Becoming An IRONMAN From Bangladesh, IM Malaysia 2018 Race Recap

This is it. The moment I was waiting for so long, to become an IRONMAN from Bangladesh. Yet when the moment came, I hesitated. I stared at the timing gate and all the emotions just rushed in. For a brief moment, I closed my eyes, settled my nerves and looked at the timekeeper. Soon enough, with the sound of the whistle, I jumped into the unknown, something only I can imagine but can’t comprehend.

Dreams don’t work unless YOU do

Flashback: 2 am in the morning

We were supposed to wake up at 5 am to start our race day preparation but I couldn’t sleep. Reluctantly, I started scrolling through my social media accounts. Ohh god, so many people tagging and posting on my timeline, so many wishes. It all started to add up, I felt restless. I realized, how it feels when a nation looks up to you to become an Ironman from Bangladesh with high expectations.

After a few futile attempts to fall asleep, I went out. The sky was cloudy and a thunderstorm was projected, another factor to worry about for the race day. I started to do some dynamic warm-up and then some light running. After freshening up, I awakened Imtiaz bhai and Imran bhai, two of my partners participating with me to become an Ironman from Bangladesh as well.

I made some overnight oats for everyone, so that was our breakfast along with some bread and jelly. Everyone got ready on time and our guide, Hafizi, reached our hotel at 6 am to pick us up. 3 of us, attempting to be an Ironman from Bangladesh, along with Afnan bhai and Mahbub, who were with us as support crew, were on our way to the Swim Start point.

Reaching T1 in the dark

It took us around 20 minutes to reach the transition 1 point. The whole journey was tense. Upon reaching T1, we had a short window to set up our bikes and to make sure whether everything was ok. It was pretty dark and T1 was such a mess, people were all around us, bumping and barging with each other. After doing our bike setup, we handed our gears to Afnan bhai and Mahbub, took some pictures and off to swim start point.



Once I reach the shore, the feeling was surreal. This is it, the moments I watched on YouTube for so many times, and now, I was part of it for real. The atmosphere was electric. It was a carnival for both age group and pro athletes, all eagerly waiting near the shore. We were allowed to warm-up near the start line, meanwhile, the Ironman 70.3 event started. We all looked at the athletes jumping in the water and swimming away into the ocean. It was a spectacle indeed.

Slowly the sun was rising and it seemed to be one glorious yet scorching day ahead of us but the thunderstorm was coming for sure. We really didn’t know when it would hit us, so it was in the back of our mind before the start. Soon it was time for the Ironman athletes to start off and the pros started exactly on schedule.

And the time to tango

The age groupers were scheduled to start just a few minutes after the pros. The swim groups were split into 4 groups depending on the estimated time they would take to complete the swim course. I was in the second fastest group.

Meanwhile, Imran bhai was lucky enough to catch Lionel Sanders with him in the fastest swim group. Lionel was participating the race as an age grouper rather than competing as a pro, I guess he was taking the time off after Kona. Imran bhai got some tips from Lionel before the race start, lucky guy indeed!



I jumped onto the water at 8:02 am and my journey of becoming an Ironman from Bangladesh began. The first few minutes were inexplicable. I knew the swim leg is going to be hectic but you can only feel it when you’re surrounded by thousands of people, all trying to follow the same path.

I was hit in the face a couple of times and in the process, the swim goggle was displaced leaking salty water. Some athletes literally chopped me in the water even though they saw me swimming beside them. It was kinda disappointing to face such incidents.

Disaster struck suddenly

It was a two-lap course and the first lap was great. I was enjoying and was about to increase my pace in the second lap. In the final third of the lap, suddenly the sky got darker and the storm hit. It was the worst possible time for the thunderstorm to hit us, we didn’t predict it to impact us so early in the race. The waves got really choppy and it was pushing me away from the course. The safety boats were closing near me, which didn’t help me with the morale either.

I was afraid that the boats might force me to get up from the water. I pushed on with all my effort and fortunately; all my experience of swimming in the Bangla Channel, facing the rough sea came to my rescue. I managed to land on the shore, tired and dizzy after fighting against the waves but still in the race. On the way to transition, met Afnan bhai and Mahbub, which was just the right motivation to start my next leg to become an Ironman from Bangladesh.

