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She’s an ironwoman
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Anuradha Vaidyanathan’s passion for a little-known sport called Ironman, which tests the limits of human endurance, is commendable. But she is not content with passion. She wants to excel in the event
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PHOTO: K. GOPINATHAN
Idol chat Anuradha Vaidyanathan: ‘I believe in Mark Allen, an American Ironman pro, who said be your own hero’
There is a stereotype associated with IT professionals in the city. It is assumed that their world is a cubicle in their enclosed campuses.
But Anuradha ‘Anu’ Vaidyanathan, in her mid-20s, wants to bust the convention. She is the CEO of Pat N Marks, and she has a passion for a sport called Ironman.
She is perhaps the lone Indian, a woman at that, who is an Ironman athlete. She nurses big hopes of international success in the gruelling sport. Ironman is a long distance triathlon involving 3.8 kms of swim, 180 km of bike racing and 42.2 kms of running.
The three segments have to be executed one after the other and as Anu says: “With no time for cookies or lunch breaks.”
Forever a non-conformist Anu says her tryst with the sport began because she believes nothing is impossible. “I believe my motivation in taking this up was my refusal to accept that certain things cannot be done.”
Anu started chasing the dream 19 months ago even though she was not an athlete of any merit in her school days.
In fact it was during her under graduate stint at Purdue University in the U.S. in 2001 that she took up running.
“I took to running more as a recreation during the bitter winter of the Midwest. By the time I did my graduation from North Carolina University in 2002, I was into triathlon — long distance at that, running, cycling, swimming and participating in fundraising events.”
After a stint with IBM, Anu returned to India in 2005 to set up her own firm and the love for Ironman only grew stronger.
“I set up my own IT company and Ironman always lurked at the back of my mind. So I went to Canada in 2006 to do my first race. It was a nice local race called Canadian Iron Distance and nobody knew where I came from. The Race Director Terry McKintey, heard my story and my struggle to raise money to participate and gave a small break in the fee. I finished in 13 hours and was placed 43 among 66 athletes.”
In preparation for the race in Canada, Anu did the half Ironman (Two kms swim, 90 km of biking and 21.1 km of running) at Auckland. She clocked seven hours and 45 minutes. In fact, she went to New Zealand this year too, to compete in the same event and bettered her time to six hours and 30 minutes. She was placed 23 in the top half of the co-field.
The biggest challenge for Anu came in the event at Brazil this May, which had a huge field of 1,200 competitors. “The most difficult part of this race held in Florianopolis, was preparation. With the financial year closing, I had to fight against tight schedules and snatch time for training. The race day was very chilly and swimming proved to be near disaster as sea was rough. To compound the troubles, one fellow competitor accidentally kicked me in the face while swimming and my goggles came off. Halfway, I thought I should quit but I told myself I shouldn’t and should finish the race. I found my rhythm in the biking segment. I was literally flying past a lot of people and finished tenth in my age group. In running I finished fifth in my age group. In the end, I cried, it was the toughest race that I had done. I could have done better with little more training.”
Anu didn’t tell anyone about her Brazilian saga. “Basically, my aim was to get good, better and best and not get my face splashed in newspapers and things like that,” she says modestly.
She now has her sights set on qualifying for the World Championship and she knows that takes of lot of hard training. She is willing to go for it. That she starts cycling from 3.30 a.m., is proof of her determination.
“It must be kind of weird for many to see a woman cycling alone on city roads at unearthly hours, but that is the way it goes. It is a pity, I cannot cycle after 8 a.m. as traffic starts building up.”
With practically no coach at home, Anu has made it a point to interact with coaches whenever she participated in international events. She picks Scott Molina of New Zealand as one person who hugely helped her career. “Scott has done a lot for me in terms of advice and suggesting training schedules and working with me during my New Zealand trip.” Does she look up to anyone as her Ironman idol? “I believe in Mark Allen, an American Ironman pro, who said be your own hero. I think he is right, we can admire a person, but we rather be our own heroes.”
Training alone is not enough. Anu needs competition to prepare and for that a good deal of money is required. So far she has dipped into her own pockets. She has not been supported by bodies such as the Triathlon Federation of India. “I did have some discussions with the federation officials, but they are all interested in seeing me race the shorter version like triathlon and look for quick results. To get myself tuned again for shorter versions takes time. The level and mode of training is totally different between triathlon and Ironman. Moreover, I feel the level of support that I should look for has to be consistent. Just going for a race or two is not enough. I could be strong contender in triathlon for 2012 Olympics, if there is such support,” hopes Anu.
KALYAN ASHOK
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