The Advanture takes over (Enduro3)

I feel on top of the world after completing n securing 3rd position in Amature All Men catagory in Enduor3 the only advanture race in india. We (Me and the team) has amazing experiances from the race.

How did it start:

I always wanted to do somthing different from other ppl around me. But i think i was not alone to think that way, there are ppl in from BBC (Bangalore Bikers Club), RFL(Runners For Life) and HASH (BH3), they think the same way that i think. Completed Bangalore-ultar, not very happy with what i did .. because there were ppl who did 78/104 and i did just 26k!!

In Jan, i see a mail from someone on RFL about Enduro3. I liked the idea of participating in this and proving my self thins time.

Finding the TDH (Tom Dick and Harry) :

I knew, i will go and i booked my tickets to Pune for the race. Now i had to look to form a team (Team of 3 needed), i was short of 2 ppl in the team. I sent many a mails on RFL and BBC, but no one was ready to come along. Once Gauthaman called-up but he said, his preferance would be his colleague, who has not decided as yet, if he says NO i can take you in....

Meanwhile i started surching on web n bumped on Mansi's Blog, she had Won silver in the Enduro3 last year, and had asked to mail her if any-one wanted some info or help. I mailed her about my problem, and she encouraged me and asked me to continue my practice. Two days later i get a call from a friend of mine (Gagan Deep Singh) and tells me that he was also looking for a partner and Mansi gave him my pointers. We were amazed by the coincidance. He has one more guy to prticipate with, and his name is Donald k{is}sing [Mind you the {is}is invisible there, so dont read that]

Preparation:

We decided to meet one morning @ Gagan house. I paddled from my house to Gagans house early morning. I met Gagan, he was amazed to see my Bike (TREK4300). Donald came in a little later, i saw both of them quite Fit. The only issue was they did not have Bikes, and any recent experiance with that. I recomended them to buy their bikes ASAP, and recomended them TREK and BOTS. By now i was sure that i will participate in the event and compete and not help them being a Marshall.

Bad news and Good News:

We filled up the form sent it accross to go in the IT catagory. Race was on 8th of fab, and Gagan calls me on 1st of fab and says he may not be able to come, all my dream to participation goes for Toss. He also assured that he will find a partner for us. Thankfully he fulfilled his promiss, and got Sriram (an Engineering Student) for the team. We could not have gone for IT catagory, and we had to go for Amature All Men Catagory. I was fine with that, but i was eager to meet Sri. Well we had oraganised for a Dulathon on 3rd of fab. Donald bought his Trek3700 on 2nd and came for the Dulathon 1 hr in advance so that the team can meet and talk. Sri came in late, it was a little dissappointing, but he looked very fit and that was a boost to me. The Dulathon was of 50K of cycle and 10K of running. Sri was left away, and me and Donald with Gauthaman went much ahaead. We completed the race and met... this is the first time i was interacting with Sri. He was an Enthu... youth. He planned out his trip to Pune by bus.

The Planning:

I read few blogs, went through the Enduro3 site and prepared a list of things to carry along (Which i can provide on request). Well, finally afer so many calls between us we gathered everything tat we needed and headed to Pune on 7th. BTW, Pune is my Inlaws place, so vehcle was not an issue to transport our bikes. My FIL was more than happy to get his Scorpio for that.

The Race Day:

I woke-up by 4 and got ready. My Bro-in Law (Sashank) was there to guide us, i loaded my Bike in Scorpio by 5 in the morning and sat in indica, because the rear seat was folded. Reached @ Donalds Friends place (Sri and Donald were staying there) by 5:45 and loaded their bikes and headed to MIT, where the race was suppose to start. We reached there by 6:15 and we called Mansi to Thank her. We met her thanked her for all she did for us. Hey Mansi, if you are reading this Thanks a Ton again :-)

The Start of the race:

The race started later than our expectation @ 10:30 by then we had gone for number one hundreds of time ;-). One thing worried us the most is the weight of our Bags, close to 9KG

Well the race started, we saw our competition and found that we are good. We biked through the PCs and TCs got lost twice in between. The loop was so good that tumbled twice... Later i realized that it was the break, becoz while reassembling my bike i had put the Break-wires the wrong way, but i managed. Since Donald was new to Biking, and Sri was too good at that keeping the team togather was the only good role that i played while buking. We were the 2nd one to finish the Bike 55K @ 1:40

The Trekking:

I changed to runnign shoes now and we headed to Mountains. I had not eaten ay thing by now. Well, that was not a problem for me @least as i had 4 big banas in the morning. We climbed, we ran, we got lost in the jungle ....

