The Chennai Triathlon: India's first ever full triathlon completed on Sunday

The 5 Iron Men who completed the event

The Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) headed by Peter van Geit organized India’s first Full Iron Man Triathlon event in Chennai on Sunday.

Five ‘men of steel’ completed the full course that included 3.9km of swimming, 180km of cycling and a full marathon run of 42.2km.

All of this was completed between 6 am Sunday morning till well post midnight into the wee hours of Monday morning in the Southern outskirts of Chennai.

15 competitors in total registered themselves for the challenge, 13 appeared at the start line and 5 of them eventually finished the grueling ordeal.

The five ‘Iron Men’ were Thoudam Opendro Singh, Anil Sharma, Raghul Trekker, Sunil Menon and Ravi Kumar K.

Van Geit, the founder of CTC, stated that the idea behind the event was to promote active and healthy lifestyle through sports.

Anil Sharma, one of the participants of the iron triathlon, said “These kind of events aim at helping its participants to destress themselves from their work environment and bring them close to nature.”

The cycling part was done on some of the state highways

Moreover they said it’s all about the mind having control over your body.

“This is clearly where your endurance will be tested. After a while, one’s physical strength can go weak and it’s solely the mind that pushes one to go further,” added Anil.