I had a blast at Ironman New Zealand. The weather was similar to the tempest, started off real calm and then followed the wind and rain. I was so engaged in my race that I barely noticed the weather! Only my blisters and clothes soaked in rain-water, remained to tell the story.

There was a big Indian flag at the event as I was the only Indian participant. I never really understood the high of representing one's country, until that point. It gave me goosebumps! I consider myself to be very detached from the politics of sport (trust me, there is a lot of it, read the papers everyday about how every federation actively stands in the way of the athletes, not behind them to back them up) but, it was still such an amazing feeling to have the Indian flag, up and proud, amongst a host of other flags. That made me all the more determined to give it my best effort, last Saturday.

I loved the swim. I have been working so hard on the swim and it certainly paid off. Onto the bike, the winds were lashing, head-on for two sections of the ride but, I dont like making excuses. I want to excel at all three sports, so, I am going to work even harder on my bike-riding skills this year. That is the promise I made myself on race-day. The run was amazing. I truly love running. It is the hardest part of an Ironman because it is the last leg. If you have any cracks in your training or mental attitude, it usually shows on this leg.. and it is often my strongest leg. I am very proud to say that I placed 5th out of the women in my age-group (I ran down eighteen women in my age-group and around thirty women overall, to get 30th place overall on the run and 89th overall on the race).

That ain't too bad for a girl, from India!

I cant WAIT for next year.

Thanks to all my friends for all your messages of encouragement. I really appreciate it, even though I have little skill in writing back!

I crashed my bike today and bruised myself very badly but, I am generally optimistic.. and falling is not too bad, once you are up on your feet again and moving on, as if nothing happened.

That is the whole secret to life, I think.