The Thonnur Triathlon Extravaganza 2013

Ankush, as usual, helped me calm my nerves down and cracked some jokes. We grabbed our bib numbers and headed towards our bikes. I had to label mine Bib# 3 for the next few hours. I realised that I did not have my water bottle so got an Aquafina bottle and put it in the holder for later use. We had only just finished preparing our bikes when Ajit announced that all triathletes were requested to come and test the water before the event started.

So off we went, into the water. Had a try of the water and honestly, I was feeling good. There was one issue though. The water was seeping into my goggles and I could easily foresee that this would be a source of great annoyance to me. So, I tried everything to fix the issue – to no avail. The other option would be to lose the goggles. I was not ready for that, so, decision was made. Suck it in and stick it out. Deal with the annoyance – hope for the best but be ready for the worst. In this case, it would be me stopping every 20 meters and adjusting my goggles.

And it was go time! I know that I am not a strong swimmer so I ensured that I was right at the back and let the rest of the swimmers take off. The first lap was so tiring. I kept losing my way, the water seeped in through the goggles and made my life so miserable. I couldn’t see the flags and was hopelessly destroyed within the first five minutes of the event.

But its only when you are destroyed that you find the strength to fight and, as always, the spirit came through. The idea was take it one lap at a time, keep each flag as the next point to swim to and take it from there. That was it. The second lap was smoother and third lap onward, I was in a rhythm. I stopped every 25 meters or so to gauge if I was on track and then kept going.

Next thing I knew, six laps were over and I was on my way out. The marshal encouraged me, “you’re the first woman out and overall the 10th person out of the water.” I ran up the stairs and went into the transition area. It took me a good 8-9 minutes to get into my cycling gear. As I was changing, another girl popped her head in. “You are taking too much time to change. No one is taking as much time as you. You are doing so well, hurry up!!” I responded, ” They are in trisuits, I am in the process of wearing a really cute cycling outfit. Doing the best I can, will be out in a jiffy.”

As I came out, I ran to my Trek. Took her off the rack and wondered what I was meant to do. Picked her up and ran towards the start line. As I put her on the ground and jumped on, I realised that the chain was off. Meanwhile, everyone was urging me to hurry up and stop taking as much time as I pleased.

Naveen realised that I had a chain issue and came running to my rescue and helped me fix the chain. I jumped on the bike and off we went. The first 6 kilometers were not primo and more suited for an MTB, which is what I had, plus, it was downhill so it was super fun.