First triathlon - Half Iron... aka Half Ironman ... aka Ironman 70.3 ...

How it all started

Sometime during 2014 I had a kida in my head that I wanted to do a triathlon in 2015. Triathlons are a combination of 3 activities - swimming, followed by cycling followed by running. There are various distance events - sprint triathlon (750 mtrs swim + 20 km cycling + 5 km run), Olympic distance (1.5 km swim + 40 km cycling + 10 km run), Half Ironman distance (1.9 km swim + 90 km cycling + 21 km run), and then the mother of all triathlons - the Full Ironman (3.8 km swim + 180 km cycling + 42 km run)! My goal for 2015 was at least do a Olympic distance triathlon. 

Swimming preparation

I had done 1 duathlon in March in Pune and knew my weak point and how to improve that - namely the transition from cycle to run. There was one Sprint and Olympic distance triathlon in Pune in April, but I wasnt comfortable with swimming. It was my biggest fear factor. So skipped that event. The only time I had actually done 'real' swimming was in my 5th grade when I had learnt breaststroke in SP College tank. Even that one was without proper breathing technique. So I had to basically start from scratch on the swimming front. I enlisted my daughter Tosha to teach me swimming in our society swimming pool. She was doing a good job teaching me where I was going wrong in my freestyle and breaststroke and how to improve. Improved a bit from that. Then in summer decided to really learn swimming and so I started coaching class at Solaris Baner. A bad time to start swimming coaching with all the kids' summer break. But hey it was already May and I only had 7-8 months left in the year. Started the classes .. as expected the coach couldnt pay enough attention. But during the time he could I learnt freestyle and improved my technique in breaststroke. Now I could do 25 mtrs to 50 mtrs laps of freestyle non stop. But no more. So at one point I decided to try breaststroke and see how much distance I could cover, to increase my confidence. And to my surprise I could go upto 1 km ... then 2 kms .. then all the way upto 4 kms non stop with breaststroke with a kinda reasonable speed of 2 kms/hr. By the end of June I was confident that I could do a triathlon in open water and swimming wouldnt be a challenge anymore! 

Why Hyderabad

But the next challenge was finding triathlon events. Typically there is one in Pune in summer. I had already missed the one in April. I was hoping there would be one more ... but that never materialized. So after scouting for events across the country found Hyderabad triathlon on Oct 11. They had sprint, olympic, Half and 3/4 ironman events (they couldnt call the events IronMan as thats a trademark owned by World Triathlon corp. So they call it Half Iron :)) Now if I was thinking of going to Hyderabad for the event, I would rather to a longer distance than Sprint or Olympic. So thats how I registered for the Half Iron at Hyderabad - one of the tougher courses in India due to the terrain and heat. Especially October heat. I knew I would be killed in the heat. Another big bummer was that the triathlon was on the same day as Pune's marquee running event - Pune Run Beyond Myself (PRBM). Leading upto October I had encouraged almost 30-40 of my friends and colleagues register for PRBM but I would miss the event given the conflict. But hey, so few triathlons in India - beggars cannot be choosers. 

Training

Given the Hyderabad full marathon in Aug, I couldnt focus on full time training plan for the triathlon. So did a few Brick workouts to improve the cycling to running transition. Also did the Bhor duathlon full solo (5 km run + 45 km hilly cycling + 10 km run) ... equivalent or a bit more than a Olympic distance triathlon to gain confidence. If I hydrated well and had enough quantity of enerzal and energy bars/bananas while riding, I could carry that energy into running. Also another challenge was legs feeling heavy after the transition to running. Only way to overcome this for me was to practice. So did some interval Brick sessions in the gym - (15 min hard riding + 15 min running at fast pace) times 3.  These helped me a lot. Didnt have to worry about the logistics of parking the cycle and moving to running and managing the transition 5-6 times. Gym brick sessions although boring are definitely worth it. Got my legs and my nervous system used to the rapid transitions with these sessions. A few long sessions of road biking of 40-50 kms followed by 15 km run helped with emulating real world transition scenario from cycling to running. One thing I didnt practice at all was transition between swimming to cycling. Mainly due to the logistics issues of managing the transition. This came back to bite me in managing the transition time... more on that later. 5-6 of these brick sessions and then regular running and cycling was my training routing. No formal triathlon plan at all. 

My race day expectation was that I would complete swimming in 1 hour. Cycling in max of 4 hours. Running in 2:30 -2:45 hrs. Add about 15 minutes of T1 + T2 transition times. And I should be able to complete inside 8 hours. If I did cycling a bit faster I could even get down to 7:45 or even 7:30 on a good day. That was the hope. 

Logistics

Another thing I was very worried about was logistics of how to carry my bike to Hyderabad for the event. I wasnt comfortable disassembling the bike, carry it in the flight or train and then assembling it in Hyderabad. What if I couldnt assemble correctly and gears didnt work or whatever. So decided to completely avoid that headache for my first triathlon and decided to drive down to Hyderabad for the event with a driver. 

The Event

Finally the event weekend came around. Prepared my transition bags. Had to prepare 2 bags and 3 stacks. 

Transition bag items. Right stack for swimming. Right + Middle are T1 transition bag items. Left stack are the T2 transition bag items.

The stack on the right was for swimming .. would use that during and before swimming. The stack in the middle was for the cycling leg. The night before the event I would stuff all the food into the jersey and neatly pack the jersey into the bag. The leftmost stack is for the T2 transition bag - cycling to running. (In hindsight I have realized that the food was a bit too much. I think I ended up eating 3 bananas, a couple of Gu gels. couple of enerzals. coffee. Didnt eat any energy bar. So a lot of optimization possible for sure in future.)

On Saturday, started from Pune at 4 am. Road condition is horrible from Solapur to Hyderabad. So took us over 11 hours to get into Hyderabad with very less sleep as had to keep the drive awake by chatting with him! Picked up my cousin Ketki, who was doing her first ever duathlon next day, on the way to the venue for bib collection, reached the expo, picked up the bib by around 4:30 pm. Had an early dinner with Ketki around 7 pm. Talked to Sonali back home as she also had a big day ahead - she was doing her first half marathon at Pune Run Beyond Myself (PRBM) event. Slept early after finalizing the transition bags and putting the bibs on the cycle and the jersey. Slept with butterflies in the stomach. 

Got up around 3:30 am ... checked out of the hotel and reached the venue around 5:20 am. Parked the cycle and got my transition items and bags ready. Then got mentally ready for the swim. Met a couple of competitors and exchanged pleasantries - Anjali Bhalinge an elite athlete from Pune, and Manoj Balekar, a professional swimming coach from Mumbai. Hyderabad triathlon swim is in a swimming pool which is not the norm ... so only about 30 triathletes would go in the first batch at 6 am in the swimming pool. Next batch would have to wait till the first wave came out. So next batch would start at almost 7 am... meant cycling and running in much more intense heat. I was lucky to be in the first wave. The organizers gave us instructions and a pep talk and the event was flagged off 25 minutes late at 6:25 am. 

