Success, following a failure and tough times, is so much sweeter!! Chennai Half Iron success story..

Why Chennai?!?!

Chennai Trekking group holds a couple of triathlons every year and the December one has half, 3/4 and full distance. After the tough Hyderabad Half Iron triathlon in October, wasn’t really sure I would do the Chennai triathlon that was scheduled for mid Dec ‘15. But I had hopes that Chennai would be a flatter course and December Chennai weather would be more forgiving than October Hyderabad weather. So I had decided to do the Half Iron in Chennai as well to see if I could improve my timing from 8:35 to a sub 8 hour. Unluckily the Chennai faced a natural disaster in November/December with the major floods and the event had to be inevitably postponed. 

Eventually the event was rescheduled for March 5^th but given the expected hot and humid weather in Chennai in March I gave up on the idea of doing this triathlon. In the meantime I had a Goa Olympic triathlon in February. After my dad’s sad demise in Jan and the PYC makeover program going in from Jan-March I had completely missed out on any swimming practice before the Goa triathlon. Still went to Goa as I had company – Kedar was also going. I was quite confident I would be able to easily complete the event though, and no qualms about swimming in ocean ever surfaced in my mind. But as the event started I completely messed up and started out my breaststroke too fast. In hindsight I wasn’t gliding in my stroke at all and was continuously trying to move my arms or legs. Naturally this resulted in an anaerobic zone stroke where I went out too fast too soon. I was breathless after only 400 or so meters in 10 minutes, and just couldn’t figure out how to slow down and recover. There were no guiding ropes/tubes or anything to hold on to. This was the first time I was swimming in open water and I realized that I had to reach the nearest kayak which was about 50+ mtrs away to be able to hold on to something and catch my breath. Even those 50+ mtrs seemed too much. As soon as I held on to the kayak though, I had mentally given up. Holding to a standstill kayak was allowed but once I held onto this one, I just felt like I had cheated. Plus I just couldn’t get any confidence in my breaststroke and the remaining distance of another 250 mtrs out into the sea and 750 mtrs back seemed a lot now. In hindsight I could have easily completed the event. Lots of folks held onto the kayaks regularly and completed the swim. Lots of lessons learnt in my first ever real DNF in an event. Overconfidence, under preparedness, going out too fast, giving up too soon, etc. etc. Overall a horrible experience and just couldn’t shake the fact that I quit.

Given this fiasco though, right away made the decision of bouncing back and to go to Chennai for the Half iron no matter the weather and other difficulties. I only had a week and half to prepare. I decided to focus on the swimming. Started swimming coaching with Rajesh Kelkar sir at Chaitanya Health club. He spotted a couple of mistakes in my breaststroke right away and guided me to correct them. Did 5-6 days of swimming practice sacrificing any other training. Was able to gain my confidence in swimming back as I completed a 2 km swim a couple of days before the event in an hour. Whew!! Booked the tickets to Chennai and also tried to find road bikes on rent. Called quite a few stores but as it was last minute, didn’t get a good road bike, but at least the store owner – Balaji cycle world, told me he had reserved a ‘indian’ road bike for me. Another hurdle crossed.

The day before:

Packed up on Thursday and flew out on Friday afternoon to Chennai. Had packed my stuff in a hand bag which I thought I could carry on my shoulder/back on the cycle. But the bag had ended up being quite heavy and bulky. Managed to get to the store in Ola. It was an old style cycle store like in Bhavani peth or so. 

When the guy showed me the bike, I was in for a shock! It was actually a hybrid bike with fork and handlebar changed to convert it into a makeshift road bike. Brakes were in horrible shape. Also the bike fit wasn’t appropriate … I was leaning too far ahead when I held on to the top of the handlebar. If I dropped on the drop bar I just couldn’t control the bike. Anyways … didn’t have a choice. 

