[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
Previous: [Part II of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The fall and the revival (May - June 2019)
None of us had been able to warm up before the swim so in my first few strokes, I opened the neck of my wetsuit while in a horizontal position and let water gush in. I was OK after that. The swim itself was lonely, I couldn’t draft much- as the title indicates, I swam too many extra yards even though the pace itself was decent. Clearly, I have my work cut out for sighting.
I got out and was a little disoriented mentally. I think it might have been because of that missed gel because the swim itself was fine. My calf muscles felt so heavy so couldn’t run up the incline that was T1. Then my watch paused before the wetsuit was removed which meant I had a very rough sense of how far along I was. I am still not sure why but focusing in T1 was hard and while I was slow, I noticed a small staple pin stuck to my heel. I wiped it clean, checked for bleeding and then carried on. I used the restroom in T1 (again maybe I was out of brain cells by end of swim and should have done this earlier) and checked the foot again and took off. I ate an egel during this time and also wore contacts and applied sunscreen . By the time I mounted the bike, I thought I had probably taken half the time in T1 as that in my swim, so I needed to bike fast!
I can’t recall anything memorable in the second hour except there were the hilly parts of the bike course. While it is no fun to look up when you’re on an incline and see more of it, I had practiced counting to 30 on Eden and spin and pushing while I counted. As soon as I hit 1, I would reset to 30 and my (Pavlovian?) response would kick in. This worked fine! I tried to sit upright by holding the elbow rest for my aero bars during uphills and this helped my lower back. I used my aero bars a fair amount on this ride. At some point in the beginning, I was riding without them and noticed the speed was below my target- just going on the aero bars pushed me over to my target speed so for the rest of the ride, I pushed as much as I could without killing my lower back. I think my sit bones hurt a bit but the fire of missing the cutoff because of T1 was too much to give way to anything else!
I saw James pass me by within the first 5 miles and was relieved because I knew if he got the swim nailed, then nothing could stop the man. I also saw Souj twice and same feeling!
I spent some time mentally calculating cutoffs and trying to estimate how far behind I was and some time calculating how much I should make up in the second and third hour. I also wanted to time my stops with the aid stations where I could eat while the bottles were being filled. In hindsight, I wasted a lot more time at the aid stations. My own stop for a gel was short, but even with volunteers helping and adding water, I could have made it a quicker process.
There were also places where I wanted to go faster on downhill but someone overtook me just before and was now riding ahead and braking. Blah wonly! Sometimes there were cars in our lane and going close by which also impacted how comfortably you could overtake someone. Somewhere around middle of the ride, my brakes started to howl again. This meant I got extra looks at aid stations and course directing turns, I tried to ignore it remembering that it had happened in the past and the braking function was okay, but it’s a horrible feeling when you can’t trust your bike completely.
Inspite of the cutoff stress, I guess I was still in cheerful spirits and hadn't lost my mind. At some point a woman announced "on your right", this could be one of those times when your blood boils or you get in a fight, but I guess everyone was so toasted that we both started giggling like kids and I let her pass and then moved over.
I made one last stop at 42 and sped through after that. Just like in the water, you don’t stop until your hand hits the sand below, I didn’t stop using the aero bars and pushing until I saw the first of Team Asha peeps at the end of the bike route. I had clocked in 4:04 with my (unneeded) long stops and stopping for gels- probably my fastest. I saw Team Asha cheerleading gang and it was so awesome!
From the beginning itself, I knew the run will be hard but I was just relieved to not be on the bike anymore. I couldn’t be sure if I had passed bike cutoffs but I knew somewhere that I couldn’t have taken 40 mins in T1 so bike cutoffs should have been fine. I didn’t have much of a sense of how much time I had to run and I would try to do this with a fried brain over and over in the next three hours.
