Where the kid got his name, Sundance.
As I am starting this blog, I am telling one of my friends, that I have no words to describe my experience in Sundance. There was so much energy in that small town, you couldn't have not observed it, felt it, impacted by it and in the end inspired by it.
I left Laramie on the Friday, afternoon around 2PM with PC and GK. I originally planned to leave at 1PM but you know it's IST (Indian Stretchable Time). However, having said that, I did good on my summer research report that was due on Friday and hopefully, my adviser will see good stuff in it. Anyway, with the original target of reaching Sundance at 6PM, we reached around 6:45PM, before the registration would close at 7PM. With a the help of some really good people, I was able to raise 500$. The list is on my personal page on the event website. I have the "Fundraising Honor Roll" here, just so that, if they ever bring the event website down!
Coming to the event itself, it was seamlessly organized, thanks to Lori and others. I should also mention that I got a jersey for having raised 500+ dollars. I also got to meet my team "Go Pokes", our captain, ex-USAF Bill, his daughter and son-law (also my teammate) Cody.
That evening, we roamed around the town a bit, PC had her share of pictures and then we drove another half an hour to Keyhole State Park, where we camped the night. Sadly, the other car, which was supposed to join us in Keyhole State Park early enough to have an evening, lost its way (despite GPS navigation device and printed directions from Google Maps, @google.maps, you were way wrong on this one and Tom-Tom, you aren't any better!) and the three of us basically spent most of the time waiting for them and trying not to sleep off!
Its funny when things go, they go way wide of the mark; I had forgotten to get my tent! So, I had to ask these guys to buy us a new tent! Anyway, even before I could catch some sleep, I heard the alarm. It was 4:30 and I had to be there at 6AM. I just got up. PC and GK decided they would want to join me.
After a nice shower at the Sundance Bulldogs' (the Sundance Highschool Football team) gym, I met up with Bill and other members of the team. While having breakfast with the team, Cody offered me the team jersey, I borrowed his extra jersey and rode in that the next 2 days.
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| GK helping me put my bib, while I was fixing the id for my bike |
We started at 7:15AM after safety announcements and being led by highest fundraisers from last year.
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| Posing for a pic.. :) |
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| Leaving the start/finish line, behind me is Bill, our captain and Ms. Hannah, I sweet lady, I would become friends with through the ride. |
We left the start/finish line around 7:15AM. The weather was just fine. There were 200+ riders and a lot of different kinds of bikes. Some with small portable speakers and some with fancy electronics. There were also a variety of riders, some who race(d) professional biking and some amateur hobby bikers like myself and some who were doing just because they care!
Anyway, here is the route for the day 1.
It was 82 miles in all. We started easy in Sundance, in front of the Crook County clerk's office, heading west bound on Highway 14 towards Devil's Tower. The first few miles is only a warm up and everybody was trying to fit-in sort of. I was trying to start a conversation with Bill and planning my day, thinking "uh! so far it was a lot of talk, now I face it, head on, how hard can it be? How windy will it be". I thought of many Gods I know, and said, "Guru, just hang in there, you will do just fine!". Before I realized it, the deviation for "century loop", the additional 18mile to complete 100mile in the day, was behind me. I should be doing this next year, I really want to.
It was 82 miles in all. We started easy in Sundance, in front of the Crook County clerk's office, heading west bound on Highway 14 towards Devil's Tower. The first few miles is only a warm up and everybody was trying to fit-in sort of. I was trying to start a conversation with Bill and planning my day, thinking "uh! so far it was a lot of talk, now I face it, head on, how hard can it be? How windy will it be". I thought of many Gods I know, and said, "Guru, just hang in there, you will do just fine!". Before I realized it, the deviation for "century loop", the additional 18mile to complete 100mile in the day, was behind me. I should be doing this next year, I really want to.