There were 10 lanes ... each lane had 3 swimmers. And there was a volunteer per lane who would count the lengths. We had to do 38 lengths of the 50 mtrs pool to cover the 1.9 km distance. My hope was to finish swimming off in 1 hour. I started swimming with a length of freestyle. Did one length freestyle and then as usual was breathless. So switched quickly to breaststroke in the middle of the second length. As I got into the rhythm of the breaststroke, with body warmed up, I started completing the laps at a steady pace of 3 mins/100 mtrs. There were a bunch of guys who were doing freestyle and doing it much faster than me obviously. Some were doing breaststroke like me and I was proud to notice that I was going faster than the other breaststroke swimmers. Some folks were stopping every 100 mtrs or so.
One guy who apparently couldnt swim was running in the swimming pool instead of swimming! :-) Finally the countdown started as I got to 30 lengths and I increased the pace a bit. Completed the 1.9 kms in 1 hr 2 minutes. Was out of the swimming pool feeling reasonably fresh. 

Went to the changing area and thought I would quickly change and get to my cycle. Hmm ... realized my first mistake. I should have swam in my Pearl Izumi triathlon shorts. It takes a long time to get out of wet clothes especially when you are in a hurry. It took me 8 minutes or so to change and wear the triathlon shorts and my jersey! Then headed out to the transition area and put on the shoes, helmet etc. Ate a banana quickly and had the Amul coffee from the can. Ate one Anjeer bar. Another 7 minutes gone! Started cycling quickly. The cycling mat was a km away at the main gate of the IBS univ. Another 2 minutes gone. A total of 17 minutes T1 transition time!! Way too much!! Have to optimize this and get this down to 5 minutes in the future events. Started cycling at 7:50 am or so.

I knew cycling was my strong suite. Also I had studied the cycling route and elevation profile carefully. I knew it was a slightly uphill route but compared to my rides in Pune it was mostly a flattish route. 500+ mtrs elevation gain over 90 kms was more like a regular Lonavala ride. There was one small 2 km climb towards the end near Movie tower hill. And then the steady climb of about 4-5 kms from ORR till Gachibowli stadium. I was hoping that I would complete cycling in 3:30 to 3:45 hrs. Did fast high cadence cycling and reached the turnaround point at 40 kms or so within 1:35. In this patch I overtook 8 competitors. I was out 15th from my wave in the swimming pool out of 30. After the first 40 kms cycling I was now at 7th. Manoj had come out of the swimming pool first I think. And was 30 minutes ahead of me out of the pool. Anjali was 4th or so. And Manoj was 2nd or 3rd. Probably around 10 kms ahead of me - so about 20 minutes or so ahead. It was almost 9:20 am or so. Was very lucky that it was overcast and there was no sun yet. Happy with this performance so far. Ate a quick banana and had gatorade at the aid station at turnaround. Route coming back I kept going strong but speed slowed a bit. No one I had passed was able to catch up with me but I couldnt pass any other cyclists either. I could see 3/4 iron triathletes and the remaining half iron triathletes on the opposite side. Kept on cheering them. Cheering others gives me some additional energy. Completed the Movie Tower hill climb strongly and downhill there was fun. Then the final 6-7 km drag started once I crossed ORR. As I noted earlier it was a steady climb all the way upto Gachibowli. In fact the elevation gain here was more than the elevation gain of Movie Tower hill. Also another thing playing on my mind was that this is the same route I had to run on. So many climbs!! Damn!! I started seeing the triathletes and duathletes from other events into their running and cycling legs at this point. Kept crawling towards the stadium. Finally reached the stadium and completed the cycling leg at around 11:35 or so - 3 hrs and 45 minutes for 90 kms cycling. 5 hrs 10 minutes for swimming+T1+cycling. 7:45 was out of question now but a sub 8 hours was certainly possible and well within sight. I was confident I could complete the half marathon in 2:45 max. Nice. 

Took some time to relax a little. Ate a banana, a chikki bar. I had finished almost 1.5 ltrs of Enerzal on the cycle ride so was well hydrated. But still had a couple of glasses of water. Took some time to empty the pockets of excess food I had carried on the cycle ride. T2 transition took almost 10 minutes. This was also way too much. So total of (17+10) 27 minutes or so transition time! Have to get this total transition time down to max 10 minutes. 

The sun was out in full force in the last half hour of cycling from around 11 am. No cloud cover at all. Temperature had already touched 35 degrees and would later reach upto 38 degrees during the run! I started running in such brutal weather - first ever hot afternoon run! Thought if I could do a 7:30 min/km average pace, I could still manage a 2:45 and thus a sub 8 hour finish. Started well but soon hit the uphill on ISB road and had to walk. On the downhill I kept running upto 3-4 kms or so. But by this point my energy level had already reached a nadir. The sun was really crazy hot making things impossible for me. There was pretty much no shade on the road either. Completely barren! Around 4.5 kms I felt slight dizziness. Body had heated up too much. I decided to take a break on the side of the road. Just sat down where I found some shade. Too many thoughts crossed my mind during what I think was eternity but was only a minute or so. For the first time in such a competitive event I felt that it would be ok to quit at this point. I can come back stronger in the next event etc etc. All the negative thoughts. Then the sane part of my mind spoke ... The event cutoff is 10 hours which was still 4:15 hrs away. Even if I walk the entire remaining 16 km distance I would be able to finish it. And decided to move along. Whew - close call!! 

Walked till the next aid station 500 mtrs away. At the aid station poured 3-4 glasses of cold water on my head and body and the cap. This rejuvenated me big time. I felt a surge of energy and felt that I could run. Ran for 1.5 km at slow clip. Came to the ORR by then. Again the energy sapped as body had heated up again. Walked for another km till the next aid station. Poured another 3-4 glasses there and kept on running. Now this was my modus operandi. There was an aid station almost every 2 kms or so. So I would pour 3-4 glasses of water on myself. Drink a couple of glasses of water and 1 gatorade and then power on. I would fill up one of my bottles in my belt with water so I could pour it on myself if my body heated up before the next aid station. 

The sub 8 hour finish was a lost cause now. I just wanted to complete it now. Strangely no one I had crossed in my bike ride had managed to cross me yet even though I was so slow. A couple of folks from the next wave in the swimming pool had crossed me though. I kept run walk routine at a pace of 8 to 9 mins/km and the water pouring routine. The IBS road on the way back, as earlier noted, is a continuous climb of 3-4 kms. Walked most of the climbs. Ran a few. Finally last couple of kms left. A half iron competitor from the first wave had crossed me at 12 km mark and was just ahead of me. I kept him within my line of sight trying to catch him as he was also doing a run/walk routine. That gave me something to focus on in those tough patches. I would catch up with him and then he would move on. Finally neared the stadium and ran the last 500 mtrs. 

Still finished behind that guy, but was so glad I finished!! 8 hours 33 minutes! No celebrations at the end ... just too exhausted to even do that. I had taken 3 hours 15 minutes for my half marathon, an hour 5 minutes more than my PB for HM! This was indeed my toughest event ever. The 600 BRM is no comparison. Neither is the Hyderabad Full marathon. Satara hill half ultra was nothing compared to this one. All those events seemed like a cakewalk in front of this. A very well deserved medal at the end! A good looking medal as well. 