Throughout the season, I had trained to jog nonstop. When I would practice on the treadmill, I would train to push and walk in between. And I had run half marathons in the past where I had mainly run- walked but that gave me some confidence that even if it looked impossible, I was capable of doing that distance- I would come to rely on this belief a lot in the next 3 hours. The first mile was decent, I convinced myself I’m just headed to the aid station. But starting mile 2, I felt exhausted. It wasn’t so much that there was pain or major cramps, my guess is it was the heat since I had fueled myself totally on target throughout the bike ride. Around mile 2, I saw James and he seemed to be unhappy because of a cramp. I told him to chill and take it easy- I had no idea how far he was but if I had 3 hours, so did he! I told him I was tired. You could see the crowd had thinned out already. Whenever I’ve run a race before, I have always positioned myself in the middle so that even if I slow down, there are still running peeps around me. This wasn’t one of those days. A little before mile 2.5 I met a woman who was jogging consistently. We started chatting and I pushed myself to go with her. She was from SR and had done this course before. We did the math for both of us and concluded that we had time. It was so awesome to have her company for the 1.5-2 miles since I was able to jog along and talk. At one point I almost went on the other side of the run route and thankfully, she was alert enough to stop me from taking a turn. I also saw Vividh go by around this time and was so good to see a familiar face (yelling 'butter chicken' as usual)!
The entire run was a negotiation process with my mind and body. I first convinced myself that I’ll do 5 miles in an hour. In reality I got to 4.5 in the first hour. I was still feeling guilty about T1 fiasco but I reminded myself that I couldn’t lose this mentally with over 8 more miles to go. I talked to myself (as usual), fooled my legs by running and stopping without having a structure, and stopped at every aid station. Again, this was longer than needed but I took water, Gatorade, coke and poured ice over myself and inside my clothes liberally. I was also carrying gels in my handheld and ate dutifully every hour (egel for first hour and hammer which is lighter for the next 2). Since all of these were fine and yet I felt exhausted, I think it must have been the heat and general tiredness.
There were so few people that every time I saw them, I would call out and either try to get them to jog with me, or join them if I was walking and they weren’t. I met multiple such folks and every time we passed each other, I would ask them to run along- it not only made me feel stronger than I was actually feeling, but it also gave me the company I needed to break up the monotony. I also realized how hard it can be to push yourself when everyone around you seems to have fallen to a slow walking pace or maybe even given up. I met lost of first timers and it was fun to regale each other with stories and cursing the heat.
By mile 8 (the confusing u-turn), I was by myself again. But now I also knew I’m cutting it close to cutoff so I started pushing myself to run for longer intervals- this part was just hard.
Around mile 11.5, I saw Coach Char! That was the highlight! He started talking and he seemed worried that I was dehydrated or maybe exhausted (?), but once I started talking, he looked like he clearly regretted asking me to start! I was yapping away to glory. Coach kept my spirits up, finishing up would have been way harder had he not been there. I also realized I was probably one of the last people running but again, my mental sanity was a precious resource I had to conserve and so I avoided letting that get me down. Coach was super energetic and talking and helping others who looked equally miserable and out. He told me I had enough time to eat a meal and come back (I totally didn’t buy that!). He left me at the final turn and told me to run down with full Swagger (or something like that). I saw James on the side first, he looked so worried and relieved at the same time and I kind of guessed I’m close to cutoff. Then I saw Sumit and Shashi on the right side and Gauri. I saw Neha on the left urging me to cross the mat- I knew I’m definitely cutting it close!
And then it was done! There were crazy hugs, so much talking and all the pics and so much excite. The whole team Asha crew was there and I was done! With only 8 mins to spare, but it a race no one could take away from me.
