Prepping for the long haul

After injury puts her Ironman training on the backburner, Saiyami sets her eyes on January’s marathon event

In an interaction with this reporter earlier this year, Saiyami Kher had spoken excitedly about resuming her training for the Half Ironman challenge after her previous attempts to participate in the endurance-based competition were soiled due to the pandemic. As fate would have it, Kher must defer her participation yet again after an injury she incurred a while ago while filming a documentary on cycling, in Italy. “The accident was unnecessary. We were cycling in the mountains, and I had [navigated] a height of 2,500 metres after covering 450 kilometres. I hurt myself on the way back—cracked a rib and had to get stitches. It was severe,” recalls the actor.

Kher, who was subsequently unable to train for two-and-a-half months, is exercising caution when it comes to her training. Discussing her plans for the next edition of the marathon event, she says, “It has been on my bucket list for a long time. My participation depends on how soon I recover from my injury. It is important for a sports person to listen to her body and give it due rest to heal.”

However, in the upcoming Mumbai Marathon, Kher finds the opportunity to make her return to sports. “I will be running the half marathon in January. That is something I have been participating in for several years,” she says. 

Kher, who has Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s Sharmaji Ki Beti and Neeraj Pandey’s Special Ops 2 in her kitty, had been training for the Half Ironman challenge in New Zealand this year. 

What is the Half Ironman distance?

Swim
1.9km

Cycling
90km

Run
21km

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