Had a hearty lunch and then finally had the strength to call home and tell Sonali and Baba the good news! Sonali also had finished her first half marathon on that day in just above 3 hours. What a day of achievements for the Sambhus family! :-) 

Mandatory selfi at the finish line! ;-) 

This endurance event tested me physically and mentally. I guess my aggressive target of 7:30 to 7:45 was also partly to blame. Even though I had taken much longer than my expectation, I still had managed to finish in a reasonably good time for my first triathlon. Official timing of 8 hours 35 minutes for a first triathlon and that too a half ironman at that was still good. To top off the fun, I later came to know that I was overall 13th from the entire field. Total 60+ triathletes had started. 36 had completed in time. And I was 13th in that field. And 1st in the 40+ category. Wow! So it was a tough event for others as well, not just me. Happy happy! 

Lots of learnings from the event. 
1. In half ironman you start the run around 11 or noon. So need to put in some serious practice to run in that heat and sun OR choose some events with more forgiving climate and terrain. Should be able to complete a half marathon in max of 2:30 or 2:45 in the half ironman. 
2. My Brick workouts really helped. My legs didnt feel like bricks neither did I get any cramps. 
3. Had to reduce transition time down to 10 minutes. I could have easily shaved off 20 minutes from the 8:35 hours if I had optimized transitions. 
4. My swimming speed for breast stroke is optimized to 1 hr for 2 kms. Only way to improve swim speed further is focus on freestyle. 
5. My cycling speed can improve a bit. I should have been able to shave about 15-30 minutes if I had kept the intensity high all the way till the end.
6. Dont give up! Even though I felt like shit in the middle of the run, I was able to figure out a way and complete the event. 
7. I am not ready for a full ironman. This event took all the physical and mental energy I had. I can possibly do a 3.8 km swim followed by 180 km cycling. But no way I can do a full marathon in 6 hours after the 2 events. Typical cutoffs for full ironman are 16 or 17 hours. And with my current half ironman timing I wouldnt be able to meet that cutoff. I need to be comfortable with a full marathon distance and should be able to finish it in 4:30 or 4:45 or thereabouts. Hopefully in SCMM. Also I should be able to do a half ironman within 7:30 to 7:45 max in Indian climates to hope for a successful finish at a Ironman.

Overall I feel I can easily shave off 20 minutes from transition time. Then another 30 minutes or so from the run if I practice runs in the afternoon. And hopefully another 10-15 minutes in cycling. So I can shave off 1 hour with some effort and target a 7:30 hour finish for the half. There's a half, 3/4 and a full iron event in Chennai in December. Maybe I will attempt another half iron then to see how and if I am able to apply some of the learnings. Fingers crossed. 

42.2 under 42!!

When I started getting serious about running sometime in 2014, one thing I started dreaming about was to complete a full marathon before I hit 42 years. Just another milestone ... but '42 under 42' sounded so cool that I wanted to achieve it. :-) And given the progress over the last 2 years I was confident that I could do a Full marathon in 2015. Now the question was which one .... Pune International marathon was out of question - terrible support for newbie FMers like me. Even 3 hr FMers dont get adequate support in PIM. Bangalore was an option but that was November - too far out. SCMM was obviously a choice but again thats in 2016. Then suddenly in May a few running buddies asked if anyone wants a train ticket reservation for Hyderabad marathon... bunch of Pune running buddies were planning to go to the annual pilgrimage to Hyderabad for the AHM. Quite a popular event in end of August. Also considered the toughest city marathons in India. I figured whats the harm ... I still have a couple of chances to complete 42 under 42 after this if I miss AHM. 

I had done about 6 officially timed half marathons so far, so was quite comfortable with the HM distance. But full marathon is a different league altogether. But was determined to do it. Also given the endurance levels I have achieved in cycling I knew I could do a long endurance run... timing could be bad given the weather and terrain in Hyderabad, but confidence of completion was there. Also had enough time to prepare .... So that was that! That was how I registered for my first Full at Hyderabad knowing fully well that it would be very tough. A train ticket booking resulted in the full marathon. :-) 

Training 

I had also decided to do the Mumbai 12 hour ultra run on 15th August. Training for a 12 hour ultra is very different than training for a timed full marathon. So conflicting training goals. To make things interesting I also had the cycling trip coming up to Machu Picchu in September and then the Hyderabad Half Ironman triathlon in October. Also there was the Bhor Duathlon that I had in July which would mean I had to focus on Brick training (cycling+ running) for a couple of weeks too. So the cycling and swimming had to continue in parallel. So couldnt really follow any full marathon training plan earnestly. So I created my own plan based on Hyderabad Runners weekly training schedule plus my other events training plugged in there. My typical training per week included 1 hill or interval run, 1 tempo run, 1 core strengthening session and then 1 Sunday long run. One day of week I would cycling. With weekly mileage of about 30 or so kms in May/June and going up to 40-50 kms in July. Then 1 really long run end of July of about 5 hours or so for about 40 kms. August would be focused on tapering. Here's the link to the training plan I created and updated based on what I did. 

The beautiful and tough OGC climbs

Me and Sumedh near Flame campus past OGC

One staple training routine needed for Hyderabad is hill runs. As the terrain is quite hilly for the Hyderabad full marathon, you have to do a lot of hill runs to get your legs comfortable with the inclines and build up the muscle strength to do so. Luckily Oxford Golf course road is open for runners ... about 12 kms out and back. About 5 kms of which is a real hill. Total of 400 mtrs ascent. Quite tough but a very scenic and serene route. Did about 7-8 training runs there through my training duration. Imagine running on these scenic roads in monsoon with greenery everywhere and no soul in sight. And this is just a few kms from my house! Blessed! 

Also did a Ruggedian obstacle course event in June in which I ran about 12.5 kms in the Oxford Golf course trails with a ton of exciting obstacles as well. Overall all this hill training helped a lot in the end not only for the Hyderabad Full, but for the Satara Hill Ultra marathon I did just a week after Hyderabad Full!

The strength training group at Panchavati Pashan

Another important training routine is the core strengthening. Pune Running group has a core strengthening session every tuesday in Pashan. I made sure I attended this session regularly. 1 1/2 hours of heavy intensity core strengthening thanks to the running gurus like Pravin Jathar, Nikhil Shah and Prasad Patil. 

Next up in the training routine were the interval runs. I used to do interval runs or strides myself earlier solo. Sanjay Rao had started this as a group activity making these tough sessions something to look forward to. We did intervals in the university football ground mostly. 10*250 mtrs intervals with 90 seconds gap in between. You have to try and keep the same pace for the last interval as the first. And the interval pace should be as fast as you can run. I was generally able to do 250 mtrs in 55 to 60 seconds. These sessions help a lot in striding with tired legs. Also helps improve lactate threshold - this is one of those deadly thresholds beyond which fatigue starts creeping in fast and legs start hurting. One of the videos from this session courtesy of Ashish Kothadiya. Its a very good tool to analyse your form in running especially whether you are doing mid foot strike or heel strike ... are you lifting your legs enough ... are you swinging your arms enough and straight ... are you swaying too much from side to side or is the head steady. Overall these sessions help a lot with increasing your pace in the long term and should be a core part of your training. 

Lastly there are the long runs. Did my first long run in the first week of June - 30km in the University. The last 5 km loop was quite brutal though. Managed to do the 30 kms in 4 hours. Second half of June went on a vacation with family to Thailand and Cambodia. Did 1 barefoot beach run on a Phuket beach which was quite an experience - seems glamorous but its quite tough actually as the sand is soft and its an effort to stride while trying to lift the feet. The long runs continued in July again with a 25 km necklace loop in 3 hours. Then came the Bhor duathlon - 5 km rolling terrain run + 45 km hilly cycling + 10 km rolling terrain run again. Finished in 4 hrs 20 minutes. Got a flavor of how tough it is to run on a rolling terrain and with sun burning down. Was quite tough but managed it with reasonable time.

