The Humbling 400!!! Part 1

And the usual rant of it being a while ?- lets just do away with that. I have obviously very clearly established that I am very busy ( yea right!!!). But anyway – quick recap, 300K was jolly good – had kinda gotten into a groove of things but then Feb came around and with it came the call to the capital city of New Delhi. First editions of any event come with a whole huge load of work very similar to setting up processes in a new company and bringing the basics of pretty much everything together. This needs time and attention to detail. If you think a 5K run is an effort imagine the kind of painstaking love that goes behind setting up a 42K course in a city you have not even visited in ages. So that was the situation in the beginning of Feb when four of us completely shifted base to Delhi – Nagaraj Adiga, Bhatta, Ankush and myself. Rajesh from vizag was already in Delhi and had setup the basics of home and office requirements by the time we reached.

Ankush and me had originally planned to pack our bikes and take them along with us to Delhi, but for lack of time and in part our own laziness, this did not happen. So, when we reached Delhi, we made our way to the bike shop and hired out 3 MTBs so that we can get some rides in. Now other than the one route recce that I joined the guys for, I was not able to find the time to get any rides in and made up for that by getting some runs in and even youtubing some yoga sessions in between the madness of work. Ankush and Bhatta however, were lucky enough to be on their bikes most of the time as they were the two people in charge of the route. So, the one month in Delhi was just a complete haze of work which culminated in a pretty epic race day at the New Delhi Marathon. We got back the very next day. The 400K was setup for the same weekend – saturday in fact.

I had my doubts about going in to attempt this distance without adequate time on the saddle, but any doubts that I may have had were completely squashed by the extreme confidence that my fellow SR aspirants displayed in me. In my head too I was like – so I’ve done the 300, its just another 100 more. In retrospect it is easy to say that I should have been wiser and taken another week to attempt the Mysore 400 instead, after getting a couple 100K rides under my belt – but then again! in the moment it seemed doable. So anyway, We got one ride in on the Wednesday before the Gundlupet 400.

Come Friday night, the bikes were all set, new lights had been purchased ( damn straight they were,  after the last fiasco) and everything was in order. Shuveshek was holidaying in Nepal after participating and putting up an brilliant performance at the New Delhi Marathon so he was not going to join us. But Bhatta had in the last few weeks been bitten by the riding bug and was all set to join in the fun.

Saturday night – yep! Middle of the night is the usual waking hour for attempting these kind of events. And if you are anything like me, it just gets worse because you happen to have a morning ritual which is an absolute must. It is so important to have that cup of coffee in the morning before heading out for ANYTHING!! So yep, a 3 am start for me to manage my coffee brewing, followed by waking up the brother, coffee drinking, listening to music as I get ready and creating a general racket before I start my day. Mum, as mums always are,  is up and about fretting around us to ensure that we have all that we may ( or may not) need. And, 4:05am on the dot, the three of us wave good byes and head out to Airlines which is the start point. I know that Ankush is way stronger a rider than me so I usually don’t worry about him starting a bit later cos he will easily catch up and then some, so when I reached Airlines alone 25 minutes later, I was still not really worried about the wherabouts of these guys.

As I reached the start point some familiar faces were about and off course Suhas was the first person I met as he greeted me with the warmest smile. I met Anwar who was planning to ride out 50K with us and then turn back to complete his first ever century ride and soon we were all creating a general ruckus in the excitement of seeing each other after such a long time. It is at this point that I first thought it was strange that Bhatta and Ankush had still not reached. I got my bike check done, collected my cue card and then went onto go meet Shilpee, the only other girl attempting the 400K with her friends.  This is when Ankush and Bhatta came whizzing by. It was almost time to start so they got the formalities done and just a quick hi to all before the lot of us ( 11 to be precise) settled in for the briefing which was followed by, for lack of a better term – flag-off at 5am.

The plan was the usual, we would all ride together, break together and keep at it until the finish line. And away we all went. Most of us rode together for the first 20K or so in the dark until sunrise. Ankush had already advised us that he would be giving Anwar company till the 50K mark after which he will catch up with us. All of us had been having our own adventures since our last outing – the 300K – so this was a good time to ride together and catch up on all the exciting and not so exciting stories we had missed being a part of. Soon, it was sunrise- this time, it was not so pretty. Maybe because we were on mysore road, there was a lot of traffic and the chaos that man brings with him was on display in that moment. I am a sucker for nature in all its primal glory, pretty colors in the sky, that early morning grogginess as the world wakes up accompanied by the soft chirping of the birds are the simple things I live for – the sunrise that morning was nothing like what I would’ve liked.

By now we had reached our own pace – Suhas and me were riding together, Anshuman was probably a 100mtrs behind us and Bhatta was probably 100 mtrs behind him. We crossed Ramnagar and then went on a bit further. I was getting hungry. There was a kamath hotel which passed by, and there was talk of some idlis and dosas which never really materialised. From hungry, the mood was slowly turning to hangry. The chatter stopped and the next 15kms was a quiet pedalling of the wheels together to reach the Shivalli MTR Restaurant for what I can easily describe as the most delicious tumbler idlis and coffee EVER! Restroom breaks done, breakfast ordered, we gave Ankush a ring to find out how his ride was going.He told us that he would join us soon.

We had just about finished stuffing our faces when we saw him ride into the parking lot. He walked in with his elbow and knee bleeding, also mentioned something about his shoulder being hurt. Apparently, he had lost concentration on the road for a split second and that had been enough for him to ride straight into a bus that had braked ahead. He mentioned that the impact on the shoulder was irritating him a bit but nothing that he couldn’t manage to ride with. He grabbed a cup of coffee, filled us in with details of the puncture in the morning and this latest accident,  we made a few jokes about the entire situation and soon we were back on the road – all of us together with a clear idea that the next stop would be at the first control point in Mandya.  

#Adventure