Thonnur Triathlon - My 2nd Half Ironman

TRI-THONNUR HALF IRONMAN

The mesmerizing Thonnur lake, this is where I started my triathlon journey. Sunil had suggested me to try it out with a Sprint, and I have been trying Sprint, Olympic and now Half Ironman. Its the journey of Triathlon and am in the middle of it. Its a long long way to go yet. Am learning and will continue to learn the art of TRIing.

What is a Half Ironman?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_70.3

My Timing for the Half Ironman:

Cut-off was 9-hrs, and my target was 8:00hrs, and I completed in 8:25:00hrs, so good scope to improve.

Event	Distance	Timing (In Hours)
Swim	1.9kms	00:51:01
Cycling	90kms	04:03:57
Run	21.1kms	03:17:15
Total		08:24:48

Results here:

https://www.accur8timing.com/results/thonnur-triathlon-2018-race-results/?Bib=145&race=race_09aa012e-2e55-4448-bec4-6da6455b0810

Big kudos to Ajit Thandur Sir and his fabulous team of selfless volunteers who did an amazing job. Ever grateful to the villagers of Sanaba, very very supportive and were part of the event wholeheartedly.

Training:

For me, it’s all about training, and the event is a mere closing formality. I did train up for exactly 1-month, specifically in my weak area: Swimming. The 10 sessions with each almost 1km or more, it did really help a lot. I had been doing a lot of cycling and did not practice much, but I lacked running practice. So, it was betting big on swim+cycling and hoping to do best possible with run.

I did one practice Half Ironman, which was self-supported. I could swim in 1:15hrs at a School swimming pool and cycled 90kms towards Airport in 5:25hrs (due a flat which cost me an hour :-(). And finally run 21.1kms towards Hennur in 3:03hrs, totaling to 10:10hours, but it included delicious breakfast and lunch at home after each event.

Day before the event:

Me and Prasad, took our car and fixed the bicycles on the cycle rack, stayed at Srirangapattana, strategically because it’s the closest hotels that we can get to the race location. We thoroughly enjoyed our journey packed with home-made food and ate at a canal off Cauvery river.

Race Day:

We woke up at 4:30am and got ready and headed straight to the race location, this time Thonnur triathlon was happening at exact opposite side of the lake, which meant, we had to take a detour of about 15kms, and hence early start was necessary. We somehow did not plan to eat breakfast.

Pic: Beautiful Thonnur lake early in the morning from far away distance

The Swim support team getting things ready in the lake

Swim:

Get set and Swim, I waited till all the people left the shore :-), I like calm waters

Michael phelps in the making :-) :-).... thats Swamy swimming

I had swam 2.5kms in open waters, but had taken whopping 2.5hours. So, was determined for a better show this time. I was eager to get done with swim. Since am a slow swimmer, I let everyone to jump and then I started at the end. Hardly 100 meters, I realized the water was getting into my swim goggles, that’s irritating. I somehow managed to complete the loop and then stopped at one of the coracles. 2^nd time again it happened during lap-2, and was blinded on both eyes, barely saw the flag and could swim towards it. This time, I tightened the strap a bit, and it helped. 3^rd, 4^th lap were quite smooth, which increased my confidence and pushed hard on the 5^th lap. Each lap was 375m, which would be 1.9kms for 5 laps.

For the most part, I swam with butterfly and breast stroke, and rarely free style. In open waters, am yet to gain confidence with freestyle.

The overall time was just 51 mins for 1.9kms, that shocked me too. My fastest 1km in swimming pool is at 33mins. But, the competition helped me to pace up. And also, in pool, we waste time in turning around, but here it was just non-stop swimming.

Cycle:

After awesome swim, I ran towards the base camp thinking probably am the last one in the Half Iron category, only later I got to know at least 10 were behind me. In that hurry, I decided not to change over to padded shorts needed for cycling, rather went ahead with swim shorts J. This was not a gud decision, while it saved me time, but the shorts were too tight and were not allowing my muscles to free up. Each lap was 22kms each, cycling between Sanaba and Melkote, we stop 1km short of Melkote. It’s a rolling terrain, the route is simply awesome, very scenic. Its lot of climbs and headwind towards Melkote and return is quite smooth. Lap-1 was cool and it took an hour. And lap-2 was even better with 50mins. And that’s when I realized I had not eaten my breakfast. All the hotels on the way looked heavenly L. At one moment I thought of ordering parcel and then pickup on the return. But, I did not want to lose momentum. So, I ate lots of bananas and chikki. That helped me to an extent, but then how many can I eat. I got bored of it, my taste buds started hating banana and chikki. For my luck, the fruits changed to watermelon and musambi. That helped a bit J. 3^rd lap was struggling and then 4^th one I pushed a bit. To make it closer to 4hrs. The idea was simple to close it within 4hrs (5 with swim) and give 3hrs for running.

Run:

The body was exhausted. As soon as I started, it’s a climb, and I started off with walk instead of run. I waited till the slope and started running but only for some distance. The terrain is completely rolling and it was 12:15pm hot mid-day. It was fight against the hot sun and the climbs. It drained us a lot. By the time we completed first 10kms it was 1:35hrs. I did not take any break. I ate a few slices of musambi and then off again for the last 10kms. It was 2:00pm and the heat had reduced significantly and sparingly clouds passed by making it cool climate and I used this time to gain some momentum. Right then, the volunteers on jeep had stacked ice and 2 pieces on me cooled the whole body, loved it J. I did less run and more more walk, which increased my overall time. 03:17:00hrs for a Half Marathon is way slow by my own standards and really needs a good push.

Results and learnings:

The 15th place off the 35 participants is sure an encouraging result and would love try harder next time. While swim timing is good, free style could save me time and energy. Run was ignored and paid the price. While I have done 65 half marathons, but I struggled in the event, due to exhaustion.

Prasad did an amazing job with Olympic distance with 04:00:00hrs timing beating his previous best of 04:45:00hrs

My 2nd Half Ironman

Interesting facts:

• My entire Half Marathon was completed without solid food or gels, should plan better
• There was a family of Father, Daughter and Son, and all 3 completed the Half Ironman within the cut-off time of 9-hrs.
• Prasad did his running with barefoot on this simmering heat
• A 52-year old gentleman N.Seetharam beat me to the finish line in the Half Ironman :-), hats off to him

Who can TRI Triathlons:

If I can do it, I bet you can do it better than me. Trust me, everyone can do it. Its matter of a bit of practice and dedication. Whether you know swimming or not, good to practice a lot, to get away from the fear of open waters. If you haven’t cycled, it’s probably the easiest of the 3. If you haven’t run, better start running today. Triathlon is an awesome test of endurance and I wish you give a TRI.

What Next:
A long way ahead yet for the next 2 phases. Will keep trying Half Ironman few more times to get more confidence, to beat myself.