I had an opportunity to meet a though man when participating in celebration of 50th episode of “Startup Mongolia". There was only one man who wore sports outfit among officially dressed crowd of people discussing business matters.
The word of “Finisher” on left sleeve of his shirt caught my attention. Then, I gave closer look and saw the word of “IronMan” written on his chest. I could say that these two words were enough for me to meet him.
I would like to introduce a bit about “IronMan” sport if you have not heard about it. Simply, it is greater challenge than triathlon which includes cycling, swimming and running.
But IronMan is not simply triathlon; much difficult and thougher version of it. In order to reach the finish line of “IronMan”, you have to complete swimming of 3.86 km, cycling 180.25 km and marathon running of 42.2 km.
Immediate succession of these activities usually lasts for around 12-13 hours to reach the finish line. It sounds quite difficult, does not it? The man I interviewed crossed the finish line. In this sport, crossing the finish line is considered as the equal achievement to winning in other sports. The man I am about to introduce you had spent nearly a whole year, getting up at 5:00 am and going early to bed without doing any social activities to solely prepare for the competition.
First of all, please give our readers short introduction of yourself?
I work as software engineer at Active Network Company which primarily manages organizing events and registering participants, including IronMan sport events.
As I studied about IronMan, I found that many of participants are entrepreneurs mostly working in tech industries. You are also not an athlete, but software engineer, right?
Yes I am. The finisher of IronMan should not be an athlete. As I know, many of people preparing alongside me for IronMan are from different backgrounds. For example, good friend of mine, Mike, works in the field of stock market.
You must be very active when you were young kid?
As far as I remember, I was very active kid. I used to play American football and run at the sprint in high school. But not doing a lot of cycling and swimming. Generally, I did not know much about two of three categories in triathlon.
Then, how did you get to first participate in IronMan?
Some of my friends used to train for triathlon. Encouraged by them, I competed in few short-distance triathlons. There are mainly five types of triathlon depending on distance. I first registered to participate in the Olympic distance of triathlon which is twice shorter than the ultra distance. The Olympic distance consists of 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike and 10 km run.
Despite the distance much shorter than IronMan, it was quite difficult initially for me because I was not used to swimming, cycling and running at all. But thanks to continuous participation in triathlon, I had quickly improved myself at swimming, cycling and running.
Then, my friends started thinking about challenging themselves in IronMan. My other friends also participated in IronMan that time; we went to watch them competing. Then, we discussed and decided to challenge ourselves with the belief to reach the finish line. Ironically, I thought of myself that I am crazy person and should not have done it after registering in IronMan. A month later, I got nervous realizing that the tournament will soon start. Then, I started my long term training session. I think that I was very motivated and firmly determined to finish the distance after witnessing that my friends had made a great physical improvement and people’s reaction to them crossing the finish line.
How difficult was training session?
23 of us in total including my friends and colleagues registered to compete in the tournament. While each of us had different jobs and life routines, it was not easy for us to train together. Moreover, most of them were married and had kids so that it was challenging task for us. But I had the advantage of being single so that I just focused on my job and training.
Some of my friends got injured in training session and forced to restart workout from the beginning after getting healthy. A competitor of IronMan usually completes 6 month training on average while I trained for around 10 months. During this period, I challenged myself in short-distance IronMan for several times and ran a full marathon.
Thus, it can be said that the training session had not been much difficult for me because I did not have a family to worry about and did not get injured luckily. You can compare the training with a construction activity. As similar as constructing a building gradually, I built my body step by step and adapted myself steadily. Finally, I was mentally and physically ready to compete and reach the finish line of IronMan. But preparing your mentality was more crucial than physicality.
What came into your mind when you were participating in the tournament?
I was nervous and excited at same time on the tournament day. There were many great moments such thousands of people leaving the start line alongside you, many people cheering from the audience and overtaking fellow competitors in the middle of the tournament despite overtaken by others.
Also, I was just thinking about how to cross the finish line after realizing that there are your friends and family members supporting, and supervisors watching the tournament. As I know, it is very important to take enough nutrition and not to get dehydrated during the tournament. If not, you will be easily exhausted and not able to complete the tournament.
How much difference is there between before and after IronMan?
Obviously, there is much difference. For example, back in 2011, two years ahead of my participation in IronMan, I thought of myself that I never complete the tournament after watching my friends participating and crossing the finish line.
