Well, the Olympics is the apple of every sports-person's eye. Never mind that it is completely commercialized, totally lop-sided and would abuse any person's intelligence. Chris Rock (an American comic) has a great line about African-American people in sport.. that the only kind of sport they might do is something like running, or something which is free and can be done without exclusive memberships or expensive equipment. I feel exactly the same, being an Indian athlete. We do have all these compartments in our mind. Only those that have been in sport from age 3 can be athletes.. only those that play something like cricket will get their time of day in sponsorships, blah blah.. Thank goodness, I have some drastic friends who never say die and I refuse to fall for these compartments. How about our moms and daughters (when I should have such a privilege of being a mother)? How about our dads and our brothers and grand-parents? Do they not deserve a chance at health too? Sport can be every persons activity, if done for fun.. and sport should be every country's prerogative, if there are dedicated athletes wiling to go the distance in training.

I am so proud of our women athletes in Athletics, Badminton and Tennis. These kids are rock stars! All this latest rubbish about not wearing a saree to the Olympic opening ceremony is another example of idiotic press-coverage that again insults anyone's intelligence. Practice before looks, any athlete would choose the same way.

Talking about the Olympics once more, even though everything is lop-sided and our sports history is kind of nuts, I am still very thrilled to watch the news on this event. It does takes many years of hard-work, dedication and single-minded devotion to get anywhere close to the top of the game.. sure, its not all fair and people with more money and time ultimately seem to get "there" faster but, heck, Rome was not built in a day or something, right?

I am very optimistic today! Sometimes I get down and out thanks to several other people, some so weak that they dont take any accountability for any of their actions, thoughts or words but, optimism, like top-soil, in my mind is what you make of it. I hope we come out with flying colors in more than one event at the Games. I am so proud of our athletes for getting there and representing our country, with all its diversity and challenges. Hats off to them!

I just raced yesterday in the state of Washington. This marks the beginning of my summer. After struggling with a bout of fever and some late nights (people dont seem to go to sleep early enough, in my opinion), I started this race for two reasons and two reasons alone:

(a) I wanted to see how I would go, given some poor training weeks leading upto the race. I have been in a mental downer because of a few things but, thats life for ya! Never perfect. I kept my training as consistent as I could because its no good to sleep on your dreams when the going gets tough.

(b) I think its important to excel at something only if you love it. In the past year, Ive seen how unhappy people get when doing difficult races and it never ceases to amaze me that they take it upon themselves to participate when it brings no joy to their lives. I thought, this race would be a great test of my attitude -- do I really love this sport and would I really have a great day despite health/training issues or would I make myself miserable?

I had a superb day. I just loved the race from the word "go!" I was focussed the whole time, very happy to be there and it was a perfect day for racing! The bike was through some hilly routes in the backroads and my creaky old bike made it up every hill with a smile on her face. I love biking and have a long way to go on this but, I am working hard and have no doubt that I will get so much better in the months to come. The run was the icing and was over too soon for my liking. I had a BLAST! I was happy and cheering on other competitors and smiling (something I never do, because I am usually running so hard :))

I had a fantastic day and my fitness is definitely coming along to have come through this well with the attitude of "go out there and see what you can do".

I am really hoping to put on a good show at the World Champs and I needed this race to kickstart my serious training phase.

Off to work and put in the miles.

One of my three best friends died this week and while I am more familiar with recieving wedding invitations from my peer group, this news took my world by storm. I had just finished running in a very cold rain and so happy to have finished my workout because I have been struggling to stay positive for about a month now. I suppose, subliminally we do know that something is not right with our world when we struggle to keep doing what we love. The tears were not slow to come, this time. I bawled my heart out for two straight days but, you know, the thing about crying in the rain is that one cannot figure out whats streaming down your face.

This got me thinking about my life in general and I am not sure if it applies to anyone else but, overall, I think optimism is an art. My new mission in life is to perfect this art. I think we have several deaths to die if our attitude is bad. I knew this for a while but, I sort of lost that thought somewhere.. time to get it back here.