With the Badass kutra

The gang who ran/supported 

Finally the climactic long run weekend came around mid July. Was planning to go to Pirangut and back from University. With stalwart runners - Sumedh and Krishna. Foolish plan indeed. Longest run on a terribly hilly terrain probably tougher than Hyderabad and that too with these ridiculously fast runners. They had promised they would go slow which was the only bright side. :) Vivek and Abhishek were joining for support on their bikes. Started at 4:45 am or so in the dark. I had my backpack with all the food and water I needed so didnt need extra support. Last 5 kms of the run was quite a killer though. I walked more than I ran i think in that patch. Gave an inkling how tough the last 5-10 kms of a full would be. Finished the distance of 38 kms in 5 hrs. Biggest boost was the confidence it gave that I could indeed complete the full marathon distance! The fun part of this run was that there was a dog who ran with us all through the 38 kms. Crazy dog who we named badass. 

On the 38 km run captured by Abhishek

The training continued with full vigour till end of July with another hill run, a half marathon and a 100 km cycling ride. It slowed down seriously though in August partly due to tapering and partly because wanted to spend time with sister's and sister-in-law's family who had come down for vacation. Then Dad was admitted to hospital on 10th August and training came to a screeching halt. Still had dreams of going off for a day to do the 12 hour ultra. But dad's health deteriorated further and I put the ultra plan on hold for the next year. In a way this was good as I would do a full marathon first before I became an ultra marathoner. :-) As the event weekend approached I was still skeptical of whether I would be able to go due to dad's health. But with Sonali's support finally decided to go for the weekend and complete the first full! 

First Full Marathon!! 

Reached hyderabad on Saturday morning with the entire Pune running troupe traveling in Konark express. I travelled in a train after some 20 years or so. Was a great train ride with a good group of friends. Went to Ketki's place in Hyderabad where Sumedh was already there. Freshened up and went to the expo to collect the bib. Thats where you realize the scale of the event. There were going to be about 20000 runners running on the road the next day. 

The event was just grand. The contingent from Pune was about 200-300 runner strong easily. Part of this gang is photgraphed on the left. Also got to study the terrain a bit more. Had talked to Comrades runner Pushkaraj Kore also on the train and he had given some tips on how to time the run. He was pacing the 5:30 hr bus at Hyderabad and his input was very valuable. I had initially planned to start slow at a 7 km/min pace. But he said go at a reasonably fast pace in the first 10 kms as its a flat route around Husain Sagar. Then on the climbs - Banjara hills, Jubilee hills you will naturally slow down. He also told me not to worry about maintaining even pace. He just told me to go run at a maintainable pace for the first half and then take it as it comes in the second half. Very useful advice indeed! 

Was staying with Ketki in Hitech city. Ketki took us around Hitech city that day. Had heavy carb loading at the famous Paradise biryani in the afternoon and then with a pasta in Little Italy in the evening. Also did a lot of hydrating during the day. I think i drank almost 3-4 litres of water on that day. Watched a movie, went to Karachi bakery and then turned in early that evening. Got up early as had to travel across town almost 20 kms to reach the starting point. Had a banana, a dink ladoo, and a cake slice and started for the venue with Sumedh taking me there on the Activa. Reached the venue in time and with butterflies in the stomach got to the starting lineup. Skipped the warmup to conserve energy. There was tremendous energy in the atmosphere there. Almost 1000 or more runners doing the full marathon. Was a sight to remember. 

The clock struck 5 am and off we were. At 5 am also around the Hussain Sagar loop one could feel the humidity. Was sweating at 1 km mark itself. Wow this was going to be a crazy day. The 10 km loop got done in just over an hour and was quite comfortable in this patch. No water needed till this point. The sky was just turning blue .. was feeling quite fresh. As I approached the starting point again the half marathoners were getting flagged off. There were almost 5000 of them! The entire road was now packed with runners. This was indeed a sight I will remember. It was a good thing though that there were so many runners. I would see some familiar face every once in a while from the pune running community ... plus you had a lot of people to keep you company. The only downside was that the water stations got really crowded. Although the volunteers were doing a great job. They were spread out handing out water and enerzal. I had decided to carry my 2 small 300 ml bottles on my waist belt in case of emergencies. Helped in the latter part of the run. 

The flyovers started right after the 11 km mark and they just kept coming. I think we crossed some 4 or 5 flyovers ... really long ones too. Was doing quite well in this patch though with all the hill training I had done. Then came the hills ... Jubilee hills and Banjara Hills. The climbs started becoming tougher and longer. Almost 4 kms of climb around 14th km where we climbed almost 80 meters, then another 2 km climb around 20th km for another 50 mtrs ascent, and finally around Gachibowli area another 3 km climb for another 50 mtrs ascent. I ran most of the flyovers in the beginning, but as we approached the Banjara hills climb around 16 km mark decided it was safe to walk the climb instead of spending the energy further. I was also walking at the water stations... stopped at around every 5 kms or so. Had a gel around 15 kms which I usually do. Then a banana around 20 kms. And gatorade/water at those aid stations. Also had to stop for a quick bio break around 15 kms or so due to all the hydration I had been doing. As we started approaching the Gachibowli climb the energy levels had started going down. I had completed half marathon by now and not in a too shabby time of 2 hrs 25 minutes. Was going strong till this point. There was a lot of energy on the streets as well with crowds coming to cheer us up. Lots of families and kids had cheering signs in their hands. Was a fun atmosphere overall. At one place there was a group of folks doing yoga and skating etc similar to the happy street concept we had in Pune earlier in the year. This energy was helping a lot with the run. I hadnt started out with any bus. But was hoping to stay ahead of the the 5 hour bus at the finish line. I was just ahead of the 2nd 5hr bus till about 20-25 kms or so. The first 5 hr bus crossed me around 15th km. I was probably about 10-15 minutes behind the 5 hr bus around 28th km. 

Around the 28th km the half marathoners went straight to the stadium approaching their finish. And the full marathoners had to turn left to complete the last 14 kms. The crowds suddenly went down from few 100 runners in front of you to 1 or 2 runners about 200 mtrs ahead of you and another runner or 2 200 mtrs behind you. No cheerleaders on the road either. Plus a climb. This is where I started flagging. Started having the negative thoughts of why the hell I was doing this etc. And especially with so less training in the last month is this worth it etc. Walked a lot on this 4 km uphill stretch and lost almost 6-7 minutes in the deal. Around this point Pushkaraj's 5:30 bus caught up with me. Man I still had another 10 kms to go and I had to keep up with him for that long. My heart sunk at that point. Luckily he said he was slightly ahead of the schedule and he walked and stopped at an water station cheering the runners for a few minutes. I decided to move ahead so as to try and stay ahead of him. The last 10 kms was a excruciating slow climb through villages and through the Hyderabad university. The energy level was very low at this point. Luckily the weather had been quiet supporting and the sun was behind the clouds most of the time. Just about now the sun had started coming out so it was almost a double bummer. The knee had started paining just a bit so was stopping to get Volini sprays (or was it Nice?). They were helping but the burning sensation on the spraying was quite uncomfortable. 

