PBP - Paris-Brest-Paris 1230kms of magic cycling ride

A Dream ride called PBP:

The day was 18-Dec-2017, we had just completed Kittur 1000kms ride and Mohan Subramaniam told us that this would help us pre-qualify for PBP. That was first ray of hope towards a dream ride called PBP. We started exploring what PBP is all about, and why do 7500 crazy cyclists meet at Paris for this epic ride.

Preparation:

16-Feb-2019 and it was my favorite twin hills 600k ride. I braved against the fever and took my Btwin single speed MyBike, and at Yercaud failed to overcome the steep climbs with the heavy bike. I had not prepared well but this opened my eyes to first buy the right bike. That was the day I decided it should be right bike for the epic rides. In that night while hitch hiking a Lorry, I thought of owning a road bike which could help in long rides. I immediately discussed it with Biju (Cycling Boutique). Biju knew about my desire for endurance rides and rightly suggested the Cannondale Synapse roadbike. Geared up with new bike, my speed in brevets did drastically increase and it sure is a comfortable endurance bike. It was a welcome move as Bangalore Randonneurs (BR) had arranged the Jog 1000kms in April with an elevation of 10,000m.

This was a perfect practice ride to try everything as if we were riding PBP. So, I fixed the 8 litre saddle pouch and packed tubes, jacket, spare jersey, pant, batteries, one spare tyre. The pouch was quite heavy. Till mid point we struggled due to heavy saddle pouch, headwind and dehydration. But, at mid point, we realized the weight would slow us down and we got rid of the pouch. For many people this pouch works superb, but for me it did not. I switched back to btwin handle bar pouch. This worked really well.

Gates of Heaven, the 1200kms heavenly brevet in 2018 had taught us many lessons, most importantly, not to give up at any cost. It was a terrible time after we had quit at 560kms after climbing Yercaud and Ooty. The break dance in rains atop the hill station had shown us what goosebumps mean. We hate cold weather, and rains add more pain. But, for PBP, we had to prepare hard, overcome the cold war, love the climbs. Yes Weather and Food, these 2 words scared us about France ride. We feared nothing but weather and food. Being eggitarians, we sure knew we are in trouble at France. But, we also knew that we could get varieties of bread, cheese and it would help sustain the hunger.

Bangalore Team at Airport

The day before the big day:

Bike check was scheduled at 2:00pm, and we had planned to cycle 35kms to get acclimatized. And it started to rain. 35kms seemed like 300kms. The roads were not friendly, and the rain caused more havoc. Finally we arrived at Rambouillet. Thats when I realized what it meant to be part of PBP. The entire Rambouillet's sheep castle was filled up with cyclists and caravans. It was a carnival of endurance cyclists. It was drizzling all along, we stood in queue to get the bike inspected and collect the bike numbers and jersey. We took quick photos in Bangalore Randonneurs Jersey. And headed back to hotel, it seemed a long ride back due to continuous drizzle. While returning we visited the same bakery which had been to on the previous day. The bakery first introduced us to baguette, its the french loaf. Its so thick, it takes lot of energy to cut it open, chew and digest.

Strategy:

We just had a very simple strategy. The control points at Loudeac and Brest, these were keys for success. By reaching Loudeac (445kms), we would have done 1/3rd of the ride, 1 night and then refills and new jerseys. And then reach Brest with 3-4 hours of buffer and sleep for 2-hours. Brest at 600kms being U-turn point was psychologically crucial, and then ride the 2nd half with a relaxed pace. We had planned to switch off mobile data so that we can focus on the ride and not on distracting whatsapp messages. We had kept enough ready-to-eats in the drop bag as it was accessible twice, 445kms and 755kms. Plus there were plenty of things for rain protection, additional batteries etc at the drop bag. The goal was to complete 1230kms of PBP in 87-88 hours. Me and Prasad are known to ride slow, but we always have a simple strategy, focus on the next control point, do not worry about the mammoth distance, take one control point at a time and make sure we create buffer for every hour we ride.

The Big Day at Rambouillet:

Start point, Rambouillet

Day-1 6:00am (18-Aug)

Woke up and was curious to know if it had stopped raining, damn, it had increased. Dark clouds and drizzle meant its going to be really challenging ride. It was nervous faces all around. At 1:00pm, it stopped raining and it was delight to welcome the sun. We ate rotti and MTR ready to eat rice and headed to train station. Plan was to reach the start point by train to save some energy for the big ride.