I think good things come in threes. It takes a bit of ground to disappear beneath your feet to realize what you have, what youve lost and most importantly be grateful for what you have started to take for granted and really cherish it instead. Its only June! I have some fabulous new plans for the rest of the year and now 200% inspiration to see them through.

Stay tuned.

This was by far,the most difficult race to have ever been held because of the weather conditions. The race started at 7am, when the temperatures were already at 25 degrees Celsius, with 94% relative humidity. The swim was in the South China Sea and we had favourable conditions including low-tide. The water was murky and the buoys to mark the course went down as the wind picked up so, we had no idea where we were going. We had two laps on the swim and I was simply following the people ahead of me. The first lap was all right but I was way left of where I should have been and swam a bit long. The second lap was a disaster. By this time the buoys had totally fallen down and I swam even longer. I exited the water in 94 minutes. My previous best swim was in 80 minutes but, I was not unhappy. The swim was not very well marked and there is no point in losing hope at the end of a swim in the Ironman.

The bike course was very scenic and went through a lot of rice fields. The temperature was climbing steadily as was the wind. I was very happy to be cycling and biked hard to make up for lost time on the swim. I felt like I was in India, in Chennai actually because of the heat and humidity. The temperatures rose from 30deg to 34deg steadily during the bike ride. I was burning and my left foot, in my pedals was heating up and felt as if I was sticking it into a fire, straight. The course wound through some Chinese villages and all the children there were cheering for us. It was so amazing! Everytime I saw these kids, I would pick up and go faster. The crowd support was amazing. I finished my bike ride in 6 hours 41 minutes. Including 10 minutes of transitions (transitions are where you put on your bike clothes after the swim and put on your run clothes after the bike) I was out on the run. My previous best bike was 7:12 and I improved by more than half an hour on the bike.

Onto the run, I was pretty dehydrated and almost delirious. The temperature was now a steady 35 degrees and I had to pour ice on my head all the way. From the very first kilometer on the run, I suffered. It was not very different from running through a sauna, after having biked for 6:41 in a sauna. People were starting to walk because it was so difficult to run. I told myself that while I may not run fast, I would keep running slowly to get to the finish line. I ran down 25 women and more than 130 men but I had a very hard time on the run. I threw up twice because I could not keep down any food. It was pretty horrific weather. I could only take my sun glasses off at 6:15pm. They had been on my face for nearly 10 hours. My skin is burnt to a very dark red and I broke both my toenails again but, the finish was sweet. I was 4th in my age-group. 29th overall including the professionals. I was 19th on the run including the pros, on a day when I really had a difficult run.

I finished 35 minutes behind the last professional athlete, outran one professional woman and man, and I am very thrilled have this race result.

Well, well, well. Its the day before the race here in Haikou, China. I am pretty thrilled to be here and pre-race nervousness is usual. I have been ruminating on the goings on in my life and my path here. For the firs two to two and a half years, I did all my training from India. I participated in two races every year, one half-ironman and one ironman. There were several reasons I did this. One was of course, financial constraints. I work very hard and no one gets anything for free. Second was of course, preparing the mind to do the incredible work one has got to do in sport. When we look at our runners, I dont think we pay them enough respect. I remember standing around at the Mumbai marathon post-race and listening to a tonne of people speculate if Abhishek Bacchan was going to be there, whether Rahul Bose was going to hand out awards etc. I think these two men are very good looking and worth the speculation however, I dont think too many people in that crowd knew the run course record or the Indian runners who had posted some amazing times there, for the conditions they train in.

I understand their training. I understand what it means to wake up at 3am to get in a bike ride. I understand what it means to be a woman in India, trying to accomplish something this difficult. I am very happy to have these amazing marathoners to look upto, they are one of my several sources of inspiration.

After consistently placing with the top amateurs at run races, I decided that this was the year to step up and train and race more consistently. My season of races in Nov was very successful. I came home and trained a bit after that. My races from Feb-March were also successful. After a very brief training camp Im attempting my second Ironman in less than 6 weeks.

