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!!