Times Green Championship!

The day started at around 4:40 AM. I had to get up that early to reach the venue by 6AM. The event was the “Times Green Championship” and the venue was Vaishnavi Group, Sarjapur Road.

A lot of effort had been put in from my side to get here. The previous day I had to take my car to office, so that I could go to my friend - Rajiv’s house to collect his 30K cycle!!. Had to drive all the way from Whitefield to BTM layout to collect the bike and then to Madivala to get it serviced and repaired. Reached home pretty late and by then I had driven about 80Km in peak city hour traffic with a cycle in the boot. I hit the bed as soon as I landed home.

It took me almost 45min on that morning to reach the venue. Looking at the parking lot gave me the first taste of how well this event was organized. The entire parking lot was full of slush mud and there was already a Qualis sliding and struggling to get to the parking lot. The organizers were desperately trying to put saw dust and crushed stones to make it more tolerable. I didn’t want to take any risk so parked at one of the side roads. It took me about 15 min to get the cycle ready (had removed the front wheel to get it to fit into the car). I was all set by around 6:10 for the 60Km event which was scheduled to start at 6:30. However it got delayed and eventually started around 7:10. Another example of how well the event was organized.

I was joined by my cycle enthusiastic friends Babu, Harish and Nalla. There were quite a few participants, but the best attraction was watching the Indian team contingent for Commonwealth games participate in this event. Just goes to show how many such events happen in India - for them to participate in such small events. They were just awesome and the pace at which they rode was a treat to watch. Anyway we were off to a good start with no crashes anywhere. That’s when my troubles began.

With a cycle that costly and reputed to help you go fast I was struggling big time. I had to really pedal with all my strength to go forward. But I pedaled on and on and it felt like one of those herculean tasks that never gets you anywhere. It took me almost 3 hours to finish the 63 Odd Kilometers. The time really didn’t do justice to the reputed bike. Only later when I showed the cycle to my friends, who are more regular cyclists, did I realize that the brakes of my front wheel were actually touching the rim of the frame. It actually was slowing me down big time and I was like not only going against the road friction but also against the brakes. The only thing that saved me I think was my marathon experiences as otherwise I would have given up long time back. Many actually didn’t finish the race but there is always something that makes one feel like dirt if one doesn’t finish the race so there I was pedaling even after I was beyond the allotted time limit of 2.5 hours.

The organizing itself was pathetic to the core. There was no water available all through the race. As an amateur in cycling I had totally forgotten to carry water bottles and I struggled right from the beginning. Instead of spending so much on hoardings and advertisements, the organizers could have kept some water spots at couple of places along the route. In the third leg of the race I had to resort to buying Tender coconuts from one of the villagers to quench my thirst and reduce the dehydration which was causing me to cramp up.

At the end of the race I was dog tired and had about 3 bananas, biscuits and couple of bottles of water to get back my energy. I returned the cycle to friend the same day and reached home with the utmost satisfaction of completing the race and enjoying the ride despite all the hiccups and troubles. Maybe that’s what makes these events so much more interesting. It’s the surprise elements and your reaction to them that pushes you to keep repeatedly trying.