Cycle Rally

On Saturday 23rd August, I wake up in the morning with slight fever and bad cold. Day before that I had convinced my colleague to accompany me for the cycle rally. So I pop-up few tablets through the day, cancel all my other work and take complete rest. By night time am back to normal almost.
On Sunday 24th August, I meet my colleague outside Forum, Koramangala and we cycle all the way to Sunkada Katte. From here till Dodda Alada Mara (Big Banyan Tree) a cycle rally is being organised by Jagruthi. Jagruthi is a charity organisation bringing awareness of AIDS.

(My cycle and the message)

When we reached the starting point, we were the only two to be there. Now, its a shock since we expected quite a lot of cyclists. Little while later 5 more guys join us. 1hr after scheduled time we start off the first 9kms towards the destination. There we are made to wait for 1.5hrs for other cyclists, all school guys. We proceed further to complete the remaining 7kms. This is the third biggest Banyan Tree in India and Banyan Tree is India’s National Tree. There is nothing impressive about the Big Banyan Tree. There are no monkeys around. The sad part is why should someone cut off the main trunk of a tree to set-up a temple. All for money, maybe, in the name of God.
After some time, we finish our lunch which is also provided by organisers. My colleague & myself split ways with remaining group. We head towards Mysore Highway. The roads are far better in this direction. From this highway we get into NICE Highway and pedal pedal our way. Inbetween we stop for about half an hour. This was a bad day for cycling. The sun was at its peak and the heat was slightly too much. Finally we reach Kanakpura Road and from there we both head towards our homes.
The entire circuitous route was Koramangala – Adugodi – Wilson Garden – Kalasipalayam – Chamrajpet – VijayNagar – Sunkada Katte – Dodda Alada Mara – Mysore Highway – Kanakpura Main Road – Banshankari – Jayanagar – Diary Circle – Koramangala.
In all it was close to 80kms of cycling.

The best part of the day:
1. At no point of time did we push the cycle walking by its side. Except once when a lorry driver ignored our efforts of climbing up a real steep incline and came inbetween. But the distance was only about 300mts.
2. My colleague never gave up, which would made me also give up.
3. 4 of the remaining 5 were cycling on geared cycles. 2 of them were slower than us!!
4. We managed to pedal through all the up’s & down’s in the entire route including some which were very steep.
5. The feeling of happiness after completing the entire distance cycling. This after 6months of being away from any fitness program due to injuries. Last 3 weeks of cycling close to 250kms in all but never more than 36kms a day.
6. My cycle started making so much of noise and with back wheel shaking horribly when coming down slope but never gave up.

The worst part of the day:
1. The sun at its peak all through the day.
2. Poor turnout, maybe because the rally was outide city limits. This has forced the organisers to rethink and maybe never organise a cycle rally again.
3. Waiting for others to join in.
4. Disappointing banyan tree.

For photos click here.