Day-1 5:45pm (18-Aug)

We were living our dream to participate in PBP. It was a mixed feeling. Happy to be at start line, but nervous what to expect of such a long ride in a foreign country. We were given meal ahead of the ride, it was quite heavy and were satisfied. We got the brevet card stamped, signed and waited for the clock to turn 5:45pm. There were several Indians in our batch as well. Prasad, Raj, Amar and me were in this batch. Every batch would start at a period of 15-mins. The start was very exciting as we got so much support from the people and we picked up pace right away. It was 28kmph avg for the first 2 hours even when we had headwind. The strategy was simple, we wanted to complete 200kms with minimal break and gain at least 4-hours buffer, which was tuff. We had a couple of energy bars and dry dates which I needed to keep going.  But, we still had to stop at 55kms where we first found a village where they were selling food, cool drinks. I quickly got a veg baguette (cheese) and filled up water and in a minute we were back on the saddle. Till here Prasad, Amar, Raj and me were riding together and reached the feed control Montagne at 118kms. This was not a compulsory control, but we were damn hungry. We 4 decided to take 25 mins break and decided to meet at the cycle parking. Raj found out the water taps and we all filled water. Me, Raj, Prasad and Amar ate from the packed food (rice) that we all had got at a hotel in Rambouillet outside the train station. We 4 delayed our exit by another 15 mins, but were not satisfied by the delay. Me and Prasad maintained a steady speed but could not locate Raj and Amar and thought they must be quite nearby and would catch up soon. This was first night, so we were fully awake and hence wanted to take advantage and were riding fast. This momentum helped us reach 1st control point Villaines at 217kms. It was 4:00am, and the crowd was simply superb, it was such festival environment, we were welcomed with applause. We searched to park our bikes and headed straight to get brevet card stamped. All it took was 5 mins, as there were many volunteers. When we entered Villaines, we had 4 hours buffer this was as per the plan. There will be sufficient toilets at Control points, so it was easy to get freshened up fast. We took about 30 mins to eat dinner, filled up water and by then Amar and Raj had arrived. And we started together. Me and Prasad now aimed at maintaining or increasing the 3-hours buffer that we had to at least 5-6 hours, but the impending climbs meant we lost a lot of buffer time.

Day-2 5:00am (19-Aug)

The day broke at 7:00am, and we started seeing a few rays of sunlight. This is the most encouraging time for us, as we had crossed the first night. The next target was Fougeres at 305kms mark. With the fresh energy we chugged along the scenic villages. It never felt like villages, there were sophisticated houses, huge gardens and well decorated windows and cycles hung on balconies. Very few people on the road, but whoever saw us would for sure clap and say bravo, allez (encouraging come on). And all that we knew was Bonjour (Hello/Good Morning) and merci (Thank you). 

I was feeling very hungry at 8:00am, and I signaled to Prasad. He was fine for me to stop anywhere we found hot water. At a village, I found an elderly person clapping to us. I requested him hot water, he told me something in french, which I could not understand and he understood whats happening and he knew we were hungry. He took my hand and took me straight to his kitchen and said something in french again, and all his family stood up and smiled at me. I wanted hot water which I could not explain, somehow they got me cold water. I then took the elderly person into the bath room and showed him cold-hot water taps. He got it quickly and exclaimed, eau chaude (pronounced as 'aww shodh'). Finally we got hot water and said merci, merci and saluted them for their gesture. Me and Prasad ate our breakfast in front of his house. 

And we both left happily to reach Tinteniac CP-3 by 9:00am. We did not spend more than 10 mins as we got our brevet cards signed and soon were back on saddle aiming to reach Loudeac by 7:00pm. But, the buffer time of 3-hours was reducing drastically and we just had about 1.5 hours. Loudeac city is slightly bigger and the control was also well spread out. Good part was we had our drop bag here. So it meant, new clothes, refill ready-to-eats. From here on, we had lot of climbs to cover, so we hardly spent 45-mins at Loudeac control to change clothes and refill. But, we felt we should have started early.

Special Bikes at PBP:

 

Cold night on top of the hills

At Carhaix, we drank soup at night about 11:30pm. As usual I packed a baguette and Prasad was sleeping while in sitting posture. I woke him up and we both stepped out of control, it was cold, severe cold (about 5 degree). I was wearing half gloves as my regular gloves were wet even before the ride started. Now, I started searching in Prasad's back pocket if I can find anything warm to keep my fingers in shape if not the freezing cold cud make them numb. I found merino wool socks, I wore the socks to my hands and it felt warm, so used the same idea for next 2 nights. Even then it was terrible cold, but this was the moment of truth. Either we step back and settle down for 2 hours, or we brave the cold. We thought a moment, this was our time we had been waiting for so long and had prepared hard, we just got onto the bike and started cycling hard. Even it meant bad shivering, after about 10 kms, we felt very drowsy and no place to sleep, we sat on grass and slept for 10 mins, sleeping flat could have made our bodies chilled, and hence the sitting posture. 

Day-3 10:30am (20-Aug) - Brest (Psychologically key mid point)

With barely about 10kms left to reach Brest, we had a sigh of relief that we now are almost at mid point, and me and Prasad were plotting again as to what to do when we reach Brest. We just had a buffer of 1.5hours. The route to reach control point at Brest was round about, we saw the coastal side of France, we took photos at the famous hanging bridge at Brest.

And then it took another 30 mins as it was steep climbs all around Brest. We reached Brest and huge applause invited us again. We headed straight to get brevet card stamping and took 10-mins break to eat using our ready-to-eats. We immediately headed out and on the way met Arvind and suggested him to come out of control as soon as he can. We stopped at a bakery and bought a couple of baguettes and Prasad needed coke and sweet bread. Brest was uneasy as the roads were never flat. 