The transition was going smooth and according to the plan, except for one big mistake. I pre-planned to change into cycling gear for the rest of the race from my tri suit. Since I was dizzy and excited going into the cycling phase, I forgot to put the tri suit in the transition bag, hence it got lost. It was a hard and expensive pill to swallow.

Time to start the bike leg

It was dark and raining. The wind was strong and in a chaotic environment, the cycling leg began. The rain was dripping through my helmet and I knew it’s going to be a long hard struggle. The 2-lap course was very difficult to start with. After fighting with the waves, you would want a nice flat terrain to recover for a bit, not a chance here! The course takes you straight towards a 10 km climbing loop and it saps the energy out of you instantly.

The roads were slippery and inevitably it caused plenty of crashes. The rain also brought plenty of debris on the track. The scenes of people lying around injured or fixing the punctures beside the roadside made me very careful on the climb and the descends. The average speed dropped as a consequence.



After dealing with the first climb, the legs were certainly on fire. I start putting out some power to take the average speed close to 30 kph. My speed was around 32-35 kph but the course was mostly rolling terrain with very little flat sections and plenty of false flats. All those hills and climbs were impacting me but I didn’t let up the speed. I was crossing the guys with fancy TT bikes at ease and it gave me more adrenaline to chase the next guy.

Midway the bike course, at Pantai Kok, there were 3 small hills, which were absolutely brutal. The gradients reached 25 percent and some people walked up the climbs. I was looking at my power meter and the power numbers soared up to 280-290 watts but I clocked only 5-6 kph. My average speed dropped again and from there I couldn’t recover again. All the effort that I put cost me later on in the second lap and in the run afterward.

Finally, the sun was up

All of a sudden the sun was up and the weather got humid and hot. Repetitive climbing and the heat were taking its toll but it was still amazing to cross people on the road. It was comforting to see that you don’t need a TT bike always and a road bike can always be competitive.

After almost 80 km, I crossed Imran bhai, who finished the swim almost 25 min ahead of me. Caught the glimpse of Afnan bhai and Mahbub at around 90 km mark. Doing another lap and facing the steep gradients were really mentally challenging. Putting 2-3 minutes’ effort way over vo2max power repeatedly was not something to look forward to.

Found Afnan bhai and Mahbub following me at the 135 km mark. Had some words with them and those words were urging me on. It was a brutal effort overall but I felt strong, I felt happy. All of my focus was shifting towards the run and how my legs would react after such a big effort where my intensity factor was close to 0.8 for over 6.5 hours. Ouch!

T2 beckons

Soon I found myself heading towards Transition 2. I was relieved that no puncture or mechanical incident occurred. I was almost there, or at least two-thirds of it anyway. Had a better changeover in T2, I was calm and deep down, emotional. I only had 42 km left ahead of me of accomplishing my long-awaited dream of becoming an Ironman from Bangladesh.

Again I met Afnan bhai and Mahbub, this time in T2 and I didn’t talk much. I was only trying to picture the suffering that I was about to face.



It didn’t take long enough for that to come to reality. The heat and the humidity were at its peak. I started with a comfortable pace and I tried to distract myself by looking at all the runners and the beautiful landscape of Langkawi. Still, it didn’t help, as the course was pretty boring with 2.5 laps.

The weather had a devastating effect on the athletes. Cold water and ice were there on aid stations and most people were trying to cool themselves down as much as possible. I was going strong but soon a massive roadblock was about to hit me big time. At 12 km mark, both of my quads got stiff very badly. I literally couldn’t straighten my legs. But I moved ahead, “You can never give up, you can never quit. You can only go forward.”- I said to myself.

The pain began

I walked almost 3 km to reach my next aid station and sought help from the medical team there. They gave some magic spray on my legs but they didn’t seem to help. Well, time for Plan B and this time they filled some ice in a couple of plastic bags and then wrapped around my quads using electric tape. Unable to run with the strapped ice bags, I started walking again towards the next aid station.

I don’t have any picture of that moment but I’m sure you can have a mental picture of that weird moment. Athletes were looking at me but they were always supportive. Soon found Imtiaz bhai on the course. He tried to help me with electrolyte tablets but I sent him off. He needed to keep going to make his cut off time.