Soon, I was in the groove, just some thoughts running in the back of my mind, once in a while, I meet somebody, exchange pleasantries and then each is on their own. I had good, a very good, conversation with Bill and a couple of other people. Soon enough, we were at the first rest stop, the second and finally the third, we had done about 32miles and in just over 2 hours. Somewhere between stop #2 and #3, we had a stretch next to the Devil's Tower Natl. Monument, here is a pic,
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| Myself and Bill and Devil's Tower in the background. |
The clock was just about 10AM and 40% of the ride was over. At lunch, I couldn't eat a whole lot, but I was happy eating celery and carrots. Food was never the issue. I was eating banana, nutrition bars at each stop. Leaving after the lunch break, Bill told me that the toughest section of the day was this one and I just have to hang in there. It was also getting to be a little windy. Soon enough, we were on these climbs, small climbs to start with and a big one. uff!! I was panting, drinking water and Gatorade every other minute. This one took about 20 minutes to climb, may be couple miles and I was still around Bill, I reached him and asked him, really was that it? He only suggested it was a "warm-up". Even before I could catch a breath, I could see my next climb, I thought to myself, this must be it. By this time, I had forgotten I had a camera with me, that I had some chocolate and cookies with me. All I could see was the climb, my legs, and my bike. I had an extra bottle of water in my back-pocket, I just emptied on myself, cools me down, reduces the weight by half kg, I thought. And then, I realized my spectacles were wet, my mouth was salty and I looked like I peed my pants! lol. Who cares!
It took more than half an hour to get over just this climb, the expertise of bikers was very evident on this stretch, Bill was ahead of me. So, I said to myslef, "don't loose sight of Bill, just stay with him, he will take you home". I was trying my best not get to my lowest gears, for, in the lowest gear, I cannot go lower! I am not sure what I was thinking at the time, perhaps that, if it were to get tougher, I should be able to go at least a gear down and not give up. So, every minute or so, I would stand up, pedal hard and shift up. And then, I started going zig-zap, I couldn't give up, I just couldn't give in.
I could see the end of the climb, the could see the road curve. I looked back, it is at least 3 miles I thought. When I did reach the curve, darn it! There is a good half a mile more, and people have stopped there, wow, what a place for a rest stop, God bless you people! As I approached the rest stop, it was no rest stop, a guy was giving away something to drink to bikers, he wasn't wearing the volunteer uniform. I just stopped, "what's this?" I asked still breathing heavily, "red-bull" he said. It was so cold and good, I almost asked for one more cup.
As I trashed the cup, I saw the downhill in front of me. Wow! It is as if like I could see heaven there, clearly it was as steep as I just climbed. May be it was the red-bull or the fact that I had lost sight of Bill, I started again with more energy. Now, there was no looking back, I dint care to see how long the downhill was. (Oh, did I mention, my 10$ bike computer stopped working in Sundance?). I was hitting good speeds, I am thinking, what am I doing now? 40-45mph? easily! And there was Bill, I was approaching him, clearly I was faster than him. And I caught up with him before we reached the next rest stop. When asked, Bill told me he does not exceed 40-45mph, did that mean I reached 50mph at some point? uh! on my bike? 80kmph! uh! unbelievable! The best I had done in Laramie was 36.2mph, about 58kmph! I wouldn't go so fast on my Kinetic Honda (okay, my sister's Kinetic Honda) with a 110cc 2-stroke petrol engine. hmm!! impressive Guru.
The next 40 odd miles were easy once the big climb and the bigger descent was over. I left stop #4 at around 11:15PM. I somehow had the energy to just keep pedaling, just be on the saddle and in next 3 hours, I completed the remaining 40 miles and around 2:20PM I crossed the start/finish line. I called KM and told him, I completed the day 1. He is the person responsible and in some sense motivation to get into this. I had to tell him first.