One saviour during this patch were the ice cold water sponges they were handing out. Plus they were giving out nice towels. I was keeping a wet cold towel inside my cap to keep my head cool. The volunteers were also doing a good job cheering us up. In one of the villages bunch of villagers had come to the street to cheer us up and were clapping as we were passing. These small things help a lot in this patch as its a mental game after 30 kms. We were a group of 5-10 runners scattered in 100-200 mtrs of each other, more or less keeping together. There was a volunteer runner who ran with us for the last 10 kms or so. There were also a couple of cyclists who were cycling with us. The kms were going slowly at this point. I was walking most of the climbs. Pushkaraj had crossed me around 39 km and was doing a steady run. I was trying to keep him in my line of sight. Finally I approached the last turn outside the university indicating it was the last 1 km to go. I had lost sight of Pushkaraj by now. So it was just me trying to push myself to do the last km. When I saw a welcome sight of Jeetendra Patel. He had completed his half and was running the last km with the pune running buddies in this patch. Wow thanks Jeetendra! That last km he was pushing me and I was trying to keep up with him. 

Then the sight of the stadium at last. Wow what a feeling! As I turned to into the stadium there was another 200 mtrs to go on the track. A volunteer started running with me and pushed me to stride at this point. Really started pounding hard and did the last 100 mtrs striding with him. The feeling of getting inside the stadium with a lot of folks cheering you along is an unforgettable memory. The sight of the finish line brought a smile on my face once again and the pain started to vanish! Such is our body. Even when it feels you cannot push yourself any more, the body still has the reserves to do it. Its the mind stopping the body from doing it. Finally I crossed the finish line in 5:29:52 according to my watch. According to the event time I crossed in 5:31 or so. 

The smile at the sight of the finish line. Striding the last 100 mtrs

Yes indeed!! I finished my first Full marathon. 42 before 42 baby!! 

Completed my dream of doing a first full marathon before I turned 42!!! Woohoo!! Although I had missed my original goal of 5 hours by a long shot and the backup goal of 5:30 by just a minute, but the satisfaction of finishing the first marathon in the toughest city marathons of India is something I cannot ever forget!! Called home right away to share this happy moment. I am a full marathoner now! :-) 

An icing on the cake was that my facebook update and photo was picked up by Deccan Chronicle the next morning (31st August) and I was right up there at the top left staring out of the newspaper! A mini celebrity moment. :-) 

The ultimate quest - Super Randonneur title with a 600 km BRM ('Sahyadri Special')

Once the 400 BRM was scaled at the beginning of the year, my eyes were then set to doing a 600 BRM and earn the Super Randonneur title. A Super Randonneur title means you have to complete BRMs of 200, 300, 400 and 600 kms in a ACP year (November - October). 

Background and Randonneuring glossary

Some background of the whole concept of BRMs and Randonneuring. Basically Randonneuring is a long distance endurance cycling sport. About 110 years back in 1904 the long distance endurance cycling started gaining popularity in Europe and an organization called Audax Club Parisien (ACP) was formed which conducts these long distance endurance rides called Brevets aka Brevets De Randonneur Mondiaux (BRM). The distances covered in these rides are typically 200 km, 300km, 400km, 600 km 1000km and 1200 km. Upto 600 km, rider has to complete the ride with an average speed of minimum 15 kmph to be able to finish in time. e.g. 200 BRM needs to be completed in 13.5 hours. 300 in 20 hours. 400 in 27 hours and 600 in 40 hours. 

Brevet is not a race, you just have to complete it in the designated times to be called a randonneur. You have to report at the designated Control Points within the designated times, where the organizers stamp your Brevet card (which you have to protect hell or high water else you are a Did Not Finisher (DNF) ). Between the control points, Brevets are completely self supported/self sufficient rides i.e. you have to either carry your own food/water or get it on the way. No maintenance or crew vehicle is allowed. In India they have added a clause that safety vehicles are allowed, but they have to shadow you from a distance i.e. you cannot touch the vehicle or anyone from the vehicle, you cannot get anything from the vehicle except at control points. Its only purpose is to protect you against bad elements on indian roads especially for female riders. Any punctures or cycle repairs are also to be managed by you. Organizers will not help in these. You can take as any breaks during these rides as you want but you have to be mindful that the stopwatch doesnt stop clicking during these breaks. So you have to manage your breaks well. Typically from my experience I have honed in on a formula of trying to maintain a speed of 22-24 kmph while riding. Breakfast, lunch, dinner breaks (and possibly sleep for overnight brevets), and stretching/refreshment breaks every couple of hours. So you should try and maintain an average of 18-20 kmph with the breaks to leave buffer for any untoward maintenance or health issue that may come up during the ride. 

If a rider completes any Brevet/BRM within these times, they are termed as Randonneurs. If a rider completes 200, 300, 400 and 600 BRMs in a ACP year they are called Super Randonneurs. There are various titles beyond this, you can earn multiple SR titles in a year. You can also earn a Master Randonneur title if you have completed 5000 km in Brevets in a year. 

The Preparation

When the calendar for the BRMs was out in November for Pune, I was so glad that the organizers were thoughtful enough to have setup the 4 BRMs in order of increasing difficulty for newbies like me. The first one was the Nov 15th 200 Headwinds from Hell BRM to Supe - a very simple ride with only about 1000 mtrs of elevation over the 200 km ride; second one was after a month on Dec 19th Krishna Confluence 300 BRM to Umbraj and back - a slightly harder one with Katraj and Khambatki ghat climbs for a total ascent of 2220 mtrs; the third one on Jan 2nd Kolhapur Curry 400 BRM to Kolhapur and back - same ghats as the 300 BRM with total 3300 mtrs ascent. The final one in the series was the 600 BRM - the toughest of them all on Jan 24th. This one was to go to Mahabaleshwar, then onwards to Nippani and back via NH4. Total of about 5500-6000 mtrs ascent. 

So within a couple of months from Nov 15th to Jan 24th, I could theoretically become a SR! That was my original goal if all things fell in place. Was quite skeptical of the Mahabaleshwar BRM initially - termed appropriately as Sahyadri Special - it had Katraj, Khambatki and then the real killer Pasarni climb enroute. Having done Khambatki multiple times, was very comfortable with it. Just about 6 km of 4% gradient climb. Doable. Pasarni I had done once before in the PBCh race to Panchgani. Had completed the race  successfully but Pasarni memories were quite bad from that ride. Long undulating climb of 5-7% gradient; very few turns on the climb but a straight climb till you could see in front of you - that kills you mentally before you start, comes after about 100 kms from the start when you are tired and before lunch break so in a very fatigued state; 10 km of 5% average climb and total of 500+ mtrs total ascent; lastly the sun is typically beating down on you by the time you get to the climb. A tough one indeed mentally and physically. With the additional pressure of getting to Mahabaleshwar (which is another 20 kms from Panchgani) before 2 pm to make it within the control point cutoff at Mahabaleshwar. So instead of this ride I was debating between the Nashik Mumbai Dhule 600 BRM and the Goa 600 BRM ride. But the Nashik 600 BRM was just a week after the 400, so no way I was going to attempt that. And the Goa meant travel which I wasnt sure of. So decided that I would attempt the 600 Sahyadri Special BRM anyways. 

