IRONMAN 70.3 Goa this year…in its third edition in Goa. Miramar beach turned into a hub of excitement as the triathlon kicking off on October 8, 2023. Reportedly 1,200 participants swam, bicycled and ran the route designed for them to prove to themselves how much they could endure in the fitness regime!
GO, GO, GO…the aero bike cyclists push off for their 90km long ride from Miramar beach
By Tara Narayan
Swim 1.9km, bicycle 90 km, run 21.1 km in eight hours or less and get your most desirable Ironman’s medal for future similar fitness adventures around the world….the world’s most famous endurance triathlon was in Goa for its third edition.
IT’S good to know that the world is driven by so many fitness seeking men and women today. Even if seeking fitness for self and family is a still a luxury one may or not be able to afford! This is to say Sunday, October 8, 2023 dawned into a dull, cloudy day at Miramar beach in so called capital city Panaji in Goa. Since I live so close by the thought of imbibing some of the spirit of fitness consciousness from the ironmen and iron-women in town was irresistible! They were here last year too and this year it was the third edition of the Ironman 70.3 and something like 1,200 entries had registered. Reportedly, 15 % (about 50 women) were women and some of them veteran Iron-women too.
By 7am Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had already done the honours to kick off the first event of swimming in the Miramar beach sea waters and Miramar Circle was buzzing with locals, as also families and support teams of the participants who after the swim would race to their where their state-of-the-art bicycles were parked in a cordoned off lot for the second event of cycling something like 90 km and said veteran participant Adil Nargolwala later in a brief interaction, “ The cycling this year was tougher than last year but that’s how it’s supposed to be! This year we had to cycle up and down three times, first to Ribandar and on to the Bambolim hills and back to Miramar beach…”
FAMILY SUPPORT TEAM
IT’S sometimes also interesting to talk to family members of the participants who parked themselves at the Miramar Circle and a little way down the Campal promenade – and as their participants passed they would break into enthusiastic yells of “Keep going!” “Let’s go!” “Whoosh…” Very infectious! Swimming over with and the bicycling laps under way some looked around to catch up with some breakfast.
A most genial brother Ankush Sharma who was pushing his “aero bike” (these lightweight bicycles invite much interest) said his sister Tim Tim was participating in the race “and I am part of her support team, you can say I am her cycling coach!” This was his sister’s second Ironman and “last time she was the first Indian finisher!”
To a query about the aero bicycle he offered “it can be lifted with two fingers, here you try lifting it.” To my surprise I managed to lift the bicycle easily and he clicked a picture of me doing it, explaining like the pro that he is that “these bicycles are more about balance, if you want to speed, there’s no comfort; if you want comfort, there’s no speed!” They cost a bomb of course, over a lakh and plus, plus, “there must easily be Rs50crore worth of aero bikes parked here in the lot at your Miramar beach!” The bicycles are locked and under guard.
The Ironman 70.3 may also be done in relay teams, that means in a team of three one will swim, another do the bicycle race and the third do the run of 21 km which is a half marathon, “I think this year there’re 126 relay teams” and as usual there are many newbies to the events.
India is slowly an surely waking up to the joys of fitness consciousness and swimming, biking, running and maybe give or take a few more decades down the road of fitness joys – our hospitals packed with sick patients will ease up and there will be just a few of them! A good thought to look forward to if it materializes, thank-you. Thank-you, Ankush Sharma.
MEET the parents of Pranav Chhikara from Rohtak in Haryana, they were perched at a grassy pavement patch at the Miramar circle and were here to give moral support to their son, 28. Said his father Virendra and mother Rekha, “Pranav is passionate about this sports thing and wants to be a professional, he is doing swimming, bicycling, running …all three by himself.” Otherwise he is a “BCom, Masters in marketing, was in Singapore for a while, now he is back home but may go abroad if he gets the chance…” They took out a packet of biscuits and offered me some, asked if there was a nearby place where they could find an idli breakfast; I directed them to the nearest Fortune Miramar Hotel (where a sumptuous breakfast buffet for Rs650 was being offered, some of the better off participants and their families were putting up here for the duration of the triathlon).