Some people are self-made- in contrast, I am a totally trained woman! My race was a culmination of so many experiences and contributions to my journey from so many people. I can't stress this enough- I may have done the miles on the final day, but it is a huge effort from a lot of people that went into this. Starting from team Asha, Coach Char, Coach Shashi and Coach Sumit who cared so much! They listened to my over-dramatic rants, my cribbing, gave me nuggets of wisdom, approved and disapproved of my choices, but were there with me throughout. The mentors, especially, Surya and Karthik were always there when I had a question or just random jitters to share. The power gang from my first year: Surekha, Pramoda, Akila and Nitya- it was kickass to have them around. Some of them would lighten the atmosphere by telling me "full aag wonly", some of them pushed me to go harder on the bike sessions, some of them always cared to follow up with a message after the big moments to check up, some of them had to say nothing but give me a hug before my race which said so many words. Whenever I talked to Surya, I came away with three realizations: one would be the answer to the actual question I asked, two was that I can do this and three, that she is a badass! All of you are awesome :)
Huge thanks also to Coach Chakri and the other alumni/mentors (Yuvraj and Ranjit who gave great tips and reassurance during our swims, Sankar who always had pearls of wisdom and laughed at whatever we said, Deepa), Coach Venki who had amazing bike/life tips and reminded me to always have swagger, the actual coords (Souj, Ashish, Gauri), the maybe coord and fellow aero bar wannabe (Deepak), my IMSR first-timer cohort (Souj, Deepak, Ashish, Vividh, Vishal, Maneesh, James), the other IM 70.3 peeps (Megha, Milind, Swetha, Suryakant, BB, ..) folks who got us started last year (Prasad, Stan), my 2018 cohort, my swim instructor, my HIIT instructor - everyone did their part in making this happen. Thanks also to the new Team Asha gang who came out to cheer for us at Santa Rosa and/or supported us throughout the season while we slogged it out - all of you are super inspiring.
Huge shout-out to Renuka, the real head coach who always had the right words to say and great tips throughout the season. It was awesome to have amazing women around me as I trained, especially Souj- you rock! Neha and Sumit were my go-to peeps at multiple points during the training- I would come to their place under the pretext of improv or triathlon training and then refuse to leave, thank you for letting me raid your kitchen and your time! Also, this list would be incomplete without the Mission point express (Deepak and Souj) who not only let me carpool with them since last year, but also provided amazing company both during training and off it, and made it all fun.
Thank you! I am privileged to have so many amazing people around!
Last but not the least, huge shout-out to James without whom there would be no food in my belly and no air in my bike tires- you are an amazing partner in crime! Also, shout-out to my brother, who is also training for his first half ironman this year and was as usual a fun companion to discuss anything under the sun with! And a lot more non-Asha folks who encouraged me along on this journey- thank you, everyone!
Next: [Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan
Previous: [Part II of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The fall and the revival (May - June 2019)
Taper!
I thought I'll enjoy taper but in reality, I had almost all the symptoms detailed in this article that Coach Char sent: the fatigue and little aches and grumpy and depressed part. I was freaking out about my bike not being OK because the brakes would occasionally start squealing and the gear shifting wasn't smooth and even after a tune-up, I wasn't reassured. This would eat up many brain cycles. Sumit helped us clean our bikes a few days before the race and that helped (thanks!). Three-ish weeks before the race I got a persistent dull pain in my right shoulder. Immediate thought was rotator cuff but after a PT appointment, she told me it was the trap muscles and that in general the shoulder needed some long term effort. In the short term, some exercises and a sports massage fixed this.
Lesson: Don't wait until the end for a sports massage, the benefits are for real!
The other highlight was Donner lake swim. I had done the 0.5 mile swim here last year with my cohort and it was so much fun! The drive to Donner lake with Deepak, Souj, Ashish and James and then spending a chill evening with them, and Neha and Sumit felt so nice, especially considering all the other race things I was thinking about!
On the Donner lake swim morning, I was excited about the 1.2 mile swim. I started slow and never found anyone to draft for long (story of all my swims!) but found a rhythm pretty soon and then pushed through. Coach Char had told us to not go crazy on the swim since we were one week out from the main race. In addition, he had told us that no matter what happens, this should not affect our race next week. I was bummed out by James' experience but I was also not too worried about him. I was happy for other people in my cohort who had come a long way to do the 1.2 mile swim just like me! As for me, I was mentally prepared for the swim to go either way - I'm glad it went well. I finished it under an hour (around 57 mins).
The next part was to pack for the race. I was heading out of office for a backpacking trip right after the race, which meant work and logistics were a nightmare. I spent most of the race week running around like a headless chicken. What gave me solace was the fact that I wasn't worried about the actual race as much, it was the packing and the logistics and the actual bike etc- this helped keep me sane since all of these were fixable.
