This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
Continuing on from my previous post about health (where I babble on to some extent, extolling the great benefits that one may derive from swimming), I’ll soldier on undaunted into the #TataZica marathon for bloggers with a somewhat embarrassing post. An admission. A revelation. A confession, if you will.
And for this purpose, I’ll be trading in my persistent mantle of impact that I;ve carried so far for the prompt “Fantastico” (inspired by the many fine qualities of the TataZica, I might add).
And, finally coming to it, without beating around the prickly shrubs of mortification any further, I’ll get on with admitting my man-crush for Mr. Milind Soman.
An Indian supermodel, actor and film producer born in Scotland, he is a man with that rare appearance – haunting good looks that not only women love, but men want too. He is also a huge inspiration. Especially for someone who’s, as I’ve had occasion to harp on about in multiple instances, obsessed about physical fitness. Did I say obsessed? Hang on. I meant, like, freaky. You know, the crazy, intense, stalker kind.
And really, how can El Fastastico, Mr. Milind Soman, Ironman himself, not be inspiring for anyone? The great feat of his I am referring to is, of course, him recently having completed the Iron Man Triathlon. At the age of fifty.
Take a moment to let that sink in.
In fact, wait. This isn’t right. Let me spell it out for you. Maybe then, a semblance, the thinnest of slivers perhaps, of the full gravity of his achievement might be evident. Unfortunate as I am that I cannot give any more to it, I feel that this deserves at least this little bit which I, humble, wannabe marathon-ing blogger, am capable of.
Not only for emphasis and effect, but also for those unaware of the Iron Man Triathlon, here is what the Iron Man Triathlon is constituted of.
As the name suggests, the Iron Man Triathlon, is a Triathlon and hence has 3 parts (or legs, if you will) to it:
1. 2.4 Miles or 3.68 Kilometers of swimming.
2. 112 Miles or 180.25 Kilometers of bicycle riding.
3. To finish off, a marathon, i.e., 26.2 miles or 42.2 Kilometers of running.
In that order.
Without a break.
A strict time limit of 17 hours. (two hours twenty minutes for the swimming, eight hours ten minutes for the bicycle ride and six hours thirty minutes for the marathon).
And, big surprise, it’s regarded ubiquitously as one of the toughest physical feats around.
And this fifty year old dude did it. In just over fifteen hours.
Yeah. You better look at yourself disparagingly in the mirror, at your disgustingly un-fit fat-loaded, twenty- or thirty-something, tubby self.
Really. If there ever was a higher inspiration for us to get off our backsides, leave behind the shackles of our sedentary life styles and discard the crutches of our ridiculously ill-treated bodies, this is it.
mohanbhaskar 