Next step was making sure I had company on the ride. Rakesh Kale was initially out as he had his exams. But the allure of a SR title in Pune made him postpone his exam and he was in. Kedar Joshi hadnt done the 400 with us earlier in the month, so I wasnt sure he would join this one. But he is an extremely strong rider and didnt need too much of convincing to join the 600 club. (By the way here's a link to his Maayboli blog in Marathi)  So it was going to be the 3 of us on the ride. There were others namely Sudhakar Shinde and Abhishek Kulkarni, who were joining from the Peloton whatsapp group for the 300 Strawberry Fields BRM on the same day as well. So we would have good company for the first half of the day at least. Good... 

Next up was planning the route and the segment timings as I usually do. The first thing was to think of this ride mentally as 2 rides on consecutive days - first day of 350 kms and second day of 250 kms with some 4-5 hours of sleep in between. That made it easier to grasp the scale of this ride. This time it was a lot more complex as the ghats enroute complicated it plus the night halt. From folks who had done this before 2 key control points that were critical were the Mahabaleshwar control point where we had to reach before 2:20 pm on Day 1, and Sai International control point on the way back where we had to reach before 9 am on Day 2. So the plan had to account for that. 

So plan was to reach Mahabaleswhar (125 km) by 1:20 pm and end day 1 at Nippani (340 km) at around midnight. Then start from Nippani at 5:30 am next day to reach Sai International Yelur (405 km) before 9 am. Then the home stretch of the last 200 km and Pune by 8 pm on Day 2. Shared the plan with Kedar and Rakesh. Kedar being a very strong rider wanted the plan to be more aggressive and reach Nippani by 11 pm and back in Pune by 7 pm or so. Very aggressive for me, but we decided to give the aggressive plan a shot. 

The 400 km BRM had taken a toll on the body especially the saddle sores, ITB pain in left knee and inner right knee. The left ITB pain seemed more because of the saddle height. I had increased the saddle height in the 400 BRM and by the 150 km mark had developed the ITB pain on left knee. Reducing the saddle height had helped. So the lesson was not to change the saddle position without practice. Post the 400 had gradually increased the saddle height and had reasonable amount of practice at the increased saddle height. The right knee inner pain was more concerning as it was continuous and couldnt find a cure. May be a MCL tear from what I saw on the internet. So rest was the main treatment, and had only 3 weeks in between. The saddle sores after the 400 also had me recovering for more than a week. So all in all had missed the practice completely that I had before the earlier BRMs. Only reasonably practice I had was the ride with Earn Blessings group to Vinzaidevi highschool in Tamhini. Although this was a leisure ride of about 120 km in 8-9 hours with ample breaks a week before the 600. Only practice I got in this was that of riding in the increasing heat in the afternoon. So mentally prepared, physically overall ok but fear of saddle sores and knee pain. 

Last part was preparing the drop bag and the regular ride preparations. Managed those a day before the ride. Had decided to carry less on me, but by the time packing was done had enough weight of at least 3-4 kgs on my back and another couple kgs on the bike again. This time I was carrying some peanut butter jelly sandwiches and ladoos in addition to the baked potatos and gatorade and other snacks. Sonali again slept very late the earlier night and got up early to help prepare the food I was carrying with me! In hindsight the peanut butter sandwiches were a blessing. Loved those much better than the baked potatoes and the rest of my snack and were very much useful carb loaders overall. 

Day 1- The Killer Pasarni and ride into Karnataka

Jan 24th - the day of the BRM dawned. Averted a disaster with a key insight just the night before. I was thinking the departure point was Cafe nook in Baner, but as it turned out it was Univ of Pune. Glad that conversation happened with Kedar the night before else would have been messed up in the morning! RTFM :-) I reached University departure point at 5:50 am or so. Formalities all done by 6:05 am. Farhad and other volunteers saw us off. We were 6 of us for the 600. There were another 10 or so riders on the 300. This time the experts - Dr Baban Dolas, Kedar Tokekar were doing the 300. Strange to be doing a longer distance than them. 

The flagoff from Pune University

The ride started off in some beautiful weather. not too cold either. Glad I didnt wear the full cycling pants I had bought recently from Decathlon. Rode in tandem with Kedar and Rakesh and the 300 riders to Katraj ghat. Along the way had a mini disaster moment. I realized that I had forgotten my Polar V800 charger cable! V800 lasts only 12 hours, so the remaining session I would have to capture on the phone which would be tough. Called Sonali and told her to see if she could coordinate with the organizers and if they hadnt already left handover the charge to them. Luckily she managed to meet Farhad at Chandani Chowk and hand over the charger cable to him. I got the cable at Mahabaleshwar control point and my day was saved! 

Strongest showing for me on Katraj climb yet - completed in 25 minutes. No breaks at the top this time. Kept going on the great downhill to Shirwal. Plan called for a break before Khambatki. Took a break after the toll gate and had a couple of wada pavs. While on the ride had a chance to ride with Dr Baban Dolas for a few kms. He mentioned this was one of the tough BRMs and maybe I should have tried the Goa BRM instead. Okkk .. but I was determined to complete this. So I needed to keep going through those thoughts. :) Khambatki also did quite strongly. This time just like the 400 BRM was feeling strong on the Khambatki climb. Complete the Khambatki climb in 25 minutes. Was surprised that I did it faster than Kedar as well. Top of Khambatki before 9.45 am. Good timing so far. Ride from here to Wai is quite simple - its 20 kms of flat terrain. Just after Khambatki spotted Ashwin Trimal with his family going to Mahabaleshwar. They waved and took some photos of us and encouraged us to continue along. Stopped for a minute to say hi and thank him for the encouragement and continued along. 

Captured by Ashwin after Khambatki 

Reached based of Pasarni around 10:40 or so. Stopped for a refuelling break here at a Cane juice stall. Bad idea. The juice was refreshing but the guy mixed some bad water in the juice. Rest of us managed it ok, but one of the riders we were with - Arjun Murali had tough time most likely due to this juice. He had some severe stomach upset end of day 1 and day 2, and had to eventually quite the ride due to this. Had some more dates and chikki at this stop and braced ourselves to face the gruelling 10-12 km of Pasarni climb. It was now 11 am and the aggressive noon target for Mahabaleshwar was not achievable, but we were still ahead of the plan. Sun had started heating up reminding me of the earlier Pasarni horror climb. This time the breaks had rejuvenated me though, so I was more confident. Kept on moving on the tough climb a pedal at a time. Main goal was to beat the 7.5 km 60 minute previous best to Harrison's Folly, and complete Pasarni upto Panchgani (10 km) in just over an hour. The views were awesome on the climb, but was in no mood to enjoy those. Kedar and Arjun had gone way ahead of me, and Rakesh was behind. The sight of Harrison's Folly still 4 km ahead was the goal. Finally reached Harrison's folly in under 49 minutes! Bested the previous attempt by 15 minutes! Though still another 3 km to go before I reached the plateau. Reached the plateau in just over 63 minutes. Done! 