Im PSYCHED. I love the challenge of this distance. I am still learning and I have a very long way to go but, I have worked hard in the last few months and I will give it my best on race-day. The first and foremost challenge in an Ironman is finishing. No one can take that for granted! I am a perfectionist and so, I always worry about if I couldve done more, trained more, etc. etc. But, I constantly remind myself that I have two jobs to do and come race day, the past and the future dont really matter.

I hope my hard-work and self-belief pays off tomorrow.

BRING IT!!

I remember watching a movie when I was younger called "Khoon Bhari Maang" , with Rekha and Kabir Bedi... Everytime I am super-relaxed and happy with my life, my clients (very rare happening) and optimistic in general, I have some super-funny thoughts. They are funny to me, anyway. I think blogs and facebook and other such nonsense are a one-way PA system. Everyone gets to read it and has to digest it :) So, here goes:

I was thinking that Indian triathletes should make a movie called "Grease bhari Aankh". I think this would star the bureaucrats, the babes from Bollywood and the bikers. Music HAS to be composed by A R Tere-Naam, direction by Money Rathnam and lead heroine would be yours truly. It would be a story about poise, international intrigue and the boring day-to-day chore of making the most of our time.

Many people have written me in the recent months and asked me to inspire them. First of all, thanks for your emails! I really do feel very happy to be inspiring even one person in my life however, I just want to share my thoughts on inspiration and what it really is all about.

I say that I dont have heroes because of their mortality. People are people, you know? We all have highs, lows, challenges, insecurities, disappointments, euphoria etc. etc. to deal with. Some people just deal with them in a way that makes us think "thats cool! Id like to be like that!" and that is what inspiration is. Its not the people per se but their choices or actions. However, the bottom-line is that inspiration comes from within us. Not without us :)

This is a big big big thing to understand and its taken me two decades and then some! So, what I have to say is, to everyone who has been writing me and asking about sport and running and such things, just go out and DO IT!! Start small.. run 10 minutes, walk 20 minutes at first, 2-3 times a week. Then keep building. If you are tired, rest. When you feel good, go again! Thats it really.. there are no complicated secrets to sport. If you are attempting a long-distance event, remember that consistency and GRADUAL PROGRESSION are the keys. No one can build Rome overnight. Trust me, I have tried :) Using Lego blocks :)

So, to all my awesome buddies with Grease Bhari Aankhs, dont give up. Keep trying. If people are annoying, dont deal with them. MOVE ON. Focus on yourself.

I will put up a picture on my collection, which to me symbolizes the word ENDAVOUR. As long as you know that work ain't glamorous, you will be surprised how far you can go with a little honest effort. Keep on pluggin!

I was listening to one of my favourite artistes of late, Bic Runga.. this chick is AWESOME!! She has one song called Good Morning Baby! and it starts like this:

Between an overload of information
And a striving for a pure dedication I
Find myself looking for the exit sign

I was thinking, this was written for me!

I met some fantastic runners the other day and they were talking about this and that.. So, while us triathletes "try" to run and the runners really do run, there is a third classification, "the pretenders"... people like me, who will not back off when everything seems to go nowhere. I dont really know if tenacity is an endearing characteristic in human beings but, I've always been described as perseverant. Sometimes, that annoys me! Its totally irrational but, true.. Why can't I quit when my shoulders REALLY hurt on a swim? Whats so wrong about having a lot of friends, being popular and pleasing a majority of the population?

Triathlon is not a team sport. That is for sure.. Even historically, the real tough nuts went out on their own... and got good.. I think if you need to be told what to do, you are in trouble to begin with. Since people like complexity, and parts of the game are also to not get injured (as this is a high-volume sport) sure, having a good advisor can help.. but, inherently, this sport is for the lone wolves.

No chit chat. Just work and mortal combat with the clock, responsibilities and pain.

As long as its fun and Im getting better, Im in! 200% No other way to do it.