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Ironman in city, army colonel makes Sangam proud
An army colonel posted in Prayagraj successfully completed the extremely tough and the country’s first Ironman 70.3 triathlon, held recently in Goa. Athletes from
An army colonel posted in Prayagraj successfully completed the extremely tough and the country’s first Ironman 70.3 triathlon, held recently in Goa. Athletes from 27 countries participated in the event.
The race was a gruelling combination of swimming 1.9 km in the Arabian Sea, cycling 90 km and running 21.1 km, a total of 113km or 70.3 miles — and thus the name Ironman 70.3 – an undisputed test of endurance and will power.
Col Anjan Sengupta, a 47-year-old Regiment of Artillery officer, finished the race clocking an impressive 7:01:25 hrs and securing the 23rd place out of 87 contestants who completed the race in his age category of 45 years to 49 years. Overall, by gender, he secured 231st place among 641 men who finished the race, and 258th place overall out of 711 athletes of all genders who completed the course.
“Being a two-time back-to-back Comrades Ultra Marathoner (having participated in the world’s largest and oldest ultra-marathon of 89km held annually in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg), running was my greatest strength. I had to learn from scratch speed-sustained swimming and cycling, right here in Prayagraj lacking adequate training facilities,” said Sengupta, after returning to Prayagraj.
He underwent a gruelling weekly training schedule in the run-up to Ironman 70.3, swimming daily for an hour barring two rest days, cycling for two days for 4 hours each, and running for three days for one-and-a-half hours each. This was besides working out in the gym too for 5 days a week, an hour daily. He took care to target different muscle groups on different days.
And then, of course, there was the mental strength-building. Sengupta conceded that any endurance race also requires great mental strength. He believes that his army training, discipline and tough life played a vital role in preparing him for the race.
So, it was a tough journey he undertook all by himself. “All three sport disciplines of Ironman involve different muscle groups of the body, so this required an extensive gym regime. Over a period of three months leading to the main event, I did 60km of pool swimming, 3000km of cycling and approximately 300km of running, alongside regular gym,” said Sengupta, who hails from New Delhi.
He could manage cycling and running practice only at night due to office commitments during the day time.
All the hard work finally paid off on October 20, when he successfully completed the gruelling triathlon and became an Ironman 70.3.