James, Ashish and I coordinated and drove on Friday morning before the race. We left super early but by now I was used to waking up slightly before my usual time to fit in work and workouts so wasn't too sleep deprived. We checked in and got all the labels. I obviously over thought all logistical steps but thankfully it was done! We checked in the bikes and then decided to drive the bike course. James found this boring but it helped me because I saw some hard parts which would come up after another hard segment- this meant that I would need to be mentally prepared. We all got late after this so everyone headed straight to lunch (Indian buffet). We came to the airbnb, I napped for a bit (unsuccessfully), checked and rechecked my bags and finally slept.
Lesson: Don't wait until the end for a sports massage, the benefits are for real!
The other highlight was Donner lake swim. I had done the 0.5 mile swim here last year with my cohort and it was so much fun! The drive to Donner lake with Deepak, Souj, Ashish and James and then spending a chill evening with them, and Neha and Sumit felt so nice, especially considering all the other race things I was thinking about!
On the Donner lake swim morning, I was excited about the 1.2 mile swim. I started slow and never found anyone to draft for long (story of all my swims!) but found a rhythm pretty soon and then pushed through. Coach Char had told us to not go crazy on the swim since we were one week out from the main race. In addition, he had told us that no matter what happens, this should not affect our race next week. I was bummed out by James' experience but I was also not too worried about him. I was happy for other people in my cohort who had come a long way to do the 1.2 mile swim just like me! As for me, I was mentally prepared for the swim to go either way - I'm glad it went well. I finished it under an hour (around 57 mins).
The next part was to pack for the race. I was heading out of office for a backpacking trip right after the race, which meant work and logistics were a nightmare. I spent most of the race week running around like a headless chicken. What gave me solace was the fact that I wasn't worried about the actual race as much, it was the packing and the logistics and the actual bike etc- this helped keep me sane since all of these were fixable.
James, Ashish and I coordinated and drove on Friday morning before the race. We left super early but by now I was used to waking up slightly before my usual time to fit in work and workouts so wasn't too sleep deprived. We checked in and got all the labels. I obviously over thought all logistical steps but thankfully it was done! We checked in the bikes and then decided to drive the bike course. James found this boring but it helped me because I saw some hard parts which would come up after another hard segment- this meant that I would need to be mentally prepared. We all got late after this so everyone headed straight to lunch (Indian buffet). We came to the airbnb, I napped for a bit (unsuccessfully), checked and rechecked my bags and finally slept.
Race day!
Woke up at 3:15, woke up a lot more in between but I was expecting that so would have some water and try to sleep off again. Ate a PBJ and banana in the morning, my stomach was not too thrilled and and that was a first. It has possibly never happened but oh well, I had a race to go to.Swim: Ready, Fire..aim! [2,402yd, 53:05, 2:12/100yd]
(title credit: Surya) I was a little nervous at the swim start but mostly due to logistics. We had seen the transition the previous day but there were too many back and forth trips between the bike and the gear bag (which was on the far end of transition area). In hindsight, we should have come earlier and done things in one shot. Also, the line to the restrooms got crazy long and I wasted some more time - should use the restroom first.
In all of this, I forgot to eat a gel and felt super hungry right before the swim start. I saw Coach Char right before I went in and told him I was hungry, he reassured me (as usual) that it would all be OK when I start. I placed myself at the end of the 40-43 mins group- talent or not, need to be crazy first!None of us had been able to warm up before the swim so in my first few strokes, I opened the neck of my wetsuit while in a horizontal position and let water gush in. I was OK after that. The swim itself was lonely, I couldn’t draft much- as the title indicates, I swam too many extra yards even though the pace itself was decent. Clearly, I have my work cut out for sighting.
