“I understood that if I can stay calm and keep moving, I can get through it.”

That thought came to Akshay Sharma during one of the hardest stretches of his latest endurance challenge.

On 23 August 2026, the 34-year-old senior cybersecurity engineer from Bengaluru was swimming across the Bosphorus in Istanbul, moving from the Asian side of the city towards Europe. Around him, open water, shifting currents, and waves could push a swimmer off course.

There were no smartwatches or GPS devices to guide him. The route was not marked out with navigation buoys. Outside the annual race, swimming in the Bosphorus is not permitted because it is a busy shipping route.

He had never trained in those waters before.

However, after 1 hour and 32 minutes, he reached the European side after completing the 6.5-kilometre Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race, finishing within the event’s two-hour cut-off.

For someone who had started running only in January 2023, the swim was another demanding chapter in a journey that has already taken him through an Ironman, high-altitude climbs and long-distance endurance training, all while continuing with a full-time career in IT and cybersecurity.

It started with running

His endurance journey was not something he had mapped out years in advance.

He initially took up running because he wanted to travel to Mount Everest Base Camp. At the time, even running one kilometre was difficult for him.

He began training on 1 January 2023 and set himself an easy target of running 10 kilometres in under an hour. By March, he had managed it.

That same year, he completed the Everest Base Camp trek. In April 2024, he climbed Lobuche East, a 6,119-metre peak in Nepal.

By then, running had expanded into cycling and swimming. He was no longer training for one particular event. He was learning what his body could handle.

In October 2024, he took on his first triathlon at Ironman 70.3 Goa. The race involved a 1.9-kilometre swim, 90-kilometre cycle and 21.1-kilometre run. He finished it in 7 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds.

A year later, he went much further.

On 1 November 2025, he completed the full Ironman in Langkawi, Malaysia. It involved a 3.8-kilometre swim, 180-kilometre cycle and a full 42.2-kilometre marathon.

He finished the race in 15 hours and 40 minutes, within the 17-hour cut-off.

The preparation for it had required him to fit long training sessions around his corporate job. He worked in IT and cybersecurity for more than 12 years, and his training had to happen before or after work.

The Ironman also changed the way he looked at endurance.

“Endurance is not something that you are born with. It is something that you build over time,” he tells The Better India. “You have to be consistent, and you have to be comfortable with discomfort.”

That experience became important when he decided to attempt the Bosphorus.

From Malaysia to Istanbul

The idea of swimming between two........

© The Better India