Ironman Nosh Mistry

On April 3, 2005 Nosh Mistry became the first Parsi (perhaps the first Indian) to compete in the Australian Iron­man Triathlon held in Forster, New South Wales. He finished the gruelling course of 3.8 kilometres of swimming, followed by 180 km cycling and then 42.2 km of running in 13 hours and 15 minutes. World champion Chris McCormack of Australia won the event.

Nosh has been in Sydney with wife Deepali for about six years and is an IT professional. Before his 9 to 5 desk job, Nosh regularly swims about five kilometers, leaving home at the crack of dawn. After work, he bicycles 70 to 80 km at the Royal National Park in Sydney. Over weekends, he runs for hours.

How does Deepali take it?

"She understands, being a keen sportswoman herself. She holds a second degree black belt in judo and is an Australian National Judo referee.”

Being modest (unusual for a Parsi!), he neatly diverted the limelight to his wife. "She is recently selected to represent Australia at the World Referee Seminar in Canada.”

Mistry: "triathlon — the next logical step”

What a pair! She is also an IT consultant.

What made him take up Ironman Triathlon?

"My dad Feroze from Bombay was the Indian national swimming champion. I learnt to swim at two, later I was the national cycling champion in India twice and had done a lot of long distance running. So triathlon was the next logical step, combining my three favourite sports. My dad is my role model. Also Dave Scott of USA who was an Ironman champion six times in a row. I was inspired by him when I was 16.”

Nosh is 31 now, super fit and relaxed. "What about your diet?”

"As you can imagine, with all the workouts, the amount of food intake is huge,” he replied. "Basically I keep the proportion of carbohydrates to fat to proteins as recommended by most sports diet journals. I eat just about everything from rice and daal, pastas, etc for carbohydrates to chicken and fish for proteins.”

"What, no dhansak?” I quipped. "Since I cannot get in all the food I need in the three meals a day formula, I have to eat about six to seven meals a day.” All that to fuel the body! Sometimes it does turn out more expensive than the cost of petrol. Just kidding!

"During the race itself, I will be going through about seven to eight litres of Gatorade, eight to 10 Powerbars, about 15 sports gel packs and a couple of salt tablets.”

An all-rounder, Nosh produces films as well. "A film I made with the Australian Film School was nominated for an Oscar this year.”

Nosh is also a good guitar player and loves to sing. He used to perform at clubs with his band. He is also into photography and doing graphics. His versatility is amazing.

He is delighted that he finished the course despite heat-wave conditions. His motto is: follow your dreams, get out there and just do it — most of our barriers are self- imposed.

Kersi Meher-Homji