A nuradha Vaidyanathan is India first Ironman athlete. The multi-tasking 30-year-old PhD holder and entrepreneur tells us about the challenges she's had to face and how she made it.

Very few of us may have even heard of the sporting event she represents. Fewer are probably aware of the extreme physical endurance it demands.

Ironman one-day triathlon that involves a 3.8km swim, 180km bicycle ride and a 42.2km run. The relatively 'easier' triathlon event is the Ultraman -- a three-day stage race that involves a 10km swim, 420km bicycle ride and an 84.4km run

Anuradha Vaidyanathan is India's first Ironman athlete and one of the only 450 people in the world to have finished an Ultraman.

In 2009, Vaidyanathan finished the Ultraman in Canada, was placed 6th and was the youngest finisher. Barely three weeks later, she completed the Ironman Canada and became the only athlete to do so in the history of the race.

When she isn't breaking stereotypes in athletics, Vaidyanathan runs an Intellectual Property firm and teaches at IIT-Ropar.

In an interview, Anuradha Vaidyanathan tells us about the challenges in participating in a sport that few have heard of and how she overcomes them.

Could you tell us what is a triathlon and what does a triathlete do?

A triathlon is a three-sport event that involves swimming, biking and running (in that order).

There are various distances of triathlon (sprint, Olympic, half-Ironman and Ironman being standard one-day races and Ultraman being a three-day stage race with a 10K swim, 420K bike and 84.4K run).

A triathlete is usually a strange creature with major attention-deficit-disorder who is hyperactive and cannot be happy doing just one sport, thus they partake in three. This species is also known to be very emotionally attached to spandex, naming their bikes and singing songs to their shoes!