Took the bike and started to this remote place where the event venue was. My travails were not over yet. I was carrying my hand bag on my back on the bike. The venue Agni college was about 30 kms from the bike store. Had hardly gone 3-4 kms and I was already ridiculously tired trying to navigate through the traffic with the heavy bag making me precariously balanced on the bike. So after 4 kms decided to take a simpler options and take an Auto and go to the venue. The auto wala obviously charged me through my nose given my predicament – about Rs 500! But hey I wanted to stay slightly fresh for next day too. 

Then when I went to the venue realized that the sleeping arrangements in Agni College were simply a large open room in a hostel with benches. I shouldnt have expected anything more for free though. :-) A few other folks had already parked themselves there by clubbing a couple of benches and making a makeshift bed. I did the same … Luckily I grabbed the last couple benches … folks who reached after me had to sleep on the floor. No mattress … so just put my small towel on my benches and hoped I would be able to sleep through the night at least. Me and a few triathletes went out in search of food. The place was so remote that there were no restaurants nearby. Finally we found a roadside chinese food stall where we had egg fried rice. Crossed my fingers and hoped that stomach could handle it. So no good hydration or carb loading a day before … what with the flight, a long auto journey, bad sleeping arrangement and a half decent dinner. So basically almost everything that could go wrong the day before did. Hopefully this wasn’t a bad omen or something.

I prepared my T1 and T2 bags. Lesson learnt from Hyderabad half iron was not to carry so much food on me. So this time I only had 4-5 gels, a couple of enerzals sachets, nuun tablets, a couple of bananas and a couple of bars in the transition bags and in the cycling jersey. The bike had only 1 water bottle holder so couldnt carry the 2 as usual. Plus the mini pump and an extra tube, toolkit on the cycle. No light needed. 

The D day dawns …

And it did dawn way earlier than it really did. Had to get to the venue by 5. So had set the alarm for 3:45. But couldn’t get relaxed sleep so got up at 2:30 only and then was tossing and turning. Got ready in the hostel common bathroom. Had a Dink laddoo, banana and some milk to refuel myself. Then headed off to the venue with a couple of other folks … with no lights on the bike or on the potholed road trying to avoid as many potholes as I could. Luckily no puncture or bike issues in that 2-3 km ride to the lake where the swimming was to start. So finally reached the venue and now things were were getting back to normal. There was excitement everywhere. Parked the bike … no bike stand, so had to park the bike upside down on the seatpost. Dropped off my T1 and T2 bags and left a couple of critical things like shoes near the bike. 

The lake was still dark but as the sun rose the quarry/lake turned into a sight for the sore eyes. 

Beautiful little quarry/lake. About 200 mtrs length of which we were to do 150 mtrs one way. The water I was told was warm, quite clean and about 40-50 feet deep. Couldn’t wait to start the triathlon now. There were butterflies but not for whether I could complete or not … only because I had set myself an aggressive target of 7:30 to 7:45 hrs. Should in theory be possible – 1 hr for the swim of 1.9 kms + 3:30 hrs for the 90 km ride assuming Chennai’s famous flat terrain + 2:45 or therabouts for the half marathon which was again doable given the terrain would be easier than Hyderabad + 10-15 mins in T1+ T2. All theory and expectations. The one thing I had completely underestimated was the toll heat and humidity would play… one more time after first experiencing it in Hyderabad.

Get Set Go!!

They had a guiding rope in the middle with tubes every 25 meters. With kayaks on both sides so there was nothing to worry about either. But I was determined not to stop or hold onto the tubes. Was successful in the attempt and the swim was very smooth. Not my fastest, I finished my 1.9 km swim in 1 hour 6 minutes. Then about 2-3 minutes to get back to the transition area barefeet. Realized late that I had to pass through the timing sensors to end the swimming leg. So total official swim time showing as 1:13. 

First they flagged off the Full Iron and 3/4 Iron triathletes. There were about 20 of them. Salute to the bravehearts. Then us the half iron triathletes were off in waves of 10-15. Had to walk barefeet for about 50 meters before we reached the swim start. 

I wasted 1 minute almost waiting for my watch to catch gps signal. It took me 2 minutes to get to the water. I started off with a good dive into the lake and was swimming seamlessly with my breaststroke. 

