Running Journey of the IRONMAN Couple: Poonam Joshy and Rajesh Joshy

India's first 50+ IRONMAN couple – Rajesh Joshy, an ex-army man and Poonam Joshy, a homemaker, prove that age is not a hindrance; if anything, with age, they have taken on more challenges and trained day and night to achieve their targeted goals. Their running journey started in 2017 and now, their story inspires runners of all levels. In 2019, they participated and successfully finished one of the world's most difficult triathlons – IRONMAN 70.3 Goa. 

Question: When did you start running and what inspired you to participate in marathons? 

Poonam Joshy: After shifting to Bhopal in 2017, I started to run on and off but the seriousness was not there. I would go for walk once in a while as there were other responsibilities like household chores, looking after children, among daily tasks. When I started running, having a partner helped in the journey. Rajesh is disciplined and consistent, which motivated me to take up running seriously. 

Rajesh Joshy: Since I was in the army, I used to train on a regular basis and consistently. I was in habit of working out every day. I run at every opportunity I get. Not only me but our children too. Even when the train halts for some time, my kids and I would step out on the platform and start running over the footbridge, completing laps until the train signals to leave the station. 

Question: That’s interesting! What tips or pieces of advice would you like to give to all levels of runners, especially to the ones who are beginners?  

Rajesh Joshy: Get up early so that you can take out time for yourself. That chunk of the day is solely yours and use it for training. Gradually, your body clock starts to automatically sync. 

Also, there are two critical aspects to be mindful of – if you take up running to achieve a specific goal like to lose weight and in exuberance, they overdo it. That shouldn’t happen. Secondly, run consistently for a longer period as you keep aging.

Give importance to how you are running – check your form. Gather data and analyse it in order to prevent injuries and train better and efficiently. 

Poonam Joshy: In addition to all these, take proper care of your nutrition, sleep, and eat proper meals especially dinner at right time. Understand the importance of everything, no matter how small it is. It’s the small things that make a big difference. You become disciplined as well in the process. 

There are so many groups these days; join them. Ask your questions. Don’t shy away or hide. Joining groups adds to the energy, and sports become long lasting. 

Collective energy is higher than singular energy. 

Question: Thank you for sharing. I am sure readers will find these helpful. How did Ironman Goa 70.3 happen? 

Poonam Joshy: In Bhopal, I was already part of the running community. Run Bhopal Run organizes marathons and I was asked to join in to motivate people to take up running in schools, colleges and corporates and for causes like a clean environment and organ donation. The first thing is to initiate; even running twice a year would be good and you like that energy, they would take it up as a regular activity. At one of the organizations, I met two young boys who were talking about Ironman and they had already participated in the triathlon. They told me all about it and really encouraged me to take it up. 

Rajesh Joshy: Poonam told me about Ironman and I started researching. In 2019, I was about to retire and we could travel to any place to participate. Ironman was happening in India for the first time and we took it as a sign and decided to participate in the event. We kept one year to train for all three activities. We registered on the very first day, 12 December 2018. The biggest block in someone’s mind is to register; once you have registered, then the seriousness starts. We ran the intervening night of 31st December and 1 January and covered 10-11 kms with some other friends of ours and celebrated and welcomed the Year 2019. 

Poonam Joshy: This is to display that this is also one way of celebrating New Year. It’s not just limited to just going out, partying. Coming to Ironman, I knew that we have taken on something that initially was beyond us. So Rajesh might feel like taking it slow on some days or covering less distance but I would keep running to achieve that day's target. When we registered, it was winter and swimming pools were closed and we didn’t have any cycles either; so we focussed on running for first couple of months, and then Rajesh gifted cycles to both of us on Valentine’s Day and we took on to cycling. We waited for summers to start with the swimming part. 

Question: So for how many hours did you train every day to prepare for the event? Did you follow any training schedule?

Rajesh Joshy: By March 2019, in the morning, we were doing one of the three activities – running, cycling and swimming for somewhere between 2-3 hours, and in the evening, we used to go to the gym.  

Poonam Joshy: We shifted to Bangalore once after he retired and there, cycling was a major challenge due to heavy traffic. We used to get up 2 or 3 in the morning to get empty roads to train for a circuit of 5kms and did 5 loops of the same. 

Rajesh Joshy: And then, we reached Goa three weeks before the actual event to get familiar with the settings and environment. One another challenge was while we were swimming in pools, at the event, it was open water of the sea. For which, one of our friends, help us in getting training to swim in open water and he made us realize how it would be to swim with many other participants. 

Poonam Joshy: Participating and finishing the entire event was an overwhelming experience and now our main aim is: Every person, Ironman – to encourage people to take part in this event and better their fitness journey. 

Thank you!