Meet IRONMAN Amit Abhyankar

Amit has just completed his first Ironman race ever, finishing Ironman Switzerland just a few weeks ago. Amit tells us what it feels like to be an Ironman and his support leading up to the event.

Q Amit do you have a background in sport? if so tell us about this and what made you get into triathlon?

No, I didn’t do anything in my childhood and only started about 8 years ago when I entered the London Triathlon Olympic distance with some friends. My wife, Tay bought me some swimming lessons as I could only do about 50m breast stroke – it was the best present I ever got. After London, occasionally I would do one event e.g. another tri, a marathon etc and then went back to not much at all.

Q When did you start training with Team Dillon?

Tay had got into triathlons back in Spring 2008 as I said she had done way too many marathons in 1 year (3), so I watched her do a few sprints and Olympic distances. She entered Vineman 70.3 and Monaco 70.3 and was already being coached by Team Dillon. I said I would do it as well but just plod along and train myself. By Autumn 2008 I knew that was not going to work when I got dropped on a 2hr “no-drop” cycle ride with the local club, I was that far behind and my cycling was that bad.  I signed up then.

Q We know you have been doing triathlon a short time, what made you think you wanted to have a go at the IRONMAN distance?

I get more out of the accomplishment than looking for a fast time or looking at rankings etc I am not competitive about sport. I like the American approach to racing when you overtake someone they say “Good job”! Also having taken up sport this late I don’t think I am ever going to be fast. After Vineman and Monaco completing an ironman was just the obvious thing to do.

Q What did it feel like to race in your first IRONMAN and how was your preparation for the event.?

I had no idea what training for an ironman would be like. It is a massive commitment particularly fitting round work. I let Team Dillon set the training programme. I juggled it around my work and really tried to focus on quality sessions rather than the number of sessions. 

As you know life was a bit crazy that weekend so I just focused on race preparation and executing the plan for the day that we had agreed. This meant surviving the swim, not going crazy on the bike and keeping steady on the run. The race started before I even reached the deep water start line so I had no time to panic but focused on getting some clean water (Tay had been helping me on this) and once I did I actually enjoyed it.

The bike was hillier than I expected and I had to hold myself back on the flats so that I kept my legs for the run. The run just turned into focusing on the next 5k or the till the next aid station.  I just didn’t want to walk any of it as I don’t think I could have lasted another couple of hours out there.

Q You came across the line in 12.38 was this what you were expecting or was this a surprise?

Originally I wanted to finish sub 14 hours and as I got closer to the event a sub 13hr finish was possible, depending on how long I kept running on the marathon. When I started the run I just focused on keeping running (my original intention had been to walk/run the last 13 miles), by the last lap of the run I knew around 12:45 was possible.

Q Describe the feeling as you came across the line?

Physically I felt fine a little tired looking at the video I seem to be doing the IM shuffle rather than running. I felt more mentally drained having spent 13hrs sticking to a plan of pace, nutrition, and not crashing.  I was of course happy I finished and had felt I never wanted to do another one.

However quickly the overall feeling became of unfinished business, I had entered the event with Tay and we wanted to both experience doing an ironman. Because of her massive crash at Florida 70.3 she was unable to race. Without her putting up with my moaning in the winter, organising the training events, doing a lot of the research and more importantly training with me there was no way I would have got to the start line.

Q Would you do an IRONMAN EVENT again? if so which one would you like to do?

Yes - if Tay is up for another year of training (although I am doing ANY outdoor winter bike training this time). I want to do the event with her. I am thinking probably an event in USA, possible the Full Vineman in Aug 2011 which only has 600 participants and has a hilly and scorching hot run through the vineyards – it is not an official IM branded race so will be very low key. Also I am researching the Savageman (half) in Maryland that has one hell of a bike course for the autumn.

Well done to Amit for finishing his first ironman event and for Tay for all her support right up to the finish of the race even though Tay herself was unfortunate enough not being able to race after her crash. Well done to the Dynamic Team Dillon husband and wife team.