Great Malnad Challenge 2018 - My Experience

Finally, it was friday 26th October, the day we have been waiting for with mixed emotions. I was eagerly looking forward to the event, pretty excited, but not without my own apprehensions and skepticism.   We four, me, my colleague Jabeen, her sister Tabu and our friend Senthilvadivu (SV) had decided to leave Bangalore around noon, to reach Chikamagalur well ahead of reporting time (8 PM). I had planned and ensured that no last mail/last meeting etc., is carried forward to Friday morning (unusual me!). After packing my daughter off to school, went to the near-by temple & then visited my parents before I packed off.  It was a good feeling, although my husband would have had different views about it. He would have teased me for counting on blessings wherein some warm-ups/air-squats could have helped/need of the hour (his view). He was in some sense right as almost the whole of last week I couldn’t do any stretches/air-squats etc., but doesn’t matter, feeling good/blessed is mor

After accomplishing our first goal of the day (morning duties successfully over, thanks to water, water and water) and a sumptuous breakfast we headed down for warm-up and our first ride. GMC was flagged off by chikmagalur cyclist Javed Parvez at around 7.20am. The markings were clear on the road & we pushed our way to ascend the giris. The 7 kms before the ascent itself was slightly steep & so I was pushing & pedaling myself. Usually there is at least one mentor cyclist along with the last rider. Everyday there is one section of the trial marked as race section & it is usually the toughest part. We reached the first ascent of 10kms that was also the race section. Since the mentor cyclists also participate in races, during this section we will not have any mentoring. I am nowhere close to racing but Santosh said it is only for our own timing reference, also for people to win you need to have participants, right

We got into the routine of finishing our morning duties earlier and so started off the day post warm-up and flag-off. I made sure I am in the first line of the start, at least let me start early 😊 . The first 35 kms of Malnad flat was good, our mentor cyclist Sunil reminded us to save our energy as it will be a long ride. The ride started off in paved roads passing through green fields, far off mountains, digesting every bit of nature and simple living. I wanted to share this experiences/the path the view with my daughter and was running through the narration in my mind.   SV made sure that we stop every 5kms, monitoring through her strava fixed in her bike.   She was ahead of us and when we see her we were to stop. In easier sections all I wanted was to move on without stopping but SV insisted to have a short break, just a sip of water at least. During one stop when Tabu & Jabeen caught up Tabu informed her chain had come off but she had fixed it herself. We moved unt

Padhu (Padhmanaban) fellow rider met us at breakfast & shared his last years’ experience. He was the last rider to reach Kalsa last year, riding the last 10 KMs in dark supported by the crew vehicle’s headlight. Only difference being that they came to the hotel from a different route, and oh! by now you can imagine my state of mind. I think SV was also convinced that we could have attempted & was with me. So, when we saw Santosh I poured my heart out & SV suggested that we will complete the missed section today as anyways it is going to be a short day. Internally I was thinking the same, I knew we will take more than 12.30 but even if we complete by 2, I believed we had time to complete the missed section. Santosh remarked then you will have to go & then come back, so it will be 22kms. 22kms was not so much I thought, all I wanted was to complete it. I really don’t know how Santosh perceived us but looking back he did an awesome job of neither de-motivating/scaring, no

We were all used to the new routine, half-awake from 3:30-4AM onwards, call it anxiety or SV’s snores (for me at least) plus finishing our morning ablutions. Jabeen was little better but not yet fully recovered. I don’t think I could have managed all the way Jabeen was pushing herself. She was still strong mentally, amazing. Today was an 80 kms stretch and we were all set, we didn’t wait for flag off (me in my new BETTA), left a few min earlier. There was a 5km Malnad flat after which it was a racing section of 7kms, 450mts ascend. Nishaw had joined the support crew helping in racing sections and motivating us. In the racing section, steep ascend, we followed our motto (pedaling or rolling keep moving) just somehow kept moving. Even when I saw all three had stopped at one junction, I kept on moving. During ascends I follow the pedal counting that Santosh taught me during Nandi ascend, it helps a lot. The trick is to not look ahead of the steep road, just look down not mo