After another 3 km of long, slow and boring walk, I reached the next aid station. Again, I went to the medics around there. They removed the ice bags and a guy was kind enough to give some light massage over the quads. It seemed to help and I started running again, with a cautious pace, not to bring back the injury again.

You can imagine how restless you feel while running, the road just doesn’t seem to end and having a slower pace meant it was slow torture. Moreover, every step that I took, my legs were in shock with pain. With each step, I suffered. I never suffered so much in my life.

Kept on fighting mentally

I felt how some people just can’t move at the end of an Ironman, because the body just stops responding at some point. Even your sheer willpower can’t overcome your exhaustion. I just couldn’t let that happen to me. I had to focus on the pain to remind myself of my goal, to complete the Ironman from Bangladesh.



After some grueling steps, I completed lap 1, and again, time to head back to the loop. To keep my focus, I set checkpoints by aid stations. Aid stations were filled with so many foods and drinks; it was like a buffet. Water, isotonic drinks, coke, chocolates, cake, dates, bananas, watermelon, sweets, energy gels, and many more items were there. Watermelons were crazy good and I kept taking them in each station. I never had so much watermelon in my life.

My legs were giving up again but fortunately, I got to the aid station again where I got my treatment. The medical guy was again helpful and I was able to run and jog. Slowly but surely I was covering grounds and using the aid stations as checkpoints were helping mentally. The crowd was so supportive, “That’s it, take it step by step, keep chipping in.”. With each painful step, I was heading towards my dream, an Ironman from Bangladesh.

The darkness followed

Soon the night started and the ambiance was something that you have to be there to feel it. Running in the dark with glow bands around your neck and the scenes of athletes suffering, felt like a dream. With all my might I finished my lap 2, and I knew, my dream of Ironman from Bangladesh was becoming a reality, only 10 km of suffering left. But my legs gave up again, and hence I started walking.

I walked to the Aid station 3, where I took the treatment previous times. In lap 2, I didn’t take any treatment from him, now I felt I should have. He was again very generous, and after his light massage, legs felt a bit better.

“May I know your name, sir?”- I asked him. “Narayan”- He said. I shook his hand and said “Thank you for what you did. I can never forget what you have done for me. Now, I can make it to the finish line because of you sir.”. He nodded and responded, “You have plenty of time left, go finish it”.

I could sense the finish line

I left the aid station with 6 km left. Each kilometer was passing by and I was raising my speed. My legs let me down otherwise I was wondering how much time I could have saved. But it felt great that I was super strong throughout the race. At 40 km mark, found Afnan bhai and Mahbub, it was the most welcoming sight. They ran with me to the finish and their presence was so inspiring. It wasn’t long that the finish line was upon me.

I carried the Bangladesh flag with me all along with the race and it was time to raise it over the head. When I approached the finish line, it was time to hear the dream announcement that I craved for so long, “Muntasir Sami from Bangladesh, you are an IRONMAN”. The moment was surreal, but the best part was hearing the name of your country being announced to the world, being an Ironman from Bangladesh.

Waiting for my partners

I was taken to the recovery zone for the athletes. I took the complimentary massage there but still, the legs were shattered. After having some food, it was time to wait for Imtiaz bhai and Imran bhai. I was waiting patiently and at 16-hour mark, I got worried. Finally, after half an hour they arrived. I hugged them as soon as they reached the recovery zone. It was one emotional and happy moment indeed. All of us are now IRONMAN from Bangladesh.

Can you really compare a day like with anything else? After years of struggle and injuries, being able to stand strong and still moving forward are some crucial lessons that I have learned. I have done 400 km cycling in a day, I attempted Bangla Channel swimming but nothing comes close to the pain and suffering that you have to endure for an IRONMAN. I realized my dream to become an Ironman from Bangladesh.

Now the question comes, “Do you want to do more IRONMAN?”. My answer is, “Hell yeah. Bring them on”. The biggest question to you is, “Do you want to be an IRONMAN from Bangladesh?”

If you want to read my another adventure, how I conquered the Bangla Channel, please click here.



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