It was just amazingly clear water in a beautiful setting. I was swimming slower than usual but it was an effortless swim.

Swim in the beautiful quarry lake

Smooth sailing

Focused

Cursing the guy in front who was swimming from left to right in front of me! :) 

The organizers couldnt find my T1 bag so I wasted another 3-4 minutes there. I was in my tri short so no need to change. I just had to wear the cycling jersey and the shoes and off I was. Had a quick banana and a couple of glasses of water and I was on the bike. Spent about 14 minutes in this transition due to the missing bag. Ignoring the 3-4 minutes spent finding missing bag I should still need to shave off another 2-3 minutes from this transition and get it down to 5 minutes or so. 

Felt quite fresh and energized starting the cycling leg. Was still wet from the swim so the cool breeze while cycling was feeling very nice. Sun was out but couldnt feel it at all. Started out quick fast. But soon disaster struck. The roads were full of gravel and loose sand and potholes due to the damage of the recent flood. My bike's breaks were really bad. And the poor bike fit meant I was leaning a bit too forward and not comfortable applying brakes. While navigating a sharp left turn about 2 kms from the start I veered too far off to the right and just couldnt get the cycle back on the road. Kept on veering to the right through a thorny bush and then bam! ... down into a ditch!! face down first. Palms saved due to the gloves. But the chest, left knee and chin took the brunt of the fall. Another triathlete riding behind me and a coupe of other localites came to help me as soon as they saw me. Adrenaline pumping, I took quick stock of things ... bike was in good condition, no visible bad damage. I was bleeding in 3-4 places and left knee and a couple of ribs hurting a lot but not to the extent I should quit. Decided that this wasnt an event I wanted to quit after finishing the swim successfully so decided to roll along. The other triathlete and the localites were quite surprised to see me get back on the bike ... they really wanted to help and I really wanted to keep on moving. :-) No water to wash the blood off as only had enerzal with me, so decided to stop at the 20 km aid station and get cleaned up instead of going back 2 kms. 

Upset navigating through horrible traffic

The road condition was bad for the next 10 odd kms plus the hurt knee was still paining so was riding at an average of only 22-23 kmph. Thats when I gave up on the thought of a 3:30 hr ride or a 7:30 hr finish. I decided to do my best from this point on ignoring a PB as I was afraid of how the knee injury would behave in the half marathon after the ride. The first 20 kms of the ride was just terrible due to the road conditions ... and then traffic Had to navigate through bad chennai traffic with folks cutting in front of me.. at one point I almost fell off again when a guy cut to my left from extreme right. Cursed the guy in marathi .. so the guy obviously couldnt understand as I didnt want to get into a fight there :-) 

Volunteers applying first aid to the knee. Thanks so much guys!! 

Eventually reached the 20 km aid station ... the volunteers were kinda taken aback looking at my bleeding chin, knee and legs. They asked me to sit down and cleaned up the wound while I was having energising with an orange/gatorade. The volunteers asked me if I wanted to do a Olympic distance instead. Heck no I said! :-) Great support though!! Heartfelt thanks! I wasted about 10 minutes here though. The ride from here on out was calmer, went on Old Mahabalipuram road for another 10 kms and then onto a rural road. Was pretty much a flat road but I just wasnt able to pick up speed at all. Was averaging only about 25-26 kmph in this patch. I should have been doing 30 kmph at least. Reached the 45 km turnaround point... again wasted 2-3 minutes there for refueling, and refilling my water bottle. Ride back was again uneventful but slow. Temperature and humidity had increased even more so was getting harder to pick up speed even on flats. A telling difference between Hyderabad and Chennai triathlon was the ride. I had done much better in Hyderabad even with more rolling terrain than here and also had overtaken a bunch of triathletes. Here I overtook only a couple of them during my cycle ride. Overall I took 4 hrs 1 minute to complete a mostly a flat terrain ride here compared to 3:45 in Hyderabad. Combination of bad roads, knee injury, heat, humidity but I think most importantly my mindset had a big role to play. As I had given up on my timing goal I had relaxed a bit on the ride. 