Day-4 5:45pm (21-Aug) - Prasad's knee pain and our fight for buffer

Prasad developed knee pain at Brest itself. But, we did not have time to relax, it was touch and go as we just had 1-hour buffer. I started pedaling hard intentionally to push Prasad. He soon caught up, but would slow down a bit at climbs as his knees started hurting very bad. At one moment, me and Mahesh caught up and were enjoying the French hospitality and ate, drank, relaxed at multiple stops created by families wanting to help complete strangers who had come all around the globe to participate in this century old cycling event. At one village, Prasad asked if he could get a pain killer ointment or a spray. It took me sometime to explain to the pharmacist, and meanwhile bought some chewing gums to help at night. We had to skip bath on four days to save some time, but the weather was good and we did not sweat much, so changing clothes was sufficient.

 

Monish had joined us at Loudeac and three of us were riding together. After Tinteniac control at night, Monish and Prasad slept for about 20 mins, I somehow skipped the sleep and walked around. I should have actually slept here. This lack of sleep caused trouble later in the night.

Day-5 4:00am (22-Aug) - The Terrible night

We left Montagnes control point at 2:30am, it was still a lot of climbs. It was about 4:00am, and we were hardly 120kms away, and I was very drowsy and could not control but my eyes shut for a few seconds, I cycled with closed eyes and a big shout from Prasad woke me up, I was drifting to the left of the road. Luckily I had not fallen off, Prasad insisted we take a power nap for 10 mins, but I was not ready as body will become very cold and it could be hard for us to get back to cycling. After another 10 mins, Prasad went ahead a bit, and I still being drowsy, entered a lonely street assuming thats the road to Paris, but then I heard cycles in another street, so I quickly returned back. I was desperate to drink coffee. Prasad was waiting for me, and i explained that I had gone in wrong route. The fatigue level was so high that I barely could keep my eyes open and I asked Prasad if he could call up his cousin in the next village and arrange coffee. Prasad was patient enough to listen to all the crap. Hmmm, he said, just keep going man, I don't have any relatives in France. I kept blabbering something in the next 2-hour period. And at one point, even forgot Prasad's name as I was confused between Praveen, Promod and Prasad, all sounded same for the tired mind and around 6:00am, me and Prasad spotted a cycle fallen on road side. We both waited and looked around to see if someone needed help, but no one showed up, we had to keep going and we hoped everything is fine with the rider. The medical support at PBP is really nice, one call to the emergency helpline, ambulance could reach in less than 5 mins. Plus the marshals on bike would continuously be riding all long to provide any help. About 30 mins later, slowly the day started breaking, and it was new life into the tired souls. In the past 2 hours, we just rode 8kms. But still we somehow had managed the buffer of an hour.

Day-5: Target in sight and we had 2-hours buffer
At Dreux control point which was mere 45kms away, we saw the big queue for food, and decided against waiting in the queue and headed out to buy something on the way. From here, it was home run, so we took it a bit easy and rode at a slow pace until Prasad reminded that we are not done yet. Yes we are not done until the ride is over, we just picked up a bit of pace.

Ride Completed:
At 10:35am, we arrived at Rambouillet, the final control point. Me and Prasad made sure to cross the mat at the same second to mark respect for each other. We then waited for our buddies to complete the ride. Mohan Sir, Monish, Arvind, Raj all completed and then we took some pics at the venue. And spent 5 hours just discussing what each one of us faced. This has been an epic ride and a great learning. With all the learnings we were at PBP start line, but at the end of the ride we felt we are very far from being perfect finishers, we need to learn and improvise better and make it more joyful long rides. So much to learn from everyone who attended, each of us had our own story, and it meant a learning for us to be better riders tomorrow. The next seed of dream on London-Edinburgh-London (LEL 1500kms) is already sown into our heads by Mohan Sir.

 

 

Learnings from the ride:

1. Never underestimate any ride at any moment, things can turn around pretty fast
2. Food - while we did a good job, still we can improve upon to be faster. MTR ready-to-eats (small packs), poha, gojju plus adapt fast to whatever veg food that is available
3. Pack less, pack wisely not to make it too heavy, use the drop bag to carry food and jerseys
4. Do not spend more than 10 mins at Controls if we are not eating. If we are to eat, then make sure to exit fast (30-40mins)
5. Cold - Full pants did not do the job properly, need a leg warmer on top. The small head cap from Decathlon which covers ears as well, was quite helpful. One suggestion from Greg Smith (USA) is to use multiple layers of warm clothes than a thick jacket. I recommend having full pants+leg warmer, a base layer, jersey and waterproof jacket. And then a monkey cap which covers ears and then gloves which can withstand the cold/rain. 
6. Waterproof jacket like Showers pass is a must, it helps in rain and in cold
7. DHB base layers were very helpful in keeping us warm and also in sunlight we did not sweat much
8. Sleep - we barely slept for 2.5 hours during the entire 89-hour ride, thats bad. We need to ride a bit more faster, save time and catch a sleep for at least 1-2 hours full length. This must be repeated at least 4-5 times to make it a more enjoyable ride.
9. Decathlon Shoes were sufficient with warm socks, but we did not have a clear plan what if it rains
10. We need to reach the foreign country at least 3-4 days ahead and try one night ride to get a feel of what it takes and get acclimatized to the cold conditions
11. Know where they repair cycles ahead of the plan so that minor tweaks can be done. My wheels were bent and Decathlon team fixed it in just 10 mins
12. For navigation, we did not have to worry as PBP organizers had put up reflective boards at every possible junction which could confuse. If there is no board, then assumption is to go straight.
13. For recording the activity, I used Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music, with 10hrs of battery life, it easily. For Power, we had 1 power bank 10,000mah, and one in drop bag. It was sufficient.
14. For lights, we used the Mako NightRider 250Lumens(front) and rear mako lights. With medium brightness, it easily ran for 2 nights and then carried one pair of AA cells.

