From Nursing Injuries To Completing Ironman: A 42-YO IT Professional’s Story of Endurance and Discipline

“Life will always test you. Injuries will come, failures will come, people will doubt you, and sometimes even your own body will stop supporting you. But if you keep moving forward, even slowly, one day you will reach a place where all that pain finally makes sense,” says Pankaj Kumar Singh. 

On 1 November 2025, the 42-year-old IT professional from Ghaziabad stood at the finish line of Ironman Malaysia with tears in his eyes and nearly a decade of heartbreak behind him. 

The clock showed 16 hours, 53 minutes, and 43 seconds. 

He had crossed the line just minutes before the brutal 17-hour cut-off, completing one of the most demanding endurance events in the world after years of setbacks that repeatedly pushed him back to the starting point.

For the world, it was the completion of a triathlon comprising a 3.8 km swim, 180 km of cycling, and a 42.2 km marathon. For him, it was something more personal. It was a moment that brought together years of physical pain, emotional exhaustion, repeated failure, and unspoken determination built in the early hours of the morning when most of the world was asleep.

It was a moment of proving to himself that he could survive, rebuild, and return every time life broke him down.
“I was not racing anyone else that day; I was only trying to finish what I had started years ago,” he says.

The long and testing road he travelled defines his journey more than the final finish. It is a story that moves from a small-town childhood in Bihar to corporate corridors in Bengaluru and Gurugram, from a casual 10K run in 2008 to multiple Ironman failures, and finally to a redemption that came after nearly eight years of continuous struggle, discipline, and self-belief.

A childhood built on sport, not expectations

Pankaj grew up in Bihar in a humble household where academic achievement was considered the primary measure of success, but he naturally gravitated towards sport. Even as a child, he was drawn to physical activity, competitions, and the discipline of training, and over time, this became his strongest identity. 

 

During school and college, he actively participated in athletics and represented his school at national-level events, winning medals that gave him early confidence in his abilities.

“I was never the brightest student in class,” he says with honesty. “But in sports, I always felt I had something to prove. I wanted my family to feel proud that I had done something different from the usual path.”

This early sporting foundation stayed with him even when life moved towards a corporate career. By 2008, he had joined Oracle in Bengaluru, entering the fast-paced world of IT where long hours, deadlines, and performance pressure became part of daily life. 

However, that same year, in May 2008, he took part in the Sunfeast World 10K Run, his first organised endurance event, which opened a new chapter in his life.

“I did not think much of it at that time, but something about running with so many people stayed with me, and it felt like I had found something that belonged to me,” he tells The Better India.

Over the next few years, his participation in running events became more serious. After moving to Delhi NCR in 2012 and settling in Ghaziabad, he ran the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon in October that year, followed by his first full marathon at the Tata Mumbai Marathon in January 2013. 

With every race, his connection to endurance sport became stronger, and running slowly became his way of balancing the pressures of corporate life.

“At that time work was intense, and life felt very routine,” he says. “Running gave me space to breathe. It gave me clarity when everything else felt noisy.”

The moment everything changed

The turning point came during the Tata Mumbai Marathon in January 2015. He was nearing the final stretch of the race, physically exhausted but determined to finish, when he suddenly noticed a change in the atmosphere behind him. The crowd began cheering louder, and runners around him turned their heads.

“At first I thought the cheering was for me,” he says, smiling at the memory. “Then I looked back and saw Milind Soman running behind me.”

 

That brief moment stayed with him long after the race ended. Wanting to know more about Milind led him to search for endurance athletes, and during this research, he came across Ironman for the first time.

“When I read about Ironman, I could not believe such a race existed,” he says. “Swimming, cycling, running, all in one day. It was described as one of the toughest sporting events in the world. Something inside me told me that I had to try it one day.”

At that time, he was already working at Ericsson India Pvt Ltd in telecom product verification and testing, managing demanding responsibilities while also dealing with a long daily commute between Ghaziabad and Gurugram. The idea of training for an Ironman alongside such a schedule appeared almost impossible, but from that point onwards, the idea never really left his mind.

Training in the margins of a hectic life

By 2017, he had decided to attempt Ironman Malaysia. He had no coach, no organised training group, and no professional equipment. Financial constraints and lack of access meant he had to rely entirely on self-preparation and discipline. He spent hours reading online training plans, studying athlete experiences, and building his own system from scratch.

“I did everything myself,” he says. “I could not afford coaching, so I had to understand the sport on my own. Every mistake became a lesson.”

