Doc’s Iron Will For Iron Man
What started as a pastime activity in 2010—participating in the 5K category at the Airtel marathon-— has now become a passionate hobby for this 48-year-old medico.
Dr. Hariprasad G, Additional Professor at the Department of Biophysics, AIIMS, Delhi, has since then even successfully completed the Olympic Triathlon (1.5 Km swim; 40 km cycling; 10 km run) a few times in under three-and-a-half hours.
His thirst for a bigger challenge unquenched, he is now preparing for the Half-Iron Man Triathlon (1.9 km swim, 90 km cycling, and a 21 km run) championship to be held this year-end at the Talkatora-SPM Swimming complex. During this journey, Dr Hariprasad has graduated from a 5 km run to a 10 km and then half marathon, and finally a 42 km Full marathon, which he comfortably does in four-and-a-half hours.
He has participated in several marathons including Mumbai, Standard Chartered Singapore, New Delhi, and Omaha to name a few. The most recent one was the Hyderabad Marathon, which Dr Hariprasad recalls, was quite a challenge considering the number of steep flyovers in the city all along the route.
Hundreds of colorful medals from all these events and the many glittering gold medals decorate the walls of the living room of this clinician-scientist who along with his team are currently investigating the A-Z of Omicron virus.
The father of two sons who balances out work-family-friends-endurance training shares, “I mix-up of a lot of physical activities like walking, jogging, sprinting, swimming, cycling, stair climbing, yoga, core exercises, skipping to get the best out of my heart, mind and body.”
Every event is a learning curve and the challenge only gets bigger and more significant with each passing year, says the doctor who has done his MBBS from a Karnatak Medical College, Hubli and later did his post-graduation MD and subsequently a Ph.D. from AIIMS, Delhi. His inspirations are sports legends such as Phelps, Dressel, Ledecky, Djokovik, Federer, Nadal, and Kipchoge!
Of course, behind all these achievements are his rigorous efforts, a strong will, and most importantly the support of his family, particularly his better half Roopa, a doctor herself who is into cervical cancer prevention at the National Institute for Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida. She doubles up as his nutritionist and a personal chef and ensures he gets the right blend of food in the weeks leading up to the endurance event, during the race, and post-event. As a general rule, he usually consumes wholesome unprocessed food cooked at home and avoids fast-packaged foods. Even delicacies, be it Pani puri, dosas, tacos, pasta, pancakes, waffles, and desserts are given a yummy but healthy twist at Dr. Roopa’s kitchen, and it is this that helps him in ‘the long run,’ he chuckles.
“We always have a choice and end up with the easier one. I decided to change that,” the doctor quips, adding that “Don’t give up on your dreams, because you have no idea what all you are capable of.”
(Medicos may write to us at healthp100 @gmail.com)