Sincere Thanks:

Sincere thanks to Mohan Sir and all my friends at Bangalore Randonneurs for helping us prepare well with all the tips. To Shashi, our Army superman, we remembered many a times, we missed his company. And thanks to Sushma, Ananya and my parents and sisters for supporting at every moment of my endurance journey. And hoping to get their support and motivation for all future rides as well.

SR5: 1500Kms of Cycling in 5 days (Fastest Super Randonneur Series)

Randonneuring is a long-distance cycling. In randonneuring, riders attempt courses of 200 km or more, passing through predetermined "controls" (checkpoints) on the route. Super Randonneur (SR): This title is earned by any rider who completes a series of brevets ( 200, 300, 400, and 600 KM) in the same year. A medal will be sent by Audax Club Parisien (ACP), France. SR title (total of 1500kms) usually takes anywhere between 1-2 months or even much longer based on the rider and the opportunities.

Bangalore Randonneurs is an ace cycling club based out of Bangalore which pioneers in many adventurous rides. To name a few, Gates of Heaven-1200kms, Kittur-1000kms, SR5-1500kms. The organizers of this fantastic club, Mohan Sir, Jins Paul, Harish Venkatachalam are some of the wonderful souls taking utmost care of the riders and providing motivation to break our barriers.

What is SR5: While a regular SR series takes anywhere between 1-2 months, achieving it in 5 days (to be precise 110.5 hours) was named "SR5". Completing 1500kms in 110.5 hours is challenging. The official rest time was 9 hours among the 110.5 hours.

Day	Distance	Start Time	End Time	Rest
Day 1 & 2	600Kms	6:00am	10:00pm	6 hours
Day 3	400Kms	4:00am	7:00am	0 hours
Day 4	300Kms	7:00am	3:00am	3 hours
Day 5	200Kms	6:00am	7:30pm
Total: 110.5 hours (including 9 hours of rest)

Planning and preparation:

Me and Prasad had the experience of unsuccessful Gates of Heaven 1200k, but we had learnt a lot from that one ride. Prasad considered upgrading his bike to roadie so that we could gain more speed and get more buffer time. So, exactly 1-month before SR5, Prasad got his new bike Merida Scultura-400. So, now we both were on Merida roadies. While Prasad did many century rides to get used to the posture, I went for a 340kms solo ride to my home town Hospet on my btwin single speed and a couple of century rides post that set me up for the long ride. We both did a chikkaballapura 100k for another practice together.

Exactly 30 days ahead, our planning started. We discussed in detail as to what should be our preparation, and what could be potential problems we could face during the ride.

We booked a room in Hotel Chancery, which was 500m away from the Konark hotel (Brevet start point). On the previous evening, me and Prasad went to the hotel and kept our luggage bags at hotel cloak room. The apparel for each ride was well thought of and placed in covers, along with spare batteries, lights, cap, dry fruits. Each ride was marked on the cover.

The strategy was simple, to follow the 4-3-2-1 formula, to create and maintain a buffer of 4 hours for 600kms ride, 3-hours for 400kms ride, 2-hours for 300kms ride and lastly 1-hour buffer for the 200kms ride. Me and Prasad had been riding together on long distance, Aravind joined us with his brand new cycle, bought on Monday, took a 100-km practice ride on Tuesday, Wednesday rest and he was ready for the long ride on Thursday.

Day 1 and 2 - 600Kms ride: Bangalore-Chitradurga-Davanagere-Ranebennur and back to Bangalore

Woke up at 4:30am, quickly got ready and headed to Konark hotel. Prasad, Aravind and me were riding together. We started fast and reached Tumkur in 2:20 hrs and proceeded to first control at VRL. A heavy breakfast of idli/vada/masala dosa and a strong coffee, we were back on highway. From Tumkur, we accelerated to reach Sira and headed straight to Hiriyur. Soon the humidity was catching up, we took quick coconut break. Re-energized, we were again back on the bike, we had early lunch at Hiriyur at 12:00PM, we had built a steady 3.5 hours buffer. A heavy lunch at Hiriyur in sharp 20 mins, and we were back on bike. By 2:45pm, we reached 2nd control at Mysore Cafe.

We had a quick interaction with Mohan sir, and he advised us not to push too hard as we had a long long way to go. That was a wake up call not burn out our body on day-1, instead he suggested to go with a steady approach and conserve energy till last day. From here on, we slowed down a bit, and eased past Davanagere at 6:30pm. A quick tea break and we were heading to Ranebennur. The tailwind helped us maintain good pace and we had built a healthy 5-hour buffer. Now, all that we needed was to maintain this buffer. 