I got out and was a little disoriented mentally. I think it might have been because of that missed gel because the swim itself was fine. My calf muscles felt so heavy so couldn’t run up the incline that was T1. Then my watch paused before the wetsuit was removed which meant I had a very rough sense of how far along I was. I am still not sure why but focusing in T1 was hard and while I was slow, I noticed a small staple pin stuck to my heel. I wiped it clean, checked for bleeding and then carried on. I used the restroom in T1 (again maybe I was out of brain cells by end of swim and should have done this earlier) and checked the foot again and took off. I ate an egel during this time and also wore contacts and applied sunscreen . By the time I mounted the bike, I thought I had probably taken half the time in T1 as that in my swim, so I needed to bike fast!
Bike: Fire in the mountain! [56 miles, 4:04:18, 14.1mi/h]
My goal was 15mph average speed. I had to account for stopping for water and having an egel every hour so this would average out and hopefully put me above the cutoff. In the first hour I didn’t really stop and did around 15 miles at 1hr 5mins ish mark. This is something I had timed with the aid station since I had to eat my e-gel and refill the water. I restocked my hydroblade, refilled water and took off. In hindsight, this aid station could have been skipped.I can’t recall anything memorable in the second hour except there were the hilly parts of the bike course. While it is no fun to look up when you’re on an incline and see more of it, I had practiced counting to 30 on Eden and spin and pushing while I counted. As soon as I hit 1, I would reset to 30 and my (Pavlovian?) response would kick in. This worked fine! I tried to sit upright by holding the elbow rest for my aero bars during uphills and this helped my lower back. I used my aero bars a fair amount on this ride. At some point in the beginning, I was riding without them and noticed the speed was below my target- just going on the aero bars pushed me over to my target speed so for the rest of the ride, I pushed as much as I could without killing my lower back. I think my sit bones hurt a bit but the fire of missing the cutoff because of T1 was too much to give way to anything else!
I saw James pass me by within the first 5 miles and was relieved because I knew if he got the swim nailed, then nothing could stop the man. I also saw Souj twice and same feeling!
I spent some time mentally calculating cutoffs and trying to estimate how far behind I was and some time calculating how much I should make up in the second and third hour. I also wanted to time my stops with the aid stations where I could eat while the bottles were being filled. In hindsight, I wasted a lot more time at the aid stations. My own stop for a gel was short, but even with volunteers helping and adding water, I could have made it a quicker process.
There were also places where I wanted to go faster on downhill but someone overtook me just before and was now riding ahead and braking. Blah wonly! Sometimes there were cars in our lane and going close by which also impacted how comfortably you could overtake someone. Somewhere around middle of the ride, my brakes started to howl again. This meant I got extra looks at aid stations and course directing turns, I tried to ignore it remembering that it had happened in the past and the braking function was okay, but it’s a horrible feeling when you can’t trust your bike completely.
Inspite of the cutoff stress, I guess I was still in cheerful spirits and hadn't lost my mind. At some point a woman announced "on your right", this could be one of those times when your blood boils or you get in a fight, but I guess everyone was so toasted that we both started giggling like kids and I let her pass and then moved over.
I made one last stop at 42 and sped through after that. Just like in the water, you don’t stop until your hand hits the sand below, I didn’t stop using the aero bars and pushing until I saw the first of Team Asha peeps at the end of the bike route. I had clocked in 4:04 with my (unneeded) long stops and stopping for gels- probably my fastest. I saw Team Asha cheerleading gang and it was so awesome!
Run: Earn back the race registration fees through the aid stations [13.1mi, 2:59:28, 13:49/mi]
By the time I finished my bike ride, the temperature had crept up and I was also exhausted from pushing on the bike. The distance between the bike rack and my gear bag was two blocks. I would have tried to go faster in socks but the T1 incident gave me pause. I hobbled in my cleats, removed helmet and gloves (something I always used to forget). I changed into shoes, reapplied the chafing cream, ate a gel, popped a salt tablet, refilled my hand held water bottle, wore my cap and took off.From the beginning itself, I knew the run will be hard but I was just relieved to not be on the bike anymore. I couldn’t be sure if I had passed bike cutoffs but I knew somewhere that I couldn’t have taken 40 mins in T1 so bike cutoffs should have been fine. I didn’t have much of a sense of how much time I had to run and I would try to do this with a fried brain over and over in the next three hours.
