The Thonnur Triathlon Extravaganza 2013

Shumit was waiting for us at the bus station.The day had started for me at 4:30am and eventually, at 12:30pm was when the six of us loaded onto the bus. As is the case with over-excited and constantly high on hormone endurance athletes, the next three hours passed by in a jiffy with constant chatter and swapping of training stories and individual experiences.

We passed by the car with the remainder of the athletes somewhere mid-way and I, for one, was mentally at peace that all of us would be reaching at the same time especially since I have never been to Mysore alone and am quite clueless when it comes to directions.

4:30pm and it was time to unload ourselves off the bus and make way to the Mysore Sports Club. As we jumped on our bicycles and made our way to the Zoo (I know! perfect rendezvous spot for us animals). We were assisted by the sweet and extremely helpful auto drivers – No kidding. The auto drivers were actually nice.

Ankush was waiting for us at the Zoo to lead us the final Kilometer to the sports club. A bunch of about 10 cyclists had left Bangalore at 6am on their trusted rides and reached Mysore way before us and were now just waiting for the rest of the athletes to make their way so that the shenanigans and drama could be underway. As we rode back, I thought I heard my cycle chain creak but was too in the moment and the swapping of stories to pay any heed to it.

Once we reached the sports club, we were greeted by a sight that would melt any cyclists heart. There was about 70 MTBs and Road bikes parked in a line next to each other at the reception, waiting to be loaded onto the vehicle which would be transporting them to the venue early in the morning. We then went onto check-in to our rooms, freshen up and then greet the other athletes who were there.

Early evening was time for the athletes in general and achievers, Madhurjya Borah (National Triathlon Champion), Nagaraj Harsha (Ironman Finisher) and Suma Rao (Ironman 70.3 Finisher) in particular to interact with the reporters and share their experiences and expectations of the event.

This press release then easily morphed into dinner which was carb loading central with vegetarian and non vegetarian Biryani as main course and vanilla Ice cream for dessert, coupled with knowledgeable techniques and tips by our esteemed guests for conversation.

This was then followed up by a briefing and question answer session about the event, the route, rules and regulations and any other queries that the athletes may have had. All of this finally got done around half past 10 and with an early morning drive scheduled for 4am, we were all interested in getting our quota of rest. So, time to get back to the room, get the gear ready for the next day and finally turn in for the night.

3am and the alarm goes off. I was too excited and wired to have gotten much of sleep anyway and was lying wide awake in bed waiting for the alarm to signal the time. As I jumped out, I made a few phone calls to make sure at least one person in each room was awake. I rushed into the rest room after and freshened up for the event.

By 3.30am I was good to go. Went to the other room to check on Geeta – this was the first time we weren’t sharing a room at an event and I have actually gotten quite used to waking up next to her on event days – she is probably one of the few people who knows how to handle me early in the morning before my workout.

She was up and sipping on a cup of tea. I fixed myself a cup of coffee and we chattered and giggled for the next 15 minutes while the remainder of the crew got all geared up.

As expected, with Indian Stretchable Time, our ride did not leave at 4am. As we were waiting for the bus, Shwetha decided to do an impromptu stretching and yoga session for the athletes and it was finally at 5am when all of us loaded ourselves onto the two buses to make our way to Lake Thonnur. Happy Times!