We reached mid-point by 8:45pm, a quick dinner of Puliyogare and Curd rice (My Father-in-law had helped in finding and booking the food caterer in Davanagere). After the yummy dinner, we took a quick nap for 20 mins and we headed back. From here on, it was head-wind, the journey was much tougher as it was already 15-hours since we had started and we were feeling drowsy. At Davanagere, we saw that Monish, Rajkumar, Satish and Raghu halted for few mins and had just started of. We realized probably they took a tea break. We stopped there and a nice double tea. When we crossed Coffee Day, we saw a few cyclists, but we did not want to stop and instead pedaled ahead. After about 10 kms, our eye could not control sleep, it was 1:00am, we saw a well-lit temple on the left and saw two guys happily sleeping there. We parked our cycles and slept for 15 mins. That refreshed us, and we started pedaling hard. The sugarcane trucks all along this stretch were very luring. But, we had control our inhibitions to save time.

By 4:00am, we reached Chitradurga and Mohan Sir was waiting for us. We ate a few bananas, and headed towards the city. We again felt dizzy at 4:30am, and try to sleep at veranda of a lodge, but the guard shooed us away. Me and Prasad knew of another place where we had taken rest at an earlier ride. We went back to that place and slept for 15 mins. After the nap, we pedaled slowly towards Hiriyur. Plan was to eat breakfast at Hiriyur. We were witnessing a beautiful sunrise, and our eyes were relishing the beautiful colors of sky changing every 5 mins. As per the plan, we reached the hotel, requested the coconut vendor to look after our cycles. We freshened up and then saw Monish, Rajkumar, Raghu, Satish had reached the hotel by then. They joined us at hotel for breakfast. In 30 mins, we started again, we reached Coffee Day control point by 11:30am, but from here on it was a struggle. It was getting hot, head wind mixed with climbs and fatigue, slowed us down drastically. After the last major Seebi climb, we usually stop at a small hotel for customary cool drinks. We made a mistake here, instead of eating lunch around 12:30, we dreamt of eating at Tumkur/Dabaspet. The slow ride meant, we reached Dabaspet by 2:20pm. Aravind was very very hungry. I was managing with a few dry fruits. This was not a good decision to delay the lunch for so long. With empty stomach we lose speed. After a heavy lunch, we slowly started pedaling. Monish and Raj caught up with us, till then we had thought their gang was way ahead, but then he mentioned they took lunch break at Tumkur. The Nelemangala stretch reminded me, Monish and Rajkumar of our first 600kms ride together in 2015. We remembered the army man Shashi here. It rained heavily, we were least expecting rain in the winter. But, then the rains cooled us and roads were smoother. We did not stop, instead just pedaled through the rains.

We reached the end control at 6:30pm, about 3.5 hours ahead of the end time at 10:00pm. We ate quick dinner at Konark, packed chapathis for next morning and reached hotel Chancery. A quick bath, replied to whatsapp messages, called up our families and were ready to take nap. Prasad was snoring in a minute. It took 15 mins for me to offset the snoring music and get into deep sleep.

Day 3 - 400Kms ride: Bangalore-Tumkur-Devarayanadurga-Lepakshi-Penukonda-Bangalore

We woke up at 3:15am. We had planned for 10-mins per person to get ready, and exactly in 20 mins were ready. The ride started very early in the morning at 4:00am. Mohan Sir and Jins had arranged light snack, we also had packed a few chapathis for late morning. Early morning was not really that cold, we were bit slower than our 600k ride. We could catch up with Rajkumar Khot and Monish closer to Tumkur. After Tumkur, there was a dead-end with right and a left turns without any boards. Monish and Rajkumar took the wrong left turn. We took the right, and then realized that they both were riding on wrong side. We stopped 2 bikes and requested them to inform the duo about wrong direction. Meanwhile, Monish and Rajkumar Khot realized after a few kms that they were heading in wrong direction.

We reached the base of Devarayanadurga at an easy pace, saving the energy for the climb. We had planned to climb non-stop and we could do so slow and steady. Once we reached the control point, took a pic and immediately headed back to meet Rajkumar and Monish at the beautiful lake near base. From here, it was a very smooth road towards Madhugiri. On the way, we stopped at Koratagere to drink sugarcane juice, and we met Mohan Sir and Jins in car and we all had a nice sugarcane juice. We enquired about good hotel, and a local mentioned about Ganesha Tiffin center next to the petrol pump. The thatte idlies were yummy and then half lemon rice (rather he gave us full), was very tasty. All but Rs 90/- for all 3 of us :-). We crossed Madhugiri and headed towards Pavagada. Aravind had a flat, the nearby bus stop gave us shelter to fix. Half the village surrounded us to know more about cycles. I found a small pin. We replaced a new tube, but then, it got a pinch flat, Monish and Rajkumar joined us and then they both fixed the tube properly. From here on, we all were riding together. 

