Making the impossible possible

Today I would like to share my experiences as a participant of the Delhi International Ironman 70.3 distance, similar to the long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. I registered in August 2018 and I knew that after that, life would never be the same again – I was up for one of the biggest challenges of my life.

The "70.3" refers to the total distance in miles (113.0 km) covered in the race which consisted of a 1.9 km swim, a 90 km bike ride, and a 21.1 km run. This race is considered to be one of the toughest sports globally.

The Ironman 70.3 distance race taught me how to convert ideas into reality. Here are the following 6 steps that I had applied and these are now part of my life:

1. Strategizing:  I first focused on strategizing for the race. I performed a complete walkthrough of how the race would be executed and how I planned to accomplish the difficult though not impossible task. I also acknowledged that I would not be able to do this all by myself – I needed an  Ironman coach to help me get through the 6 months of preparation. The key questions I asked myself were:

·      What tools and resources would I need?

·      Where could I practice my long distance running, swimming and cycling sessions?

·      How would I gain my family’s support for the time I needed alone to prepare for these long morning workouts on weekdays and even longer morning workouts on weekends?

·      What kind of diet and nutrition was required?

·      How much time should I invest in practice?  

·      How was I going to successfully balance my work, my family and my new-found passion?

·      How would I graduate from being a mere marathoner to Ironman?

2. Executing the Strategy: This next step is about knowing what to focus on. I reached out to people saying that I was looking for a coach. The advice I received from Bipin Kaul, a multiple-time Ironman himself, was to look for an Ironman-certified coach and nothing less would do. After a lot of effort, my search paid off and a contact of mine finally called to say he knew someone based out of Australia but also operating in India. His name is Coach Deepak Raj and his team of coaches. Coach Deepak has the reputation of having finished 20 Ironman Triathlons. https://u.ironman.com/certified-coach/deepak-raj

I was very eager for the coaching to begin in Mumbai. Within a few days, the Coach and I started the adventure. He shared everything he knew - his experiences of what worked and what didn’t, planning the right diet and of course the workout regime.  He shared an app to give me my weekly schedule of Swimming, cycling, running and core exercises. Armed with all this knowledge, I immediately started preparing myself for the challenge.

While I previously trained on a Hercules hybrid bike, I now graduated to the powerful Merida Scultura road bike. I started my swim session in the Olympic size pool near my home. With an awesome plan to execute day by day, week by week and month by month consistently, my journey of becoming an Ironman had a strong beginning.

3. Taking measured risks: I found it difficult to contain my excitement and I told everybody about the race, but most of them discouraged me saying that it was an impossible feat. Some of the things they said included: “Your knees will hurt”, “You are almost 46 years old, what are you thinking?”, “Your legs will hurt for sure”, but I believed in myself and I kept going.

When my swimming coach placed me alongside 8-10 teens and adults, I was the oldest of them. I didn’t do very well in the swim sessions at that time.  I remember people telling me: “If you’re only able to cover 25 meters at a time in the 100-meter race now, how do you expect to be ready in 6 months to complete the entire 1.9 km swim? After all, Ironman is also about the swim as well as the bike ride and the run? It’s not going to happen!”

I took a big risk when I started because I had nothing – no equipment, no powerful bike, only painful legs, and a strong will-power to succeed. The risks were measured because I balanced them with a lot of insights and data from various Ironman athletes who had ‘been there and done that’ many times in a row not only in India but abroad as well.

I attended Tony Robbins’ “Unleash the Power Within” program in Singapore. https://www.tonyrobbinssg.com/pm-leadership

During the program, Tony Robbins shared the story of Sister Madonna Buder, who started her Ironman journey from the age of 52 and became the oldest lady on Earth to complete 44 Ironman triathlons by the age of 86. Nike created an advertisement on her and called her “Iron Nun”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkP7M_x_c1w

So thought to myself, If she can complete an Ironman at the age of 86, why can’t I do an Ironman distance at the age of 46?

4. Making decisions: When I decided to register for this challenge in August 2018, I knew I was making a very big decision but I had to do it very rationally and quickly. I was getting into a very expensive sport where I had to choose amongst the finest coaches, cycles, and nutrition. The choices included a road bike which was ranging from Rs. 50,000/- to Rs. 10 lakhs with all accessories, also different options of food & nutrition, after figuring out what was working and what was not working for me.

5. Trusting others: At the outset, I knew that I would not be able to meet this huge goal alone and I needed to trust another person completely to help me get there. I trusted the Ironman coach – to show me the right way to excellence in the toughest sport there is.

6. Collaboration: The challenge provided an opportunity for me to learn to collaborate with several key people in this journey - the swimming coach, the Ironman coach, the Merida bike dealer, and other Ironman aspirants – all communicated and worked together to get me through the 70.3 Ironman distance.

On February 2019, after 6 months of intense preparation, my idea became reality because that was when I accomplished the Ironman 70.3 distance. What an exhilarating and out-of-the-world experience!

As I look forward to the next Ironman challenge in October 2019, I know that anything is possible, you just have to believe it. Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve - Napolean Hill.  

Hi, I’m Solomon Salvis.

I play games in daily life and make people play business games in professional life.

These are some of the learnings we teach during our world-class Collaborative Leadership business simulations - www.simurise.com, I was glad that I had the opportunity to implement the learnings in real time and achieve the impossible feat for myself.