HYDERABAD: Hyderabad based software engineer Sunil Menon became the first person to successfully complete a Half Ironman event at the recently concluded Sri Lanka Ironman 70.3 event. Expressing deep satisfaction at his performance, Sunil Menon said, “This being my first outing at such an event, the pain and mental strength needed to complete the event was strongly felt.
I wish to thank my family, Hyderabad Runners Group and Hyderabad Cycling Club group for their constant motivation.” He is expected to participate in the next Half Ironman to be held in Phuket in December this year and will participate in a full ironman in 2013.
A half ironman consists of 1.9km swim in open ocean waters, 90km bike (cycle) ride and a 21.1 km run, each of these done one after the other.
As preparation for the event, Sunil had been training for over a year and participated in several endurance events, including a 75km run held in Bangalore in Nov, 2011 in which he finished second.
Sunil took part in the event despite an injury two weeks prior to the date.
He completed half ironman in a time of 7hrs 18minutes.
His timing for the individual sub-events were 01:00:21 (1.9km swim), 03:26:27 (90km bike ride) and 02:40:25(21.1km run).
Sunil, an employee of Microsoft, and a member of Hyderabad Runners Club, Hyderabad Cycling Club and was race director of Airtel Marathon, 2011.