At about 130kms from start, Mohan Sir stopped us for lunch. We feasted on pongal and kesaribhath, and then started towards Pavagada. Heavy headwinds were slowing us down. Once we reached Pavagada, we took a short tea break, and explained our expedition to people. After Pavagada, we were hit with very heavy headwind, it did slow us down. Prasad wanted to sleep before Pavagada, but we kept pushing. We stopped near an old well, a water pipe nearby helped us freshen up. We spotted a few small water snakes in the old well. Monish and Rajkumar were curious to know how could we spot snakes while riding :-). From here on, we all pedaled together cracking jokes. Heavy headwind had anyways slowed us down. So the company of Rajkumar, Monish and Shreyas made our journey joyful. At Penukonda cross, Mohan Sir stopped us with his trademark smile. Some more pongal went in without effort. Lots of wonderful discussions at this spot. Santhosh joined us. Jins gave wonderful massage to Prasad and Aravind. They were thankful to him. Mohan sir shooed us away as we were getting late. Rajkumar slowed down a bit due to knee pain. Monish suggested us to move ahead and they planned to join us at Lepakshi. We cycled non-stop till Lepakshi. It was tail-wind from here on. So, we could speed up.

We had a good dinner at Lepakshi and packed rice for late night. Hell a lot of climbs from here. And late night meant, we were climbing slowly. We stopped at a dhaba and requested the owner if we could sleep at his garden, he denied. And do not know what happened to him, after 2 mins, came back and took all of us inside and showed us a room to sleep. And asked us if we needed blankets. We thanked him for his gesture and said, we are fine without blankets. A quick tea and then we headed towards Chikkaballapura. After about 20kms at a climb, Aravind took a sudden right and was speeding up. I was focused on climb and was riding with my head down. I did not realize why did Aravind took a sharp right, and then I was stopped by 2 transgenders, fully dressed up. For a moment, did not know how to escape. Before they said anything, I reached out to my pocket. They waited, it was pitch dark, and I had Rs 20, 50 and 500 notes. And I pulled out one note, and with a bit of light saw that it was Rs 20. They wished me gud luck, I moved on. Mohan sir had mentioned of secret control, but did not know it was this secret :-). Another 20kms, we were flagged down by Harish. He did the secret control formalities and offered us water. We were looking for tea, even after Chikkaballapura, close to Airport, we could not find even a single tea shop. After airport toll booth, we found one tea seller on roadside, and drank piping hot tea. But, we were still very very drowsy. From here on, we wanted to reach end control ASAP, but the drowsy eye slowed our speed. After Hebbal, took left and kept pedaling without a stop. I showed Kammanahalli road to Aravind where my home was located. From here on, we do not know how we reached MG Road and then to Konark hotel. It was all like a riding in the dream. We reached 2-hours prior to the end control time.

We reached Konark hotel at 5:10am. It gave us a mere 50-mins sleep before we start for next ride. But, we made sure we lube the chains for all 3 cycles before we slept. We had requested for hotel for wake-up call just incase we don't wake up. By now, we had completed 1000kms in 3 days (72-hours).

Day 4 - 300Kms ride: Bangalore-Chintamani-Horsley Hills-Kolar-Bangalore

The 300kms ride was at 7:00am. the quick nap and then hot water bath energized us. But, we were damn hungry. So, we made a strategy to eat breakfast within the first hour. And it was the right step, we took exact 10-mins to complete our breakfast. 3-idlies/1-vada was the energy pack we needed to hit the road hard. We started pedaling hard, we could catch up with many riders before Chintamani. But then, legs were not strong enough to push even faster. At Gownipalli junction, we took early lunch, and then headed towards Horsley hills. Mohan Sir was at a nearby temple holding lunch for us. But, we planned to move ahead and climb the hill before lunch. Even at Horsley, our plan was to climb non-stop. The 8-kms climb took us about 1-hour. We took a quick break at the peak and then headed back to the base. A few quick pics on the way down and then headed straight for Puliyogare and curd rice. We were running close to the control time. Mohan sir suggested we need to be awake and ride properly for 24 hours more to complete SR5. 

While we were climbing down Horsley we met Rajkumar Khot. He had knee pain during 400k ride, but love his grit. He somehow managed 400k ride, but then during 300k, he really slowed down due to pain. But, he never quit, rather kept riding. Salute to his never-give-up attitude.

Monish joined 3 of us and we started riding together. Closer to Gownpalli, we were hit with very heavy rains. There were clouds from nowhere. It reminded us of the Gates of Heaven. We were shivering, but then, we remembered the simple formula. In rains, don't stop instead keep pedaling. After 30 mins, rains stopped, at Gownpalli cross, we did not get any food, we decided to stop at Srinivaspura for dinner. We ate fresh dosas. But, could not rest as we were running very close to the control time. The ride to Kolar was very nice. Both sides tamarind trees, slight moonlight and less traffic, we were relishing the night ride. But, we started pedaling hard. We met someone riding alone slightly ahead of us. It was Santosh. He was delighted to see us and joined us. Just outside Kolar, four of us slept near a hotel. Me and Prasad remembered that we all taken rest at the same place during our last 300kms ride in 2016. We thought of sleeping for 15 mins, but just after 5 mins, the Mosquitoes were fighting for the space on me. I decided to sleep at space between Aravind and Monish. But, unlucky me, my blood was more tastier. I decided to walk around to frustrate the mosquitoes.