Throughout the season, I had trained to jog nonstop. When I would practice on the treadmill, I would train to push and walk in between. And I had run half marathons in the past where I had mainly run- walked but that gave me some confidence that even if it looked impossible, I was capable of doing that distance- I would come to rely on this belief a lot in the next 3 hours. The first mile was decent, I convinced myself I’m just headed to the aid station. But starting mile 2, I felt exhausted. It wasn’t so much that there was pain or major cramps, my guess is it was the heat since I had fueled myself totally on target throughout the bike ride. Around mile 2, I saw James and he seemed to be unhappy because of a cramp. I told him to chill and take it easy- I had no idea how far he was but if I had 3 hours, so did he! I told him I was tired. You could see the crowd had thinned out already. Whenever I’ve run a race before, I have always positioned myself in the middle so that even if I slow down, there are still running peeps around me. This wasn’t one of those days. A little before mile 2.5 I met a woman who was jogging consistently. We started chatting and I pushed myself to go with her. She was from SR and had done this course before. We did the math for both of us and concluded that we had time. It was so awesome to have her company for the 1.5-2 miles since I was able to jog along and talk. At one point I almost went on the other side of the run route and thankfully, she was alert enough to stop me from taking a turn. I also saw Vividh go by around this time and was so good to see a familiar face (yelling 'butter chicken' as usual)!
The entire run was a negotiation process with my mind and body. I first convinced myself that I’ll do 5 miles in an hour. In reality I got to 4.5 in the first hour. I was still feeling guilty about T1 fiasco but I reminded myself that I couldn’t lose this mentally with over 8 more miles to go. I talked to myself (as usual), fooled my legs by running and stopping without having a structure, and stopped at every aid station. Again, this was longer than needed but I took water, Gatorade, coke and poured ice over myself and inside my clothes liberally. I was also carrying gels in my handheld and ate dutifully every hour (egel for first hour and hammer which is lighter for the next 2). Since all of these were fine and yet I felt exhausted, I think it must have been the heat and general tiredness.
There were so few people that every time I saw them, I would call out and either try to get them to jog with me, or join them if I was walking and they weren’t. I met multiple such folks and every time we passed each other, I would ask them to run along- it not only made me feel stronger than I was actually feeling, but it also gave me the company I needed to break up the monotony. I also realized how hard it can be to push yourself when everyone around you seems to have fallen to a slow walking pace or maybe even given up. I met lost of first timers and it was fun to regale each other with stories and cursing the heat.
By mile 8 (the confusing u-turn), I was by myself again. But now I also knew I’m cutting it close to cutoff so I started pushing myself to run for longer intervals- this part was just hard.
Around mile 11.5, I saw Coach Char! That was the highlight! He started talking and he seemed worried that I was dehydrated or maybe exhausted (?), but once I started talking, he looked like he clearly regretted asking me to start! I was yapping away to glory. Coach kept my spirits up, finishing up would have been way harder had he not been there. I also realized I was probably one of the last people running but again, my mental sanity was a precious resource I had to conserve and so I avoided letting that get me down. Coach was super energetic and talking and helping others who looked equally miserable and out. He told me I had enough time to eat a meal and come back (I totally didn’t buy that!). He left me at the final turn and told me to run down with full Swagger (or something like that). I saw James on the side first, he looked so worried and relieved at the same time and I kind of guessed I’m close to cutoff. Then I saw Sumit and Shashi on the right side and Gauri. I saw Neha on the left urging me to cross the mat- I knew I’m definitely cutting it close!
And then it was done! There were crazy hugs, so much talking and all the pics and so much excite. The whole team Asha crew was there and I was done! With only 8 mins to spare, but it a race no one could take away from me.
Miscellaneous race thoughts
- I was dehydrated after the race, so no matter how much water you think you are taking, account for more on a hot day!
- I met Tim and Rinny (Mirinda Carfrae) in T1 after the race when I went to get my bag! Moral of the story, carry your phone when you go to pick up your gear bag- you never know who you'll meet!