I had another mini to major disaster moment into the 3rd or 4th km of the climb up Pasarni. I felt a sting on my right ankle near the show and instinctively my hand went there and I shook off whatever was there. I had thought it might be some mosquito but as it turned out it was a Honeybee!! Whoa! When I saw the bee that I had just shaken off and the sting I was feeling was increasing, panicked a bit. Didnt really know what happens when a bee stings, but had heard it swells up a lot. I was having visions of DNFing at Mahabaleshwar due to the swelling in the leg! The sting was horrible, but I was climbing a gradient of 7-8% at that point, and didnt want to stop or slow down. So kept peddling and ignoring the pain in the bee sting. It kept on stinging for quite some time, but didnt swell as much as I had feared. Later I learnt that if the stinger is removed quickly from the skin, then the venom stops entering the skin and swelling is controlled. I think when I shook the bee off, the stinger must have dislodged from my skin. There was a small swelling there which had stayed stable for a couple of days. But I guess I got lucky that this didnt hamper my ride nor did it result into a DNF. Second relatively mini tending towards major disaster averted! I guess this is my lucky day after all. 

The challenge now was to continue to ride along for another 20 km of rolling terrain till I reached Mahabaleshwar. Again beautiful scenery which I did enjoy a bit this time around. Red muddy soil, great valley views, nice shanty towns enroute from Panchgani to Mahabaleshwar. Had slowed down a lot in this patch though. Rakesh who was about 15 minutes behind me on the Pasarni climb in fact caught up with me near Mahabaleshwar. Crossed Arjun on the side of the road fixing his puncture. Finally was so glad to reach Mahabaleshwar control point around 1 pm. Made it well within time and within our original plan timing. Farhad was there to welcome us. Kedar had already reached there 10-15 minutes back and was waiting for us to turn up. Yes!! The toughest part of the BRM was now done. Katraj, Khambatki and Pasarni all done within the cutoff time for the control. Now only 475 kms left to go! (Whoa .. what another 475 to go after this much fatigue!! hmm .. ;-) )

The control point was just at the side of the road so no place to sit.. ate some bananas, strawberries, drank enerzal. stretched on the side of the road. And decided to move on around 1:30 pm. We were initially hoping to find a dhaba in mahabaleshwar for lunch, but didnt find anything near where we were. So we figured its all downhill to Medha - lets just reach there and we will eat. Bad choice as we later realized. Anyways after a couple of more kms of climb in Mahabaleshwar, the downhill portion started and it was simply awesome!! 15 kms of twists and turns on the continuous downhill. Was so glad that we didnt climb from this Ghat! :-) Took a photo stop on the way down .. 

Ready to roll downhill

Beautiful Mahabaleshwar

 

On the Medha ghat downhill

Kedar Joshi on the Medha downhill

40 minutes and about 20 kms later I climbed down all the ascent I had climbed in the 2 hours from Wai to Mahabaleshwar! The road ahead was very treacherous to Medha. We were hungry, energy levels low, road condition was bad, on top of that it was a really bad rolling road. Continuous ups and downs. We finally reached Medha gaon around 2:30 or so and found a reasonably ok place. Had a misal pav and chaha to refuel. Next destination was Satara control which we had to reach before 5 pm. The rolling terrain continued, with the sun boring down on us, was quite a difficult patch. We met Mr. Arun Thipsay kaka on the way here who has done a tons of BRMs in the past in the last 4 years of his cycling career at his age of 58! Wow! 

As we approached Satara control, I jokingly said to Kedar and Rakesh a thought that had stuck with me a few days before I started the ride. "At Satara, should we turn left and head back to Pune". Would have been a simpler choice as if we turned right - towards Nippani, it would have meant an additional day of cycling before we reach that point again! Turning left in turn woul dhave meant quitting the 600 BRM. Didnt have any serious thought of quitting in acutality, was meant as a joke ... but the comment had some unforeseen repercussions. Rakesh seriously started considering quitting here. Kedar eventually convinced him to continue. Lesson learnt ... jokes can be misconstrued after you are so fatigued! :) At Satara, we met Dr Dolas and a couple of other 300 BRM riders who were heading to Pune ... said our goodbyes to them and exchanged best wished before we headed on our journey. 

A beautiful sunset around Satara on day 1

From here on now we were 5 of us in our group instead of the 3 we had originally started with. One takeaway from this BRM is that more the people in your group, the longer the breaks and slower the ride. As generally the speeds dont match and inevitably someone stays behind and rest have to wait. So a rule of thumb in my opinion should be ride in groups of 2 or 3, anything beyond that can be dicey. At Satara we were about 30 minutes behind our scheduled plan of reaching Nippani by midnight. We thought we could pick up pace and still manage the midnight landing. But faced some hurdles of riding in the group which slowed us down significantly. We stopped for an unscheduled stop after Satara as Thipsay kaka hadnt had any lunch yet. Now we were 1 hour behind. We picked up speed from this point on as the sun had set and mind and body were feeling fresh once again. But given we were riding in a group, pace doesnt match for all irders... so we decided to stop for one of the slower riders after every 20-30 kms. At one such halt we waited for about 30-40 minutes. 2 hours behind now. We still had hopes of reaching by 1 am and getting good 3 hours of sleep. Had dinner at Sai International at 10 pm. Then reached Kolhapur - about 30 km from there by midnight. Only 30 more to go now. Another long wait. Now the muscles were acting up as well. With every halt, my knees started paining. It took a good 10-15 minutes of riding before they warmed up enough and stopped paining. So it was getting tougher. Plus the longer we were on the road, meant lesser the sleep prospects. More frustration all around. Part of riding in a group I suppose. :-) From Kolhapur to Nippani we decided to ride together as the road goes through a reasonably lonely stretch around the Karnataka border and through some jungle. 

5 of us at Sai International with some stranger who wanted to take photo with us

At Kolhapur ... Mi jara padato! ;-) a small rest break 

Crossed Kagal and then finally crossed the border! Yay!! I had cycled all the way from Maharashtra to Karnataka. A milestone to remember for sure! Nippani was another 10-15 kms. The road from Kolhapur to Nippani has quite a bit of rolling terrain. While going to Nippani it seemed that we were climbing a lot. The upside was that next morning on the way back it would be all downhill. (I would realize how mistaken I was the next morning). We were going at a speed of hardly 16-17 kmph as we were going together. Finally we reached Nippani control point at 2:45 am!! The downside was that we would have to miss eating and try and grab an hour sleep before getting ready to leave by 4:15 or 4:30. 

Day 2: Only 260 kms to go! 

With hardly 45 minutes of lying down time, sleep was hard to come by. Was only lying down but body wasnt ready to sleep. Probably slept all of 10-15 minutes overall during this time. Got up at 4 am, had to take a cold water quick shower to get fresh as I dont think I would have been able to ride without the shower. Changed the clothes from my drop bag. Applied the Saddle sore cream Buttr liberally as since yesterday evening the saddle sores problem had started reappearing. Had a couple of laddus and peanut butter jam sandwiches and as a group we left by 4:45 am. We had decided we would keep the second day on track to our original plan at least and ride our own ride instead of getting shackled by the big group. I think 'Riding our own ride' is a big learning to keep the ride an enjoyable ride, else frustration starts creeping in. 