We started towards Bangalore. With faint light, saw a rider sleeping at a bus stop. We decided not to wake him up. That was Santosh. His cycle was not there. I thought it was brilliant of him to hide the cycle behind the bus stop and sleep. Later he told us, even he was worried not to see his cycle, it had fallen off :-).

At Hosakote, we badly needed a tea-break, Monish badly needed a nap for 5 mins. Once we regrouped, we just had 1.5hours for 25kms to reach the end control. We decided to speed up. Plan was to ride crazily from here and meet at end control. At a flyover, me and Monish were speeding up and saw a young boy fully drunk was playing with his life trying to touch vehicles which pass by. His 2 more accomplices were convincing him to board the 2-wheeler. Finally he boarded and the 3 of them were purposefully coming closer to Aravind. He was irritated but maintained his composure. They did it again. He was still not moved. Me and Monish were watching all this drama. We were trying not to overtake these guys and to irritate them. Instead, we slowed down a bit. But then, we needed to meet our timelines as well. So, we decided to move ahead. We were 4 of us against 3 of them. The kids did not intervene, though they were riding close by, but did maintain distance. We reached the end control in just 7 mins before the end time. Quick formalities and we headed to hotel Chancery. We badly needed rest. We slept as soon as we reached. We got good 2-hours sleep. And then 8-mins to freshen up and we packed our stuff, checked out of chancery, and we were at start point at 5:59am. 1-min ahead of start time.

Day 5 - 200Kms ride: Bangalore-Kolar-Chintamani-Chikkaballapura-Bangalore

We started at 6:00am, yet again, our strategy was to eat early breakfast. We stopped at Hosakote toll booth. It was a big gang, Santosh, Shreyas, Prashant Iyer, Prasad, Aravind, Rajesh. We ate heavily and headed towards Kolar. Fatigue was already hitting us hard. We stopped for a coconut break near Narasapura. We met Monish here, but asked him to move ahead as we were riding a bit slow. Our strategy was to ride non-stop till lunch. We stopped at a village and ate a few fruits. Mohan Sir messaged on whatsapp about the delicious lunch. We reached by 1:00pm. Ate a heavy lunch and Mohan sir reminded us that, we still have 85kms left. We started off, but could not control sleep. We slept near a house and then headed towards Chikkaballapura. Aravind missed taking pic at an ATM, he came back took pic and joined us. We stopped at Nandi Upachar for quick refresh and tea. We started in exact 5 mins time. We crossed airport toll booth and close to Decathlon, then Monish called up. He spoke about the traffic on Hebbal flyover and asked us to speed up till flyover and then take it easy in the traffic. We cruised till Hebbal and realized the heavy traffic. From here on, it was was racing against traffic and time. We reached about 30-mins ahead of end control time.

SR5 completion:

Satish Addanki, Rajkumar, Bhaskar had been waiting for us. We waited for Santosh for 15 mins, and then started the celebration. A well-deserved photo shoot and then a SR5 cake. Sushma and Ananya joined me. Sushma helped fix cycle to the rack and drove us home. I started sending messages and called up Shashi. That completed our long awaited SR5 series. We had completed a tuff 1500kms ride in under 5 days, 110.5 hours. The dream ride was done. The 5-days of cycling went past like a quick dream. We hardly realized we were riding for all 5 days almost non-stop. But, the fun of riding together, wonderful organizers, perfect routes made it a fun filled, memorable ride.

Thonnur Triathlon - My 2nd Half Ironman

TRI-THONNUR HALF IRONMAN

The mesmerizing Thonnur lake, this is where I started my triathlon journey. Sunil had suggested me to try it out with a Sprint, and I have been trying Sprint, Olympic and now Half Ironman. Its the journey of Triathlon and am in the middle of it. Its a long long way to go yet. Am learning and will continue to learn the art of TRIing.

What is a Half Ironman?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_70.3

My Timing for the Half Ironman:

Cut-off was 9-hrs, and my target was 8:00hrs, and I completed in 8:25:00hrs, so good scope to improve.

Event	Distance	Timing (In Hours)
Swim	1.9kms	00:51:01
Cycling	90kms	04:03:57
Run	21.1kms	03:17:15
Total		08:24:48

Results here:

https://www.accur8timing.com/results/thonnur-triathlon-2018-race-results/?Bib=145&race=race_09aa012e-2e55-4448-bec4-6da6455b0810

Big kudos to Ajit Thandur Sir and his fabulous team of selfless volunteers who did an amazing job. Ever grateful to the villagers of Sanaba, very very supportive and were part of the event wholeheartedly.

Training:

For me, it’s all about training, and the event is a mere closing formality. I did train up for exactly 1-month, specifically in my weak area: Swimming. The 10 sessions with each almost 1km or more, it did really help a lot. I had been doing a lot of cycling and did not practice much, but I lacked running practice. So, it was betting big on swim+cycling and hoping to do best possible with run.

I did one practice Half Ironman, which was self-supported. I could swim in 1:15hrs at a School swimming pool and cycled 90kms towards Airport in 5:25hrs (due a flat which cost me an hour :-(). And finally run 21.1kms towards Hennur in 3:03hrs, totaling to 10:10hours, but it included delicious breakfast and lunch at home after each event.

