought a smile to my face everytime. Before I knew it, I was on the finishing stretch and crossing the finish line. From coming out second to last of 16 in the pool, I had finished second in my wave just behind my teammate Prerna. Overall I had finished 11th - it was not the result I had hoped for, but hey! it wasn't too bad - I decided I was going to take this one on the chin, introspect, learn from the mistakes I made and move on. Every day is not a sunday - somedays we win and somedays we don't, but every damn day we learn! And THAT is the key to growth.

Having wrapped up the Individual event, we all head back to the hotel for a much needed R&R. In my downtime, I revisited my race from the morning and tried to identify all the mistakes I had made so that I could incorporate the required changes into the relay event scheduled for 11th Oct. I finally managed to get some sleep that night. The next day required for us to go back to the venue for the race rules & briefing for the relay. We had to schedule our relay order - the rules required it to be in Male 1 - Female 1- Male 2 - Female 2 format. It was decided that Vinod would start the relay, Prerna would take over second, followed by Yajith and I would be the anchor leg. The main premise for this order was to relieve the rest of the team from any psychological stress so that they can focus purely on performance. The first half of the day was spent at the venue and we reached back to the hotel by early evening. I went straight to my room and immediately started practicing for the transition. Everything else was out of my control - but considering the amount of time I had, this was the only thing I could practically work on to improve my splits - so I did. I turned in early and surprisingly was actually able to get a few hours of shut-eye.

Next thing we know, it is a repeat of the previous event day with the only difference being that we will be competing as a team and the distance will be Super-sprint. It was a waiting game yes - but it was a lot of fun - Vinod started us off brilliantly bringing Karnataka in at 4th Place, giving Prerna a clap taking over the 2nd person in the relay - she was doing really well until she reached the bike leg and upon mounting realised that there was a puncture - this girl is a beast I tell you - she rode that Ridley for the next 8kms with a puncture - most of us would be horrified considering what it would do to our rims but she rode like a true pro and got the bike back into transition following which she did her best to catch up on the run leg - with Karnataka closing in at 8th position. Yajith took over the baton and being our residential fish - took off from the word GO! he pushed as best as he could and bought us back upto position 5 - finally handing the clap ( baton) over to me. Since this time I was racing for the State, the fire and sense of urgency in me was next level - so I head straight in and dived into my lane - just 5 fast and furious laps - opening with a 1:45 - 100mtr - its was possibly the fastest 250mtrs I have ever swam - moving into transition, and it is here that all the practice would show up. Heading into the ride leg - I managed to overcome the issues I had faced 2 days prior in terms of the U-turns and had a short but strong ride. Moving into transition, I managed to take one foot off while being cleated in and quickly grabbed the other shoe off the foot, held it and ran towards the transition. Needless to say, the first thing I grabbed was my race belt and from there I bolted straight out onto the run leg. I did my best wrapping up the 2.7K run in 11:xx mins. I had given it my all on the day, had improved tremendously as per my own standards from the previous outing and I was satisfied - also managed to hold onto the spot that had been given to me - Karnataka came in 5th. We were winners from where I saw it - we went out, we raced hard, we overcame tough situations and enjoyed the entire experience.

That wrapped up the National Games Triathlon Outing for us. After the Podium ceremony which had Tamil Nadu coming in first and Gujarat coming in second, we all head to the venue for a hearty lunch, and then back to the hotel. The rest of the evening went in packing shade back and getting ready to head back to Bengaluru after this outing.

There was immense learning for me in this particular outing - specifically from a point of critical improvements required with the Ironman 70.3 just about a month away. My cat A race was looming around the corner and this was the best wakeup call that I could have gotten. Next stop on the route though was the Cycling State Trials.