My first Ironman Race
Why Ironman Challenge? I had been running regularly since 2014 and had done a couple of half, full and ultra marathons and I had belief in my endurance. Testing your limits is the biggest challenge one can do in life. I first heard about the Ironman race in 2016 when it was nowhere in my mind that I would do it ever. Ironman race includes 3.86km open water swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run all to be done within cut off time of 17 hours. I was a slow swimmer and I couldn't even think of doing the 3.86km sea swim. At some point of time, I decided I will go for it and started focusing on swimming. In 2017 October, I completed the Hyderabad Half Ironman race in 8 hours which boosted the confidence level in swim. My office colleague, Rahul Sekhar was a great source of inspiration. He always encouraged me to do the Ironman and finally registered for Ironman Kalmar, Sweden. Why Kalmar, Sweden? I came to read the race reports of various Ironman races and picked Kalmar