Bhubaneswar: “Madichala. Keep going no matter what happens”… Guided by his father, Sura Routray’s principle, Odisha’s Sidharth Routray, is the first Odia to complete the Ultraman Florida Race on February 13, 2022.
He finished this three-day, 515 km multisport race in 31 hours 55 minutes. The triathlon includes 10 km of open-water swimming, 421 km cross-country cycling and an 84 km ultra-marathon run.
Giving credit to his extraordinary and experienced crew, Routray said they made him achieve the impossible in the simplest way. Thanks to them, he had his longest swim in life – 10 km; his first-ever and longest bike ride in a day – 274 km and his first-ever and longest run in a day – 84 km.
According to Routray, he had signed up for the race in 2019 and even trained for it, but it got cancelled due to COVID. So, he switched over to mountaineering and stopped training for the triathlon.
“I was away for four weeks on the Aconcagua Expedition in December and January. The Ultraman team was trying to confirm if I am doing the race or not. Since I was in the mountains, there was no way of reaching me on the phone or via emails.”
“I wanted to move it by a year as I had a big mountaineering expedition coming up in March and I had to train for it. That would leave no time for Ultraman. Also, they had not found a crew for me. When I finally read their communication, I told them to move me to next year if they cannot find a crew,” Routray was quoted as saying.
On January 18, they gave him Rick, his crew chief and he had only three weeks to train for Ultraman.
“I stopped mountaineering and started training for Ultraman training. This included vigorous training for 3-5 hours a day. I knew I needed the arms for the swim and the hamstring for the run and bike. I wanted it so strong that it would not cramp in in 11 hours run time.”
Winning the triathlon was a combination of hard work and perseverance. But being spiritual helped the most. Regular chanting, breathing exercises and above all, faith in Lord Jagannath kept him upbeat.
“Back home in India, my team was praying to our factory goddess – Maa Jhadeswari. The prayers worked. It rained at the perfect time when I was facing the heat and dehydrated. I kept running,” said the Ultraman.