Run starts with broken knee torn pants and heavy sun

Now I still had the tough run to do with an injured knee. My ribs had started to hurt more as well by now. Parked the cycle, took some refreshments, got my water pack belt and started. Spent 7 minutes in this transition ... not bad but again need to cut this down to 3-4 max. The run constituted 2 eight shaped loops of 10.5 kms passing through the starting point at 5 kms mark. I had thought Hyderabad was bad, but there at least I was able to run the first 4-5 kms. Here right off the bat the heat was so unbearable that I started out too slow plus was walking a lot more. No shade on the route either. Humidity was killing too. Was cooling off at every aid station which were about every 2.5 kms, with sponges of ice cold water. But still the heat was way too much. I barely managed a 8:30 min/km pace while running. And took almost 6-7 walking breaks of a minute or more in the first loop. Plus at the aid stations at 2.5, 5, 7.5 kms spent a couple of minutes each. So overall first 10.5 km mostly flat loop took me about 1 hour 50 minutes!! Horrible in hindsight but felt roasted at the end of the loop and heart was palpitating even at that slow pace. At this rate a sub 9 hour looked tough. So decided to pick up pace to whatever extend I could. Took much fewer walking breaks and managed a 7-8 minute pace in the 2nd loop. Got much closer to the sub 9 hour mark due to this. At around 18 km mark at the last aid station caught up with 2-3 other folks who were also trying for a sub 9. So finally started running at 7:30 pace. It felt like heart would burst out at any moment at that pace. Felt like a blistering pace at that moment! :-) Finally managed a 1 hr 34 minute 2nd 10.5 km loop. And a 8 hr 58 minute finish! Didnt achieve 7:30 goal, neither the sub 8 hour goal and neither broke my PR of 8 hr 35 minutes in Hyderabad. 

A satisfied smile at the finish line ... 

But a satisfaction and pride of having completed another half iron event in really gruelling conditions with a tough break with the crash was there. Also the I did it feeling was multiplied because of the Goa fiasco as well. 

With organizer Peter Van Geit

Cant thank the organizers enough and especially Peter Van Geit for his selfless contribution in organizing the Chennai triathlon for such a cheap price! Where else would you get a very well supported half iron event for only 600 Rs ($10!!). 









After celebrating the success and looking back a bunch of lessons from this event ... 
1. I had thought the Hyderabad terrain and heat was killer. But Chennai is even worse to do a half iron level event especially in March. The skin burns I experienced from this event will also serve as long term warnings before I think of doing another triathlon in Chennai in March. December maybe .. but never March. 
2. Running in heat is still a huge huge problem for me. 3 hrs 26 minutes when my half marathon PB has improved to a respectable 2 hrs 5 minutes now! Still have to figure out how to control the body heat and heart palpitations in such bad heat. Cant get myself to practice running in the afternoon yet, but guess have to do it to get over this issue. 
3. Have again fixed the breaststroke swimming confidence for long distances. Huge lesson learnt is never go to any tri event without practicing swimming. No overconfidence to be ever shown in swimming. Also still need to get much much better at freestyle to improve overall timing of half iron. 
4. Need to plan much better for the event. Airport to venue transport ... rental bike ... stay ... food etc. Improvement needed in the planning part. 
5. Rental bikes ... never rent the bike from Balaji if I ever go to Chennai. I saw a few really good bikes from Deppak Babu from Just Rent bikes. He in fact was able to get road bikes from Madras Randonneurs ... in much better condition that the bike I had gotten. More generally, while renting a bike do lot more research and plan in advance. I trusted the Balaji store guy and figured he would give me a good bike. 
6. Slow down on bad roads especially on a rental bike till you get confidence. A fall can damage more than your timing ... (PS: I had to xray my knee and ribs and luckily no fracture ... but took me a couple of weeks to recover from these injuries and get back on track) 
7. The never give up attitude helped me here as well. Thats definitely one positive. Even after the fall didnt want to give up and that helped immensely. Proving to myself that the Goa DNF was an aberration was quite important to me and I did it. :-)