His daily routine became extreme. He would wake up at 4 am, travel for swimming practice from 6 am to 6.45 am at a 25-metre pool near his home, and then head straight to the office. After returning late in the evening, often around 8 pm, he would begin his second training session of the day, either running 10 to 15 kilometres or completing indoor cycling sessions that lasted several hours.

Weekends were even more intense, often starting at 3.30 am with long cycling rides of 100 to 120 kilometres, followed by recovery and additional running sessions later in the day. His weekly training volume reached nearly 10 kilometres of swimming, 80 kilometres of running, and close to 300 kilometres of cycling.

“I stopped everything else in life. There were no movies, no outings, no junk food, and for months, my entire focus was only on Ironman,” he admits.

His wife, Neha Kumari, remembers those years as a period of sacrifice within the family.

“Most of his training happened early in the morning or late at night when the children were asleep,” she says. “We adjusted our lives around his goal because we knew how important it was to him.”

A body that kept breaking, and a mind that didn’t stop

Pankaj’s physical journey was defined by repeated injuries and medical setbacks that tested both his body and his patience. A clavicle fracture in 2000 during his school years, a major road accident in 2014 that left him unconscious for hours, and multiple ankle ligament injuries over the years created a long history of physical vulnerability. Still, each time, he returned to training, refusing to let injury define the end of his story.

The most difficult moment came in November 2017, just days before his first Ironman Malaysia attempt, when he was diagnosed with dengue fever. Despite medical advice, he travelled to Malaysia, determined at least to start the race. 

 

But during the swim, his body gave up under pressure. Within the first few hundred metres, he struggled to breathe, and soon after, he began vomiting in open water. He was eventually pulled out of the race and taken to the medical tent, where he later lost consciousness.

“That was the first time I genuinely felt defeat; I realised my body was not ready, and I had pushed it beyond what it could handle at that point,” he says.

Back in his hotel room, he broke down emotionally, but instead of returning home immediately, he stayed back to watch the finishers and speak to other athletes. That moment became a turning point in his learning.

The long road through failure

In 2018, he returned stronger and managed to complete the swim successfully, but after some time, he began to feel dizzy and fatigued due to the stressful conditions during the cycling stage. At one point, he stopped for recovery and accidentally fell asleep for nearly 30 minutes, missing the cut-off by just minutes. 

In the years that followed, he focused on intense training, determined to come back prepared.

In 2023, after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted years of training, he attempted again but faced crashes during cycling and severe dehydration caused by improper hydration timing, leading to another missed cut-off. 

“I realised I was making mistakes in strategy, not just fitness,” he says. “That changed the way I trained after that.”

His elder sister, Leela Singh, who works as a teacher in Gurugram, says the family always believed in his persistence. “He never stops once he decides something,” she says. “Even after failures, he would start again, motivated.”

The breakthrough and the final finish

In October 2024, he completed Ironman 70.3 Goa in 8 hours, 17 minutes and 40 seconds, a performance that restored his confidence after years of setbacks. It became the foundation for his final attempt at Ironman Malaysia in 2025.

 

Ahead of the race, he trained more scientifically, using route analysis tools to study elevation and terrain. He replicated race conditions in Ghaziabad using flyovers and focused on conserving energy during swimming and cycling rather than overexertion. He also trained himself mentally to finish the marathon even if it meant walking the entire distance.

On 1 November 2025, he stood at the start line calm and composed. He finished the swim in 1 hour, 36 minutes and 46 seconds. During the cycling stage, he faced his most difficult moment as kidney stones were diagnosed just days before the race, forcing him to abandon energy gels and rely only on simple nutrition like bananas and electrolytes. At one point, he nearly believed he would miss the cut-off again, but he pushed through and reached transition just in time.

“When I started the run, I knew I would finish,” he says.

After 16 hours, 53 minutes and 43 seconds, he crossed the finish line.

For his wife, watching from home, it was an emotional release after years of waiting. “It felt like all our sacrifices had finally come together,” she says.

For Pankaj, it was something else.

“It felt like everything in my life had finally fallen into place in that moment,” he says. 

Today, he returns to corporate work with a different mindset, one moulded by strength, failure, and persistence. “I do not fear challenges anymore,” he says. “I just keep moving forward.”

And perhaps that is what makes him an Ironman.

All pictures courtesy Pankaj Kumar Singh. 

Source: The Better India