Bulldog UltraBCB experience

"Ooh, look at those carbon wheels"..... "Why am i feeling like i am gonna write an exam".... "Shit! Look at his calves!"...... "First time i ever shaved my legs".....

11 riders, ~300 km, Bangalore -> Chamundi Hills(Mysore) -> Bangalore

3 participants from my team, Cleated Warriors - Venkat, Anita and yours truly... The flagoff was flooded with the red of our jerseys, as most of the 15 member strong team had come to cheer us on

My support crew: On a motorbike, Vinay, my close friend since high school, lugging a rather heavy bag containing spares, tools for any mechanicals, food, electrolytes, energy, first aid....

First ~10 km was worthy of nothing more than a yawn.... Steep downhills, but we were doing a dull 15 kmph pace in the 'neutral zone' where no one is allowed to overtake the lead car.... When not yawning, we spent our time almost bumping into Sriram's car, or yelling out curses at Sriram....

Once the neutral zone was done with, and when Samim waved us through on the Mysore highway, the pace shot up in a snap and everyone were at each other's throats setting an insane pace.... Yours truly here, however, was still taking it slow n steady, fearing that i'll burn out too soon..... But in spite of all my efforts of keeping myself calm, i was going at a much faster pace than i had planned, thanks to all the mental battles with everyone around...

But, once i saw one of the riders burn out at ~75 km, i got back to my senses and rode a comfortable pace.... At around 130 km point, close to mysore, i took a 2 min break to eat up, stretch my back, happy with the 30.5 kmph average i was keeping, but still at 6th position... My pace soon dropped to 29.5 by the time i reached Chamundi base, full credit to the crappy state the Mysore ring road was in.....

A rather easy and dull climb, and i overtook Shreyas taking a break at Chamundi top and moved to 5th position.... and i saw that Venkat and Craig were just a few mins ahead of me..... Venkat was looking strong, and i assumed he'll take on Craig, and i took an easy pace (which dropped to 28.5 kph avg).... But seeing Venkat take a break at Mandya (200 km), it was now all up to me to catch up with Craig for the 3rd position, who was just 4 mins ahead

Cranked it up like crazy trying to take on Craig..... The insanity burst lasted all of 20 km, after which i too burnt out..... Now, i slowly turned into a zombie, getting hypnotized by the rhythm of my clean shaven legs going up n down.... I would look at how the muscles contract and relax, showing the new formed cuts in my quads..... Occasionally get inspired and pump it up for a while

The zombie ride took me uneventfully to the next time station (Chennapatna).... I was hoping that Craig was too far away, so that i could give up the chase, and ride in peace.... But alas, that was not so.... He was just 10 mins ahead!

After all the sweet things i had been having all day for food, i longed for something different.... A plain boiled potato tasted so friggin awesome at this point.... Got myself to crank it up again, but this time i fizzed out even faster.... but still maintaining the 28 kmph average, riding like a zombie.... With ~20 km remaining, and knowing that Craig was >10km ahead, i finally gave up and went into survival mode....

The final 10 kms from Kengeri to the finish point was harder than the chamundi climb, probably even steeper..... Now, totally spent, knowing there is a huge gap between the rider ahead and behind, i was managing with a slow 10-15 kmph pace, and outsourced all the direction finding to Vinay

After struggling through the inclines, was done with the ~300 km distance in 11hr 14min (riding time of 10hr 54min) in 4th place, happy with my pace....

Ultracycling has officially begun as a sport in Bangalore! Thank you Samim, Sriram and Bulldog for this event.... Lets hope it gets bigger and bigger

And once again, thanks Vinay, for the awesome support.... I couldnt have maintained that pace without ur help.... And thank you Cleated Warriors for all the moral and logistics support, and the super awesome jersey

Current mood: Phasing back into reality
Currently listening to: All those yesterdays - Pearl Jam