Now we were also running out of water. We climbed up a tip of one mountain and started speculating which way to go @ 3:**pm. Donald started looking @ the Map and identified a Geo-shape and that gave us an idea about that. We did not have time to eat, so we eate some energy bars on the run. We got lost many a times and tried to make our way through thick bush jungle and Sri had throw his mattress sheet because he was getting stuck. Well, some times we got lost further and some times we made our way easier. Finally we came to the point where we were suppose to Halt, till the next race flag. This is point we had to do the river crossing also. BTW we were third team here to report in our catagory. That gave us a boost ...

The Cold Water:

Well @ aroung 6:30 our turn came for river crossing. Only one of us had to go, and competetion was between me and Sri. I went, completed the river crossing in 196 Secs. I had to cross the river (Which was part of the dam) with the help of rope and run back to the start point and report. The river crossing was easier, but running on rocky terrain without was difficult and i was hurt. I completed, sri and donald was cheering me :-) I was hoping for a sexy cheerleaders. Thankflly Donald had warm cloths and helped me to come out of the cold state.

Bed-time:

We found a place below start to lay our king-size beds (The Sleeping Bags). First we ate (Thanks to Amrutha my SIL, who had packed a lot of food for us) and then by 8 we were sleeping, i will not f'get that night. Sri was snoring on one side and it was difficult to find whether he is sleeping or not (Becuse he is from North-east) :-)

Well @ around 1 we woke-up by ppl taling out loud and Sri wakes-up angry says "Excuse me" and a female voice comes from the other side. Sri takes out his head from the Sleeping bag, and asks "what is the time?". The funniest momet in the whole race, i was expecting something more rude. @2AM the anouncement woke-us. We prepared us for the next round and the race was flagged by 2:30AM.

The night Race:

I was injured by the run after the swim, and it started takinf toll. But thanks to the Enthu of Sri.. which kept me on my Toes. We were leeading intially, but got lost and lost aroung 30 mins because of that. It was nice to see every one with the torch goign around and some time it use look like a huge shining snake is going arond mountains. By the time it was bright we were to omplete 15K of difficult terrain, and we met a team which had 2 gals and one very experianced person (Mr Khagre). We just kept up with him and we were never lost after that. 10:30 we were @ the finish. last 3K, we ran .... it took my soul out, because of the injuries iin my leg. By now we new that we are going to get 3rd place, but had our own doubts. Since we were kind of sure that we will get a position, i had to postpone by journy back to Bangalore from 10th to 11th. Thanks to my Boss who gave me permission to do so.

The celebration:

On 10th evening we went to the NDA air-strip for the award distributioin. By now we were confirmed that we will have place in first 3, thanks to Sakshi who told us this. Well, we were there, and Donald wass waliking Awkward, and now we revealed that the cycling is taking a toll and skin and peeled-off from .... (you know where) :-)

But that really dint stop Donald to reach the air-strip. We got the third place in out cata...

But the sad part was that Mr. Khagre's team was fourth. We decided to celebrate our win with them. We went to 2 places pune like Durga-cafe and for Mastani. We loved that.

The team .. (Good and Bad):

Most of the time points which proves that the good can be bad tooo

About Sriram:

1. Very Good Enthu

2. Very fit

3. Lots of Energy

4. Listens to the decisions

About Donald:

1. Team Player

2. Knows what he does/doing

3. Fit

About me:

Let Donald and Sree comment :-)

In all the team had the right compositions .. and we will win the first prize next year :-)

~ Ravi