Bangalore 2 Chennai

Till about 2-3months back I was not in for riding long distances in a single day. Reason: One cant enjoy the beauty of surroundings. Finally I changed my decision since it was a ride to Chennai. We had few like minded guys in office from SAPRoadies group. We did not want a big number so kept the entire to a short group.
Last week, I was completely not in best of shape. Forget cycling, even getting up and going to office was a big challenge. Fever kept coming & going & coming & going. No food was going into my body. I started losing weight. People were asking all questions, I just kept quiet. No idea what to say and what not. Tried putting up smiling face but the body ache & hunger pangs showed it all over my body & face. When I did want to eat, it was a difficult slow motion job. It did look at some point of time that I would not be able to even pedal cycle out of my house. The only thing that kept me determined was this was a plan we had made together and so I should be there.

Riders: Venkat, Amol, Karthik & Myself — from SAPRoadies. Shyam (my bro), Anand, Ram.
Vedula on bullet as support.

30th October 2010, few hours of sleep. Final bag packing done and all saddled up. My bro (Shyam) & myself left house at around 2:45am. We were waiting for his friend who was delayed due to some reasons. Finally we all met at Silk Board junction and when we finally left that place it was after 4:30am. A clear delay by more than 1.5hrs. The outside temperature nor the body was warmed up, cycling towards Electronic City itself looked difficult. Slowly as pedalling was progressing at steady speed, the body started getting into a rhythm. Though it actually looks tough terrain from Shoolagiri to Krishnagiri, its not all that tought. Kepp changing gears, focus on the road and before you know you have reached Krishnagiri. Thats when we halted for our breakfast. No fancy big hotels, just roadside dhaba’s. Eating in big hotels is typically not my style and they take long time.
In cycling long distance every minute counts. Even now I was not able tp eat comfortably. It took a while for me to drown few idllis. Post breakfast, while Ram was showing signs of discomfort, I could not see anything. All I saw in front of me was the road and only thing I knew was keep cycling. we made efforts not to get on top of bridges, whereever & whenever possible. A halt for tender coconut water about 50kms after Krishnagiri. And again we started cycling.
When I reached Ambur for lunch I was surprised that I was the first to have reached. Of course I did not see anyone crossing me. I had taken a short detour but still others were behind me. It was not that I had cycled at great speed, others took some breaks and time-outs while I did not take any. I also did not feel for eating anyway my stomach was not in best of shape too. Just a plate of curd ride took me about 30mins that too I did not finish the plate.
Due to not eating in last days and too many tablets my acidity was increasing. Got couple of gelusil tablets and it helped.
At this point, other 3 wanted some sleep post-lunch. We 4 decided that we had anyway lost some time so no point in wasting anymore. There was slight drizzle on the way. All the time post lunch till Vellore there was just one thot on my mind. It was rains & cycling.If it rains heavily then I cant see, I was contemplating the moment. And in thinking about rains I did not feel anything about cycling to Vellore.Luckily it was not raining when we reached Vellore. Amol & myself had a quick decision to continue. Venkat looked to have knee pain but was determined to continue further. Same was the case with Karthik. The other 3 (Ranm, Anand & Shyam) wanted to halt at Vellore for the night. The worst part of the journey was hunting for dinner before Kancheepuram.
What we could also notice was our speed was going down. We didnt stop but short halts were increasing. Tiredness was beginning to show in the conversation. Here a stop, there a stop. And we 4 always kept to being together. Definitely not safe in night time.

Finally after more than 21hrs being on the road and spending more than 15hrs cycling, we turned into Chennai. The bright statue of Dr.Ambedkar showing direction. And yes, we did it. We checked ourselves into Hotel Vaithee Park in Poonamalle. And with that marked end of another event. Need to plan next soon.