Enduro3 - The RacE

8th Feb, 4:30am. I got a call from Ravi telling me to wake up and get ready. This when I was sleeping in a comfortabe warm bed in a cold Puna night. Nevertheless, this was the BIG day. Got up, got ready and soon Ravi was over. We took the bikes down and loaded them up into the Scorpio that Ravi's in laws had aranged for us. (They were an amazing help during this time). Sri and I got into the other car (an esteem I think - I didn't register it - too sleepy). By the way, the venue had been changed from the police grounds to the Law college near that yummy shop that sells awesome cold coffee - Durga cafe.

We were at the start point by 6am and eventually waited till 11am for the race to flag off. It was an endurance test of a different kind. We were waiting with 9 kg packs on our shoulders and standing in the now - getting - hotter sun. It was amusing to see other participents sitting down or lying down with shades and catching a few zzzzzs. Met Mansi finally and thanked her for her help. She was participating in the Open mixed catagory (100km cycling and 80km trekking - not a joke).

When the race flagged off, we shot out and maintained a decent speed till Time Control 1, where the race would actually start. TC1 was in the NDA campus. I loved the 45 degree downward slopes which were mud and stones. The bikes just slid down and you had to control them. Ravi took a few falls before he got used to it. Our team code was AMM15 - for the record. At one point Ravi had to adjust his brakes because they were too tight.

There was a point when we crossed the airstrip and had to head for Sudan block. It should have come up on our left, but came up on our right instead. This, hopefully is an indicator of how big the NDA campus is and how, for a short while, how hopelessly lost we were. Every soldier we asked directions from seemed to be 'new' to the place :P

We cycled out of the campus to the ------------------------- hills beyond. Finished our cycling leg of the journey about 1:30pm. We left our bicycles there and began the trek leg. There was an elderly gentleman there 40+ who turned up at the same time.. He went on to win the race in his catagory. I forget this name, but I'll never forget him. I bet at one point in his life he could have said 'The names Bond, james Bond' and it would have been natural :D

By this time, the sun was hot and we were gulping down our electral water. Normal pure water will not help at all.. you'll just get thirstier and thirstier. while searching for PC6 I believe, we got lost. (We kept getting lost, but this was a major one). Eventually, after searching in vain and doubling back (which I hate), we climbed the nearest hill in the hopes of spotting the Enduro flag somewhere. At this time we had a major grouse against the organisers regarding the flags. There weren't enough of them to guide us to a reasonable degree. But then, looking back, thats the reason we had so much fun, that stumbling into the unknows making a dead reckoning and proceeding, hoping we were headed in the right direction. At one point on the hill we climbed (and almost fell - the slope was 60 degrees and with dry grass that came off in our hands and loose rocks), Sri just sat down and refused to move unless he knew for sure we were headed in the right direction. Ravi and I did a bit of forward reconniscence and finally made use of the google map given to us. We identified some landmarks, located our position and found out which direction to go in. Sri was convinced we all headed off again. I believe this was about 4pm and the team that was leading our catagory had already reached camp. (This we found by checking the time cards at each checkpoint).

After finding PC6, we had to go down to a big dirt road and follow it to camp.. but then we got lost again. we ended up going through overgrown plants with REALLY annoying smelling amzingly sticky fruits that bloom once in 7 years (and HAD to bloom this year). there was no part of us that wasn't picking up leaves, burrs and other jungle knic knacks because of that stickyness. It was a major reason why Sri eventually chucked away his bed mat in disgust because it was constantly being caught everywhere by the branches and fruits alike. We found a dried waterfall area but after following it for 7 minutes, I turned out to be a dead end (unless you had a paraglider - you could just jump off and glide down then). so we turned back - again - and found another dried up water path to follow down. After considerable rock descending, we reached the dirt road and sprinted to the last check point. A boat came to take us across the water to the campsite which was on the opposite shore. As we crossed the water, we filled up our bottles and drank the water gratefully.

It turned out that only one person had to do the water crossing bit, so Ravi volunteered. I remember this other guy trying to swim across, went diagonal and crossed Ravi's path so Ravi had to stop for a bit :D anyhow, he did a great job of crossing the water and running back in about 3 minutes and a bit. Since the water was cold and he was shivering, I lent him some warm clothes that I had.

Since we'd carried a lot of equipment, the night was smooth. we spread out the covers, put the sleeping bags on top and got into them and then put a rajai over it all. Overall, quite snug. we'd hardly eaten the food prepared by Ravi's in laws, and now we proceeded to devour it. (We still left quite a bit - it was very heavy and filled the stomach). By this time, I remember another team setting up their stuff and how I joked that the only thing we needed now was rain (It was about 6 degrees C ) that girl just looked at me as if i was mad. :D

Sleep..

