I wear many hats in my day-to-day life. I am an engineer by training and turn my life's pages over in terms of projects. I believe persistance is a difficult quality to maintain and a successful project for me, includes finding the project, setting goals and ticking them off. As denizens of the modern-day world, we are constantly looking for instant-glory, instant-updates, instant-this, and viral-that. Most of my projects take several years together, to get somewhat right.. so, Im still stuck on dead poets, some live ones and the internal clock of Sam Hamilton. I've always been curious and this curiosity has taken me through an incredible number of places and brought with it the company of some amazing people that I am privileged to call my friends and peers. I am pretty incapable of accepting the status quo so in late 2005, I started on a journey to see how one could train for a sport such as an Ironman, being a common Indian citizen. It lead to a lot of laughs, heart-breaks and with a bit of good fortune, some great results. In the last four years, Ive managed to compete consistently and most of all, keep my love of this sport alive. Besides being an athlete, my life also involves managing a very small team of consultants and chasing the last mile in research .
Long distance athletics in India is not too common, outside pro ranks, pros being defined as those that have been groomed for ages through governmental agencies, that fund these athletes. Amateur athletics is definitely picking up, but the pace is slow. The most popular long distance sport in India is probably running (because it requires the least amount of expensive equipment and training ambiance). Triathlon is not a common sport in India, at all. Long distance triathlon is almost unheard of. I don't consider it a great achievement to be the "first Indian woman" to have participated in Ironman length races but, I do consider it an achievement to be moving up the age-group ranks, at these international races, given where I train. I further believe that I have caught the sports bug, rather seriously.
I have two goals (while spending my petrol and jawaani precociously) as of 2010:
(a) To win an Ironman title by 2015.
(b) To recognize my privileges and use all my talents fully.
We set our own limits, of this I am very sure. I tend to rant every now and then to keep my head straight.I have to beat a lot of stereotypes to make these dreams, realities but, the alternative of not trying is too unacceptable! Wish me luck!