Later, I doubted and asked myself “Can I reach the finish line?” after registering in IronMan. The reason is that I was not good at running and simply exhausted after 100 meter sprint. Thus, the first part of the tournament, 3.86 km swimming, seemed to be insurmountable for me. But I started my training with the belief of overcoming all these difficulties and did it, which now gives me opportunity to speak to you about what I achieved and overcame in the past.
I had the feeling that I can achieve anything after completing IronMan. Although it was more challenging than expected, I realized after the tournament that if continuously fighting for one’s goal, anyone can eventually achieve.
I think that I am much stronger in terms of mentality compared to myself prior to IronMan. Crossing the finish line of IronMan seems to be harder than anything out there. But if you regularly train and prevent injuries in your training session, you are surely assured that you can achieve in IronMan. So, it is not impossible task; just completely up to you.
Had you ever thought not to compete after registering in the tournament?
I had never thought of it. Even during the tournament, I just thought about completing the tournament because my mind was completely ready for it.
What should IronMan participants concern most of?
As previously said, you will have enough encouragement and willpower to overcome through continuous workout and relentless training. But no matter how good your physical condition is, you should not forget two things.
Firstly, you should be concerned with whether you get enough nutrition and hydrated regularly. Secondly, your mental strenght is fundamental. You cannot complete the tournament with ‘single try’ not matter how excellent your preparation is. Your legs will hurt and get tired, and you will feel doubtful over whether you can finish. I saw many people who failed to finish because of not ready mentally.
- The moment when Dennis crossed the finish line –
Winning over yourself is believed to be the most difficult task. You are truly an example of it. And, do you think of competing again in IronMan?
It is not such simple; you have to get up at 5:00 am every morning, get early in bed, do your regular job, and spend remaining time to just training. You will not have social life such as meeting your friends and spending time with family.
You will have to sacrifice a lot in order to compete again in IronMan. Although I currently do not think of participating again, I do not rule out completely myself from competing in IronMan. So, I am not sure so far; time will surely tell.
Dennis Tripplet is very active person as he said. Not only doing sport activities, he also makes a lot of traveling. He told me that Mongolia is 43rd country which he has traveled.
Moreover, he said that he will continue his trip to China, South Korea instead of flying back to his home after spending just four days in Mongolia.
I had an opportunity to meet a though man when participating in celebration of 50th episode of “Startup Mongolia". There was only one man who wore sports outfit among officially dressed crowd of people discussing business matters.
The word of “Finisher” on left sleeve of his shirt caught my attention. Then, I gave closer look and saw the word of “IronMan” written on his chest. I could say that these two words were enough for me to meet him.
I would like to introduce a bit about “IronMan” sport if you have not heard about it. Simply, it is greater challenge than triathlon which includes cycling, swimming and running.
But IronMan is not simply triathlon; much difficult and thougher version of it. In order to reach the finish line of “IronMan”, you have to complete swimming of 3.86 km, cycling 180.25 km and marathon running of 42.2 km.
Immediate succession of these activities usually lasts for around 12-13 hours to reach the finish line. It sounds quite difficult, does not it? The man I interviewed crossed the finish line. In this sport, crossing the finish line is considered as the equal achievement to winning in other sports. The man I am about to introduce you had spent nearly a whole year, getting up at 5:00 am and going early to bed without doing any social activities to solely prepare for the competition.
First of all, please give our readers short introduction of yourself?
I work as software engineer at Active Network Company which primarily manages organizing events and registering participants, including IronMan sport events.
As I studied about IronMan, I found that many of participants are entrepreneurs mostly working in tech industries. You are also not an athlete, but software engineer, right?
Yes I am. The finisher of IronMan should not be an athlete. As I know, many of people preparing alongside me for IronMan are from different backgrounds. For example, good friend of mine, Mike, works in the field of stock market.
You must be very active when you were young kid?
As far as I remember, I was very active kid. I used to play American football and run at the sprint in high school. But not doing a lot of cycling and swimming. Generally, I did not know much about two of three categories in triathlon.
Then, how did you get to first participate in IronMan?
Some of my friends used to train for triathlon. Encouraged by them, I competed in few short-distance triathlons. There are mainly five types of triathlon depending on distance. I first registered to participate in the Olympic distance of triathlon which is twice shorter than the ultra distance. The Olympic distance consists of 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike and 10 km run.
Despite the distance much shorter than IronMan, it was quite difficult initially for me because I was not used to swimming, cycling and running at all. But thanks to continuous participation in triathlon, I had quickly improved myself at swimming, cycling and running.
