ANU VAIDYANATHAN is the founder of PatNMarks, an intellectual property consulting firm. Anu received her PhD in electrical engineering at UC Canterbury, setting the department and university record in twenty-six months. She has been teaching courses in computer architecture, innovation and business policy at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Anu is a regular speaker at forums on entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership. She is also an endurance athlete representing India in long-course triathlon. She became the first Asian female to have competed in the Ultraman Canada triathlon, comprising a 10-km swim, a 420-km bike ride and an 84.4-km run. She backed this up with Ironman Canada comprising a 3.8-km swim, a 180-km bike ride and a 42.2-km run, four weeks later.Anu Vaidyanathan is the first Asian woman to complete Ultraman Canada: a punishing 10-kilometre swim, a 420-kilometre bike ride and an 84.4-kilometre run. She placed sixth. Which is breath-taking. But what is your typical good Indian girl, super-nerd doing at the Ultraman? Anywhere but Home is the funny, heart-breaking, unexpected story of a woman who would not give up. As she followed her passion on the roads of Bangalore and across several Indian cities, coaches advised her to get married. She was stuck in sports facilities that lacked basic support systems, even toilets. If she wanted to compete, it would need to be on her own salary. All she could rely on were her own two feet and the seat of her bike. With self-deprecatory humour and characteristic curiosity, Vaidyanathan tells the story of how she found triathlon, how she came to be training in one of the most challenging sports in the world. She writes of her many firsts in the Ultraman, Ironman, Half-Ironman, but also of motherhood and pushing the boundaries of what a body can do. Heart-warming and heart-breaking, this is most of all a tale of love: for a sport and for life.