Day before the event:

Me and Prasad, took our car and fixed the bicycles on the cycle rack, stayed at Srirangapattana, strategically because it’s the closest hotels that we can get to the race location. We thoroughly enjoyed our journey packed with home-made food and ate at a canal off Cauvery river.

Race Day:

We woke up at 4:30am and got ready and headed straight to the race location, this time Thonnur triathlon was happening at exact opposite side of the lake, which meant, we had to take a detour of about 15kms, and hence early start was necessary. We somehow did not plan to eat breakfast.

Pic: Beautiful Thonnur lake early in the morning from far away distance

The Swim support team getting things ready in the lake

Swim:

Get set and Swim, I waited till all the people left the shore :-), I like calm waters

Michael phelps in the making :-) :-).... thats Swamy swimming

I had swam 2.5kms in open waters, but had taken whopping 2.5hours. So, was determined for a better show this time. I was eager to get done with swim. Since am a slow swimmer, I let everyone to jump and then I started at the end. Hardly 100 meters, I realized the water was getting into my swim goggles, that’s irritating. I somehow managed to complete the loop and then stopped at one of the coracles. 2^nd time again it happened during lap-2, and was blinded on both eyes, barely saw the flag and could swim towards it. This time, I tightened the strap a bit, and it helped. 3^rd, 4^th lap were quite smooth, which increased my confidence and pushed hard on the 5^th lap. Each lap was 375m, which would be 1.9kms for 5 laps.

For the most part, I swam with butterfly and breast stroke, and rarely free style. In open waters, am yet to gain confidence with freestyle.

The overall time was just 51 mins for 1.9kms, that shocked me too. My fastest 1km in swimming pool is at 33mins. But, the competition helped me to pace up. And also, in pool, we waste time in turning around, but here it was just non-stop swimming.

Cycle:

After awesome swim, I ran towards the base camp thinking probably am the last one in the Half Iron category, only later I got to know at least 10 were behind me. In that hurry, I decided not to change over to padded shorts needed for cycling, rather went ahead with swim shorts J. This was not a gud decision, while it saved me time, but the shorts were too tight and were not allowing my muscles to free up. Each lap was 22kms each, cycling between Sanaba and Melkote, we stop 1km short of Melkote. It’s a rolling terrain, the route is simply awesome, very scenic. Its lot of climbs and headwind towards Melkote and return is quite smooth. Lap-1 was cool and it took an hour. And lap-2 was even better with 50mins. And that’s when I realized I had not eaten my breakfast. All the hotels on the way looked heavenly L. At one moment I thought of ordering parcel and then pickup on the return. But, I did not want to lose momentum. So, I ate lots of bananas and chikki. That helped me to an extent, but then how many can I eat. I got bored of it, my taste buds started hating banana and chikki. For my luck, the fruits changed to watermelon and musambi. That helped a bit J. 3^rd lap was struggling and then 4^th one I pushed a bit. To make it closer to 4hrs. The idea was simple to close it within 4hrs (5 with swim) and give 3hrs for running.

Run:

The body was exhausted. As soon as I started, it’s a climb, and I started off with walk instead of run. I waited till the slope and started running but only for some distance. The terrain is completely rolling and it was 12:15pm hot mid-day. It was fight against the hot sun and the climbs. It drained us a lot. By the time we completed first 10kms it was 1:35hrs. I did not take any break. I ate a few slices of musambi and then off again for the last 10kms. It was 2:00pm and the heat had reduced significantly and sparingly clouds passed by making it cool climate and I used this time to gain some momentum. Right then, the volunteers on jeep had stacked ice and 2 pieces on me cooled the whole body, loved it J. I did less run and more more walk, which increased my overall time. 03:17:00hrs for a Half Marathon is way slow by my own standards and really needs a good push.

Results and learnings:

The 15th place off the 35 participants is sure an encouraging result and would love try harder next time. While swim timing is good, free style could save me time and energy. Run was ignored and paid the price. While I have done 65 half marathons, but I struggled in the event, due to exhaustion.

Prasad did an amazing job with Olympic distance with 04:00:00hrs timing beating his previous best of 04:45:00hrs

My 2nd Half Ironman

Interesting facts:

• My entire Half Marathon was completed without solid food or gels, should plan better
• There was a family of Father, Daughter and Son, and all 3 completed the Half Ironman within the cut-off time of 9-hrs.
• Prasad did his running with barefoot on this simmering heat
• A 52-year old gentleman N.Seetharam beat me to the finish line in the Half Ironman :-), hats off to him

Who can TRI Triathlons:

If I can do it, I bet you can do it better than me. Trust me, everyone can do it. Its matter of a bit of practice and dedication. Whether you know swimming or not, good to practice a lot, to get away from the fear of open waters. If you haven’t cycled, it’s probably the easiest of the 3. If you haven’t run, better start running today. Triathlon is an awesome test of endurance and I wish you give a TRI.

What Next:
A long way ahead yet for the next 2 phases. Will keep trying Half Ironman few more times to get more confidence, to beat myself.