IF you have Goan friends in Panaji you’re lucky! They are happy to take care of friends down for the Ironman 70.3 event and join in the excitement. I found my friend Elizabeth Rodrigues and her brother Adelmo at the Café Bhonsale savouring puri-bhaji and mirsang bhoji with Dr Rajesh Parekh, wife Asha, young friends Priya Kini and Shyam Saravana down from Bengaluru, for their son Neil participating in Ironman and while he was doing his cycling…they were here at the café, enjoying their Goan breakfast! Sharing details of the endurance event, Dr Parekh (he’s an opthalmologist) said, “We just wanted to come to Goa and this was a good excuse, Neil’s participation in the Ironman 70.3…he is doing all the events himself.”
FITNESS CONSCIOUS FAMILY
THE Parekhs are a fitness-consciousness family in toto and Priya, on her smart phone constantly, said they keep in touch with Neil and events on the Ironman.3 App, so it is easy to keep track of what’s happening…they may also do some sightseeing! Neil’s mother Asha quipped, “By the evening I know my son will be so fagged out and will say he wants to sleep, he won’t leave the hotel room!” Maybe not even attend the evening function to felicitate all the Ironman finishers (as they are called, also triathletes) at the Taleigao Community Hall, they’ll have to just play it by ear.
Interestingly, rules are very strict for the triathlon endurance test and participants who do not finish the swim, cycle race and run within the maximum stipulated eight hours, they lose out on even getting their precious Ironman’s medal! So if anyone newbies want to participate in the event next year, they better take it seriously and start training right away. Most seasoned participants who follow the famous event from country to country have their support team and coach to make them work hard at staying fit around the year. Ironman 70.3 is no joking time pass achievement which anyone can do just like that!
Fitness, one realizes, is something which has to be honed with discipline over time. Taking a final look at the Miramar beach circle one couldn’t help noticing how fighting fit most of the participants of Ironman 70.3 were; yes, even in comparison to Goa police on duty! Ironman 70.3 anyone? They do believe in catching them young for now there is also IronmanKids India and this year it was in its second edition in Goa for children in the age group of six years to 16 years, it flagged off on Saturday, October 7 at 7am at Miramar beach.
Needless to say Ironman 70.3 India (hosted by Deepak Raj, franchisee owner and race director of Ironman in India and CEO of Yoska, Jeff Edwards, CEO and MD Ironman Asia and VS Ganeshan, director-marketing of Herbalife) is now getting some kind of competition with companies and corporate hospitals waking up to the idea of promoting fitness and health for the future! Witness on the same day as when Goa CM Dr CM Pramod Sawant flagged off Ironman 70.3 triathalon he also flagged of the National Red Run; recently the RG Hospital too organized a marathon with a special section for the handicapped. It’s nothing on par with the Ironman 70.3 meticulous standard of course! Goa is a sports friendly state and now fever is building up with the 37th National Games coming up.
IS it true that one may take this whole craze for sports and fitness a little too far? Ardent participants unable to stretch their stamina or push too hard do end up in tragic incidents – yes, they do drop dead! Mercifully, such incidents are few and far between and do not put off the legion of young and not so young aspiring to fitter, healthier, happier lifestyles or so to speak.
Most sporting events do have hospital ambulance services on stand-by at the venue just in case…some participant gets into trouble. It cannot be easy to organize Ironman 70.3 and when asked, the “Ultraman Ironman 6 Star world majors and continents marathoner motorsport enthusiast” Adil Nargolwala, who’s very into sports, fitness and recreation, was all praise for this year’s Ironman 70.3 in Goa, “Previous occasions there were some glitches but this year it was a smooth experience. I’m all praise for Deepak of Yoska and his team who did a good job!”
Why does he do it? “Why does anyone climb mountains or sail the seas? For the same reasons I do it!” The Ironman triathlon runs in many countries, demands a lot from the triathletes participating and only after experience and several wins they will get to the main championship Ironman coming up in New Zealand next year.
Glimpses of Ironman 2023 triathlon…All the way down Miramar beach road, some interesting highlights and sidelights
