“If life doesn't challenge you, it’s probably not so interesting. I see that every day with my athletic pursuits, just in terms of keeping motivated, not losing sight of my goals and setting the expectations high,” says Anuradha Vaidyanathan.
Anuradha has a BSc in Computer Engineering from Purdue University and a Masters in the same subject from North Carolina University. When she was in the first year in college she started her Company, PatNMarks (for patents and marks) and ran the show mostly via the internet. She had the support of her parents who have been working in the area of intellectual property law for over 30 years.
But what makes her different is that she is an Ironman athlete. An ironman triathlon is a long-distance triathlon involving a 3.8 km swim, a 180 km bicycle and a 42.2 km run. They have to be executed one after another. No time for snacking or lunch breaks. Anuradha is perhaps the only ironman athlete from India, who besides being a woman, trains in India and has raced twice this distance besides participating in ultra athletic events.
“My day starts around 3.30 am for a bicycle ride. I train religiously on the treadmill at home and build my strength at one of the gymnasiums in the City. In two or three years I believe I am going to give the competition something to think about in long distance triathlon. I am 27 and most women triathletes are much older than me and I have met some of them,” she exudes confidence.
Difficult terrains
She was only a recreational runner in college and took up distance racing only in November 2005, when she ran the Hyderabad half marathon, running the distance of 21 km in 2 hours and was placed 10th overall. She bettered her timing the following year at Hyderabad running the 21 km in 1:46 hours and was placed 9th overall.
She also participated in the Mumbai half marathon with a timing of 1:51 hours and was placed 9th overall.
Her first race at the ironman distance was in Ottawa, Canada in September 2006 called the Canadian Iron Distance Race. She finished in a time of 13 hours and placed 43rd out of 66 people. She took 86 minutes on the swim, 6.53 on the bike and 4:23:09 on the run.
In preparation for the Canadian race, she had raced a half-ironman in Auckland, New Zealand in January 2006, placing at the very bottom, 156 out of 163. In that race she had clocked 7 hours and 45 minutes for the half ironman distance (which is a 2 km swim, 90 km bike ride and a 21.1 km run). She did the Auckland half ironman marathon for the second time in March 2007. This time she clocked 6:30 and was placed 23rd out of 55. This was a 75-minute improvement over the previous year.
Her next big race was the Ironman Brazil in Florianopolis in May 2007. This was a much bigger race with around 1,200 athletes. Her age group had 19 athletes, all fit young women, who probably had much more experience, swimming in choppy seas. She finished the race in 13:22 on a much tougher course and was placed 10th in her age group and fifth on the run. She took 120 minutes on the swim, 7:17 on the bike and 4:07:09 on the run.
Series of races
During the last three months she did a series of three races in four weeks on a short journey to New Zealand.
She was placed first in the Port Hills 20K challenge, which was a hilly run race. She was placed 3rd in he age-group and 8th overall at the Ashburton Half Ironman, where she set a Personal Best on the half-ironman distance with a time of 6:02. Her previous time was 6:30, in March 2007.
She raced another half-ironman at Rotora, within two weeks of the first one and was 44th overall. This was a much bigger race and he run time was 32nd overall. This was a race where some things did not come together and she had a few issues on the bike but she overcame it to get to the finish in a good time. She hopes to participate and race all of this year.
