The scenic beauty around him was the last thing on Nishit Biniwale's mind when he cycled through the rolling hills of Austria on a sunny day two years ago. In fact, he was so tired after cycling for 140 kilometres - with another 40 to go and with a sharp incline facing him - that he wanted to give up the race.

"My body was at a breaking point and my mind was willing to listen to my body," Biniwale recalls. He had swum 3.86km before cycling, and there was a marathon run of 42.2km that he had to tackle after that. If he'd given up it would have marked the end of his dream of being called an "Ironman".

Luckily for him, his father, Atul Biniwale, was in the crowd. He urged him to carry on, reminding him of all the hard work he had put in for months to be in the Ironman triathlon. That worked.

Biniwale went on to complete the international triathlon in 13 hours and 18 minutes, well within the stipulated time of 17 hours. He held the Indian flag high as he rushed to the finish line. Of the 3,000 participants, he was among the few hundred people who'd completed the challenge. At 21, he became the youngest Indian to take part in and complete the gruelling human endurance race.

"There is a physical aspect, but it is mental strength that gets really tested. It's a battle with yourself," the Pune-based doctor, now 23, says.

That's the battle Meera Velankar, 39, hopes to wage when she takes to the field in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on April 5. Velankar has been training for around eight hours a day for the last eight months. She will be running the Ironman 70.3, or the half Ironman as it is called.

The post-doc mother of two says that when she realised that life was not all about "packing lunch boxes and being supportive to your husband", she thought she'd try something different.

The triathlon was just what Velankar was looking for. She learnt how to swim and is now confident of completing the 1.9km stretch of open waters in Malaysia.

The Ironman race - a mega event held in different parts of the world every year, ending with an annual World Championship in Hawaii - is becoming a mission for some Indians. As opposed to the full Ironman race which consists of a 3.8km swim, 180km of cycling and a 42.2km run, the popular triathlon format in the country is the Olympic-approved one which consists of a 1.5km swim, a 40km bicycle ride and a 10km run.

Ironman events are organised by the World Triathlon Corporation. Considered an immensely prestigious contest - where more people fail than succeed - a successful contestant has to swim, cycle and run in quick succession within 16 or 17 hours, depending on the venue of the competition. Contestants can take a break, but to qualify as an Ironman or woman they have to finish within the stipulated time.

Some young Indians are avid triathloners. If IIT graduate Saurabh Aggarwal, 26, quit his lucrative job within months to compete in the Ironman contest, Abhishek Mishra, 31, left his job in a multinational to pursue his dream. While Aggarwal became an "Ironman" in 2014 in Sweden, Mishra is getting ready for the September games in Spain by running and bicycling on the Gurgaon-Faridabad road almost every day.

Aggarwal and Mishra initially faced opposition from their families when they quit their jobs. And now, when they train, strangers look surprised.

"People think that I am crazy or simply showing off when I run on the road during office hours. Some even disturb me by honking or bikers go zigzag in front of me. I am used to these things," Mishra says.

Triathlon and ultra marathon runners have started forming groups and clubs across the country with the aim of organising triathlon events within the country and also participating abroad. Most of these groups are in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune.

Deepak Raj, 37, who quit his job at Infosys a few years ago and has completed 12 Ironman races, now trains others. He became an Ironman "freak", he says, because he was passionate about running and cycling. "You understand yourself better and you also come to know that you can achieve a lot more than what you think you are capable of," Raj says.

One of the major problems aspirants in India face is the lack of clean open water bodies where they can practise swimming. Mishra confines his training to a swimming pool in Gurgaon. "It's not ideal at all. When we compete in Ironman, we have to swim in the sea or river," he says.

Anu Vaidyanathan, the first Indian woman to compete in and complete an Ironman race in 2006, knows the problems too well. "I trained for my first Ironman in complete oblivion. While a lot more Indians know about the sport now, very few have the bandwidth to train and participate," she says.

And preparing for human endurance races is not cheap.

"A good bicycle costs anywhere between Rs 1 lakh to a few lakh of rupees, diet is very important and of course you need good training facilities," Biniwale says. He estimates that a person training for any human endurance race needs to set aside Rs 50,000-65,000 a month spread over a year or more for training alone.

Admission to any one Ironman event costs Rs 40,000-55,000, depending on the venue of the event. Contestants have to pay for their travelling, lod-ging and other expenses. There are no prizes for winning any event, except for medals and certificates.

"It is very difficult for an individual to bear all this unless one comes from a very sound financial background. Some form of sponsorship is essential," says Kuldeep Singh, founder of TriIndia Training and Research Foundation, a Bangalore organisation that trains triathlon athletes and also organises events. Singh points out that companies are now sponsoring individuals and groups.

Those without sponsors are looking for innovative ways of getting funds. Aggarwal went online for crowdfunding. A few of his IIT friends and others chipped in.

Going by the interests Indians have started showing in Ironman, Singh predicts that Ironman events may soon be held in India. He claims that he is already in touch with the organisers.

But Kimberly Shah, a US citizen who has trained several ultra marathoners and Ironman athletes in India, stresses that participants need to be focused. "It is easy to get people involved in a sport like running - it can be done by anyone, anytime. But the triathlon takes a little extra effort. It is an excellent sport because one is continually cross training the body."

For a growing number of Indians, it's not just a sport. And, as the old cliché goes, it's not the winning that counts - but carrying on.