Then, my friends started thinking about challenging themselves in IronMan. My other friends also participated in IronMan that time; we went to watch them competing. Then, we discussed and decided to challenge ourselves with the belief to reach the finish line. Ironically, I thought of myself that I am crazy person and should not have done it after registering in IronMan. A month later, I got nervous realizing that the tournament will soon start. Then, I started my long term training session. I think that I was very motivated and firmly determined to finish the distance after witnessing that my friends had made a great physical improvement and people’s reaction to them crossing the finish line.
How difficult was training session?
23 of us in total including my friends and colleagues registered to compete in the tournament. While each of us had different jobs and life routines, it was not easy for us to train together. Moreover, most of them were married and had kids so that it was challenging task for us. But I had the advantage of being single so that I just focused on my job and training.
Some of my friends got injured in training session and forced to restart workout from the beginning after getting healthy. A competitor of IronMan usually completes 6 month training on average while I trained for around 10 months. During this period, I challenged myself in short-distance IronMan for several times and ran a full marathon.
Thus, it can be said that the training session had not been much difficult for me because I did not have a family to worry about and did not get injured luckily. You can compare the training with a construction activity. As similar as constructing a building gradually, I built my body step by step and adapted myself steadily. Finally, I was mentally and physically ready to compete and reach the finish line of IronMan. But preparing your mentality was more crucial than physicality.
What came into your mind when you were participating in the tournament?
I was nervous and excited at same time on the tournament day. There were many great moments such thousands of people leaving the start line alongside you, many people cheering from the audience and overtaking fellow competitors in the middle of the tournament despite overtaken by others.
Also, I was just thinking about how to cross the finish line after realizing that there are your friends and family members supporting, and supervisors watching the tournament. As I know, it is very important to take enough nutrition and not to get dehydrated during the tournament. If not, you will be easily exhausted and not able to complete the tournament.
How much difference is there between before and after IronMan?
Obviously, there is much difference. For example, back in 2011, two years ahead of my participation in IronMan, I thought of myself that I never complete the tournament after watching my friends participating and crossing the finish line.
Later, I doubted and asked myself “Can I reach the finish line?” after registering in IronMan. The reason is that I was not good at running and simply exhausted after 100 meter sprint. Thus, the first part of the tournament, 3.86 km swimming, seemed to be insurmountable for me. But I started my training with the belief of overcoming all these difficulties and did it, which now gives me opportunity to speak to you about what I achieved and overcame in the past.
I had the feeling that I can achieve anything after completing IronMan. Although it was more challenging than expected, I realized after the tournament that if continuously fighting for one’s goal, anyone can eventually achieve.
I think that I am much stronger in terms of mentality compared to myself prior to IronMan. Crossing the finish line of IronMan seems to be harder than anything out there. But if you regularly train and prevent injuries in your training session, you are surely assured that you can achieve in IronMan. So, it is not impossible task; just completely up to you.
Had you ever thought not to compete after registering in the tournament?
I had never thought of it. Even during the tournament, I just thought about completing the tournament because my mind was completely ready for it.
What should IronMan participants concern most of?
As previously said, you will have enough encouragement and willpower to overcome through continuous workout and relentless training. But no matter how good your physical condition is, you should not forget two things.
Firstly, you should be concerned with whether you get enough nutrition and hydrated regularly. Secondly, your mental strenght is fundamental. You cannot complete the tournament with ‘single try’ not matter how excellent your preparation is. Your legs will hurt and get tired, and you will feel doubtful over whether you can finish. I saw many people who failed to finish because of not ready mentally.
- The moment when Dennis crossed the finish line –
Winning over yourself is believed to be the most difficult task. You are truly an example of it. And, do you think of competing again in IronMan?
It is not such simple; you have to get up at 5:00 am every morning, get early in bed, do your regular job, and spend remaining time to just training. You will not have social life such as meeting your friends and spending time with family.
You will have to sacrifice a lot in order to compete again in IronMan. Although I currently do not think of participating again, I do not rule out completely myself from competing in IronMan. So, I am not sure so far; time will surely tell.
Dennis Tripplet is very active person as he said. Not only doing sport activities, he also makes a lot of traveling. He told me that Mongolia is 43rd country which he has traveled.
Moreover, he said that he will continue his trip to China, South Korea instead of flying back to his home after spending just four days in Mongolia.