We had to reach Sai International before 9 am else we would have missed the control deadline. We covered the 67 km distance quite rapidly. Reached Maharashtra border in double quick time, then onto Kolhapur and then onto Sai. We stopped only once for a quick snack break with whatever we were carrying as none of the hotels were open yet. The one false expectation I had from yesterday night was that it was all downhill from Nippani to Kolhapur was squashed right away though. Frm Kolhapur to Nippani rolling terrain makes you feel that we were climbing a lot and downhill was smaller. But there were quite a bit of downhills that we had actually done. So coming from Nippani to Kolhapur there were a lot of those climbs we had to do. Kolhapur to Yelur was slightly better and bit more downhill. Made it into Sai International at 8 am. So about 3 hours 10 minutes for the 67 kms ride in the morning. Not bad. This was the second toughest control to make. After this the time pressure just vanished as had to do the rest of the 200 kms in 13 hours. Way too much time left. Kedar as usual had reached 15 minutes ahead of me. Rakesh was riding really strong in this BRM compared to the previous 400 km effort. I guess the newly acquired Shwalbe marathon tires on his Fuji had increased his confidence a lot. He had reached 5-7 minutes ahead of me. 

While at Sai International, sent some whatsapp messages home, the Peloton group and the Bike bros group to let them know my progress. Charged my Polar V800 for the duration of the stop. Had a hearty breakfast and took almost an hour break here till 9 am. Arjun came in around 8.30 and we were glad he made it in time, only to realize that unfortunately his stomach upset had flared up and he was completeyl dehydrated fatigued due to that and decided to give up. Poor guy ... he is an excellent and strong rider even on his hybrid. Tough luck, but am pretty sure many more successful ones to come for him ahead. Just about when we were leaving we saw Thipsay kaka pull in. He also had made it in time at the control. Kudos to all of us. Rest of the journey is a countdown from 200k. 

Kedar raced ahead as usual from Sai International to Karad. I think I was quite dehydrated at this point or he was too fast. I didnt have my usual gatorade with me neither did I have enerzal. Water running out as well. I was going going at a leisurely 20-22 kmph, couldnt increase my speed beyond this. I was just counting down kms to Karad. About 10 kms from Karad stopped at a roadside shop to refuel water. Wasted almost 10 minutes there with the wait and the questions from curious onlookers. At Karad I was hoping to catch up with Kedar and Rakesh again. They were waiting for 15 minutes already. I had a thumbs up to refresh myself. Renergized again with the sugar dose. It was around 11:30 am, and Satara lunch plan seemed too distant as Satara was another 50 kms away. Luckily we found a Kamath just before we reached Umbraj. Stopped for a nice Uttappa, and Dal Khichadi. And Sol kadhi. Satisfied we left there around noon or 12:15. 

The next patch was not easy at all with the sun burning down. From Umbraj to Satara - a distance of 35 kms there are a few climbs and rolling terrain. Especially the Khind climb before Satara. Before the climb entering Satara, I had to take a pit stop at a roadside Dhaba, plus needed to replenish my water supply. So took a 10 minute break. Till then I had Rakesh in my eyesight. Luckily with the break I got some cloud cover during the climb. Was able to do the climb strongly and then the downhill following was fun. Got a message from Kedar that they were waiting for me at Big Bites in Satara. Reached there at 2:15 - about 15 minutes behind Kedar, due to the earlier pit stop. Quick coffee there and on our way towards Khambatki. Kedar was going quite strong, told him to go ahead instead of waiting for us. But he being a gentleman wanted to wait for us. He could have reached a couple of hours ahead of us if he didnt wait for us!  

We had planned to originally reach Khambatki by 4 pm which was about 35 kms from Satara. The patch from Satara to Khambatki has few climbs, but is mostly a boring stretch. Continued with Rakesh counting down villages from here on. Rakesh had cramps around half way to Khambatki and we had to take a 15 minute break there. Kedar reached Khambatki on schedule at 4. But we reached there by 4:40 pm. Had another Uttappa and tea. Left at 5 pm. An hour behind plan. At this rate we would probably reach Chandani Chowk by 8 pm instead of 7 pm, which was still a couple of hours ahead of the cutoff of 10 pm. Rakesh somehow missed Kedar and headed down Khambatki downhill and went ahead. 

From here on out we were 70 kms from our destination. The Khambatki downhill to Shirwal was pure bliss as usual. Managed that distance of 20 kms in 40 minutes or so. At Shirwal my battery on the GPS watch and the phone ran out again. The extra USB battery pack I had was out of power as well. I had done well to recharge my phone and GPS watch on day 1, but had mismanaged it on day 2. Before the battery ran out called Sonali and asked her to come to Chandani Chowk CCD to pick me up around 8 pm as I dont think me or my bum bad the energy to ride the last 15 kms from CCD Bavdhan to home! 

Was at Shirwal around 5 pm. Only 50 kms to go now, and an climb upto Katraj. The saddle sore was still troubling, but luckily no knee pain. It might come back as it got colder in the evening. But the evening cool air induced a breath of fresh air as well. Somewhere around Shirwal I saw Ramakant from Rohan Seher. He was coming back from some bird photography session with his friends. He encouraged me to hammer along. Much needed encouragement in that stretch. Also the Cymour support vehicle crossed me at this point. Yogesh and Ravi took a couple of snaps while I was riding. Nice ones.  

Cruising along after Shirwal

550 - 560 kms into the ride .. Home stretch!!

Kept on burning the rubber on the tires .. keeping up good pace till I hit traffic around Nasrapur. It was around 6 pm and a lot of traffic returning home after the weekend I guess. Really bad traffic from here on all the way to Chandani Chowk. Made the way through the pollution. Met Kedar around Khed Shivapur around 6:45. Only 30 kms to go now! Didnt stop at Khed Shivapur for any breaks as was feeling reasonably fresh and wanted to reach CCD by 8 pm else Sonali would be waiting unnecessarily. Apparently crossed Rakesh somewhere around Khed Shivapur where he was taking a refuelling break, but didnt hear his call. Finally finished the Katraj climb around 7:20 pm. Really the home stretch now with 20 kms to go. Blissful downhill at Katraj for another 10 kms ... and then hit a horrible traffic jam around the Warje. Somehow weaved through the bumper to bumper traffic here and went through the final 2 mini climbs at Warje and Chandani chowk. Again spotted Kedar and Rakesh. The final stretch at Chandani chowk ... the final climb and started imagining the glory at the end! 

Finally reached CCD at 8:15 pm to awesome thunderous welcome from Sudhakar and Abhishek who had done the 300 BRM the day before! Sonali and Aryaa were also there and was greeted with warm hugs from them. An ice cream Frappe refuelling, gappa with the gang and Sonali and Aryaa. Half an hour or rest later and a photo session later, made our way home in the comfort of a really wide seat of the Jetta!! :-D 

The 600 km Finishers - myself, Rakesh and Kedar! 

The Super Randonneur pose! Realized my bike was extremely heavy!!

The Brevet card

So 38 hours 15 minutes, 604 kms, 14000 calories, 5500 mtrs ascent since I started from the University, I reached back!! Made it!! 600 km BRM done and dusted. Super Randonneur title! Wow what an experience! A lifetime of memories for sure! A quest and a dream that had formed shape in October of 2014 ... which had seemed quite unreal and just a dream was now complete! I was in the elite company of the SRs from Pune. Still admire them for their tenacity to continue doing this continuously.. but I am step closer to them now. :-) Feeling quite proud.