- Eat before you start, maybe this is what messed up T1 and at least somewhat the bike and then run. It is a domino effect as your body will forever be making up for the deficit or tiredness.
- Your mental sanity is extremely precious in the race, don’t while it away.
- Learn to use the lock mode on garmin device.
- Don’t stop unless you have to- more so on bike than anything else. Could have saved 5ish mins since I had enough water.
- Post race pain lasted a day- this meant either I didn’t push enough or that I’m wolverine. In any case, means I’m capable of doing more.
- Think through the post race logistics: where to leave the phone, wallet and what you'll need right after. There will also be a LOT of stuff to carry after the race so try to plan ahead for this because if you're like me, you'll be zonked out!
- Some things to check or keep in mind:
- The hydroblade has water with salts in that- that could be messing up the disc brakes
- I got a slight cramp in my leg while biking- I learnt that if it goes away in a few strokes, then it’s likely okay.
- Learn to eat and drink while riding
- For me, the knee and shoulders get stressed a lot- working on your core regularly is for real!
What's next
I want to definitely train for a marathon and do another half ironman this year. Still deciding the course for the next year!
Acknowledgments
(apologies if I miss someone, this is always hard!)Some people are self-made- in contrast, I am a totally trained woman! My race was a culmination of so many experiences and contributions to my journey from so many people. I can't stress this enough- I may have done the miles on the final day, but it is a huge effort from a lot of people that went into this. Starting from team Asha, Coach Char, Coach Shashi and Coach Sumit who cared so much! They listened to my over-dramatic rants, my cribbing, gave me nuggets of wisdom, approved and disapproved of my choices, but were there with me throughout. The mentors, especially, Surya and Karthik were always there when I had a question or just random jitters to share. The power gang from my first year: Surekha, Pramoda, Akila and Nitya- it was kickass to have them around. Some of them would lighten the atmosphere by telling me "full aag wonly", some of them pushed me to go harder on the bike sessions, some of them always cared to follow up with a message after the big moments to check up, some of them had to say nothing but give me a hug before my race which said so many words. Whenever I talked to Surya, I came away with three realizations: one would be the answer to the actual question I asked, two was that I can do this and three, that she is a badass! All of you are awesome :)
Huge thanks also to Coach Chakri and the other alumni/mentors (Yuvraj and Ranjit who gave great tips and reassurance during our swims, Sankar who always had pearls of wisdom and laughed at whatever we said, Deepa), Coach Venki who had amazing bike/life tips and reminded me to always have swagger, the actual coords (Souj, Ashish, Gauri), the maybe coord and fellow aero bar wannabe (Deepak), my IMSR first-timer cohort (Souj, Deepak, Ashish, Vividh, Vishal, Maneesh, James), the other IM 70.3 peeps (Megha, Milind, Swetha, Suryakant, BB, ..) folks who got us started last year (Prasad, Stan), my 2018 cohort, my swim instructor, my HIIT instructor - everyone did their part in making this happen. Thanks also to the new Team Asha gang who came out to cheer for us at Santa Rosa and/or supported us throughout the season while we slogged it out - all of you are super inspiring.
Huge shout-out to Renuka, the real head coach who always had the right words to say and great tips throughout the season. It was awesome to have amazing women around me as I trained, especially Souj- you rock! Neha and Sumit were my go-to peeps at multiple points during the training- I would come to their place under the pretext of improv or triathlon training and then refuse to leave, thank you for letting me raid your kitchen and your time! Also, this list would be incomplete without the Mission point express (Deepak and Souj) who not only let me carpool with them since last year, but also provided amazing company both during training and off it, and made it all fun.
Thank you! I am privileged to have so many amazing people around!
Last but not the least, huge shout-out to James without whom there would be no food in my belly and no air in my bike tires- you are an amazing partner in crime! Also, shout-out to my brother, who is also training for his first half ironman this year and was as usual a fun companion to discuss anything under the sun with! And a lot more non-Asha folks who encouraged me along on this journey- thank you, everyone!
Next: [Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan
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