New trail+New terrain+you = Unlimited fun

And it was exactly that - unlimited fun :) I am talking about the BSA moonlight ride that happened yesterday. I remember seeing its ad some 5-6 years back in the papers but couldn't mobilize any of my friends then. But this time when I read about it in BBC forum (Bangalore Bikers Club), I just forwarded it to a friend who has bought a cycle recently. Surprisingly by evening, there were quite many interested colleagues and we all registered for the event. All of us where equally excited and was looking forward for the ride. But the preparation ended there. I haven't ridden a cycle after my PUC days except a fun ride during kodai trip. Somehow my feeling was that we have run a 10K marathon with hardly any practice and so this shouldn't be an issue as I just love cycling. [yeh heights of confidence I know :) ]

Finally the D-day arrived and we were at the peak of our excitement. We were picked up from corporation circle and when I saw the crowd in the bus my heart sank – most of them were pros with long distance riding experience and the news that they will give us geared cycles was not comforting for me either. I know it is easier to ride a geared cycle, but I was not at all used to it. Once we reached the starting point, we were given a briefing on how to operate the gears and soon we started off. The first stretch itself was a steep climb and I tried to change the gear. Alas it got stuck in between two gears. After that it was a struggle to pedal and I was totally exhausted in the first 1 km itself. I was like “if this is the starting how am I going to do 25km?’. SS from our gang had to back out as she got a bad wheezing attack (though she made up for it by driving the trailer truck almost all the way). Heard some more girls backed out after that first stretch. Think that stretch was little difficult and somehow I managed to cover it. It seems my cycle had some wrist gear and it is not very smooth in engaging unless you do it properly (at least that’s what one expert told me). Anyway with expert intervention the gears got engaged again and it again became a smooth ride. The trail was nice – hardly any vehicles, smooth road, the moon was playing hide n seek (not the full moon but). We were stopped by some curious onlookers of the village asking what we are up to :) The gear got stuck again a few more times, but I was less panicky and could bring it back to normal soon. Finally I decided not to meddle with the gears and started riding in same gear throughout. In fact, I was surprised when we reached the Big Banyan Tree for dinner as it didn’t seem like 15 km at all ;) We had dinner there and I started getting a headache. That’s when I realized that I didn't drink water all through and is getting dehydrated. Thankfully the rest of the trail was so much fun. It was mostly downhill with trees on both sides and the road were pitch dark except for our torch lites. In between I realized I am riding alone and was wondering whether I lost my way. So got off and waited for others and continued when I saw some in the group. We soon reached the end point and frankly I was so sad that it’s over. Anyway all of us have decided to do it again. When you need to get some exercise to counterbalance your sedentary lifestyle, nothing beats getting out in the open air and pushing yourself; Right? :)