1:30am, the 9th of Feb. I was woken up suddenly to the smell of that sticky fruit (it had rubbed off on the sleeping bag) and the sound of shuffling feet. We had to break camp at 2am. Quickly, we packed up our stuff and filled our bottles. We didn't make it to the briefing coz of all the activity we were doing. There stars were beautiful up there blazing in the pitch black sky, but my team mates didn't seem to appreciate that fact :P

We set of like a colony of ants with torches on a single trail. Eventually, we walked fast and soon, a group of people were following us, which was unfortunate, because, yup, we got lost. We ended up on the river bank which in another situation, could have been enjoyable and fun. Instead, we tried to make a trail of it and went on into the tall grass beyond till we had to admit we were lost and turn back. We didn't want a repeat of the last day, so we were getting irritable I guess - but we kept our cool. We took about 4 hours to reach the 1st check point, about 4km away. This was 1/10 the the journey. After we passed the PC, we picked up the pace and decided to keep headed fast and keep the river on our right at a certain distance. Too close and we'd go off the trail. Too far and we may get lost. Very surprisingly, we reached the TC soon after that. Encouraged, we started running/ fast walking. We caught up Gautam's team along the way. (We'd passed them earlier, but since we got lost, they'd overtaken us). I still remember their cry 'Go Ultras' :D

6am and still no sign of the sun. The batteries had already been replaced once in my and Sri's torch. Ravi had an LED torch meant for the bike. I'm definitely buying that one from BumsOnTheSaddle later, its so good! By now we were on a wide dirt track / motorway winding about the hillocks. We had ample water and food in our hands as we steadily made our way. We caught up with a lot of leading teams from the other catagories and got to know some of them. We met Mr. Kagre and the two girls with him. One of them was his daughter (Krutika) who had done 6 Himalayan treks.. and she was only 16!!! Zounds! I have to work on my trekking, clock up some miles there :P

After a checkpoint where we received a Red Bull and almost left our timecard there, we kept pace with Mr. Khagre , because he was a good navigator and didn't get lost (:P) and they were great company. I chatted a lot with him and he invited me for a Ladakh trek some time later, which I aim to take up. We trekked together till we reached the last checkpoint, which is when we all started running for the finish. this is also the oint twhen the plastic I was carrying split (Murphy's law) and all the contents fell down. I picked up the stuff that had fallen down, torch (hadn't stopped to pack that since the sun rose), two bottles of water, the food and a hand towel that dropped off a team member's backpack. While running downhill, I realised that the timecard had also fallen off somewhere before!! The team was all in high agitation during those last few minutes coz the end was in sight and we could see it and there was no scope to get lost :D

It was 10:30 when we checked into the final TC and ended our race. We were third in our catagory and the team before us had arrived 7 minutes earlier. The first team had arrived about half and hour before. We were content.

Ravi's in laws had sent the Scorpio to pick us up so we bundled in our bikes and went home, but not before taking down contact numbers and the like from other teams. After a wonderful lunch at Ravi's in laws place (I'll call em RIL from now on), Sri and I headed home via auto. We discussed our race with each other and were nervous/ wondering about the outcome. Talked about it with my buddies back in room 303, A2. Slept after sending my armies out to attack another province in Utopia ( an online game).

The next day, we auto'd to RIL's place and from there, went to the NDA campus beside the airstrip that we'd passed during the race for the award ceremony. Sakshi told me she'd have the results out by 4 and I could call up to find out, but I didn't want to. I wanted to prolong the suspense. But then Ravi wanted to know, so I got him to call her up and enquire at the required time. when we met at RIL's place, his whoop of joy and hands raised in victory told me all I needed to know. We'd won a podium position.

After getting lost finding Pashan gate, we made it there and met up with some of the other teams that we'd met along the trek. A lot of people grinned after hearing our team name and so did we. We said our bit on Stage when we got the chance (which included stuff like - organise Enduro in bangalore so that we don't have to pack our bikes everytime we want to do this). Mr. Khagre took us in his car.. but we had to turn back coz Sri found out that he (lost) his sunglasses back in the NDA campus. After finding them, we headed to Durga cafe for a cold coffee and then to Sujata's for a mastani (mango flavoured! Yum!).

Headed to ravi's place and picked up ur bikes up. By this time it was 11:30pm. Sri and I, for one last time, loaded up our backpacks and mounted our Treks and cycled home. We made it in half an hour. Partho adn Suneja were watch Predator2 so I joined them. Eventually slept and the next day, flew home a satisfied person.