After that, they had volunteer masseurs (Firefox thinks it is the right spelling! gosh, what would I have done without spelling checkers! - many spelling mistakes ), I had all the time to get in the queue and get a massage and more. SAS and PC came and picked me up around 5:45PM. Meanwhile, I had dinner, cooked in milk cans.
see: http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0597/milkcan.html
I knew all of it was cooked with all the meat, but I just chose to eat the corn, potato and the carrots. It was good, perhaps because it was cooked with all other other meat, again, who cares; I was hungry, tired, impatient and without my wallet!
The rest of the day, we camped at the Keyhole State Park (http://www.wyomingtourism.org/overview/Keyhole-State-Park/3441). I dint do anything than eating what GK, SAS, PC, AH, BN and SS had done; had a drink, a ride through the park and caught a nice sleep. Anyway, I wasn't keen on eating, I just wanted a good sleep (I hadn't slept the previous night, had gotten up early, was tired, needed to get up early the next morning, and a little pissed off, (why! nevermind).
Next day, I got up at 4:30AM, drove myself to Sundance. We left later than we planned but finally got a chance to take a team photo.
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| I have got to get myself a pair of biking shoes, :) |
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| Map of day #2. |
We left around 6:45AM. The pro-bikers of our team, quickly gained speed and I lost sight of them. I myself was determined to complete early enough to leave for Laramie at noon. I had already decided to do only 50mile and call it good at lunch break. It was to be in Spearfish, SD and was one of the finish lines but many people biked back to Sundance also, "The extreme finish" they called it.
Anyway, soon, I was doing 20-25 mpg, it was not at all windy and I was enjoying the ride to the best. Just when you think you are doing good, somebody passes you! An entire team "Methane Madness", just passed me. From there on, I was biking with this team, perhaps in an unfair way. They were going in a formation, "paceline" as it is called sometimes. And I was just riding in their draft, :) never in the lead breaking the wind. I felt a little guilty about it. Nonetheless, we were doing really good. Soon, in less than 25 minutes, we were at rest stop #1, and we dint stop! In another 20 odd minutes we were at rest stop #2 and they dint stop, but I did. They were clearly expert bikers, I was not, I was still trying to know my physical limits and I must take break and take care of myself.
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| Changing the lead bikers; riding with Methane Madness, thanks guys, I dint get a chance to say it there |
But at rest stop #2, I meet with Cody and other bikers of my team, I was very happy to know I was only minutes behind them through 45% of the total distance I planned to do. I did the next 20+ miles in about an hour. At stop #4, with 8 or so miles to go, I was happy, I could see the end, I knew I just had to bike another half an hour and I was gonna be through. As it turned out, this "half an hour" extended to about 45 minutes, thanks to the strong head wind and my front derailleurs. My bike developed mechanical issues with the front derailleurs and I couldn't get to gears 18-21 (It wouldn't shift to the biggest sprocket in the front :( ). I had to go slow, even if I could have gone faster. To add to this, the road was bad but beautiful!
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| Bad road between stop #4 and Spearfish, SD |
And about 10AM, I was done, I completed my goal. I wasn't as tired as I expected myself to be, the energy in the people around me, the fellow bikers, the volunteers and perhaps the sign boards about MS patients had seen me through (credits also to water, banana, chocolate and Gatorade. :) ). I had another awesome lunch, bbq veggie patties, fruits, veggies and off course, the massage made me feel fresh again. I got the bike-chain medal, for having completed the day. Myself and my bike got a ride back to Sundance. But, as we reached Sundance, I saw bikers all the way including (so worthy of a mention) inside the town of Sundance, leading up to the block of the Cook County Court House! By the time I did 50 miles on bike and 30miles on a bus (at 75mph on I90) few people had done 83 miles on their bike, good Lord! what a motivation, what an energy level and what passion!! It is there that I decided, I will do this next year with the century lap (100miles on day 1) and "extreme finish" (83miles) on day 2.
But in this quest, I had done 82 mile on day 1 and 50+ mile day 2, both top my list of longest bike rides. For someone who bought his first road bike on June 14th, I did okay to train myself to be able to do that.
But perhaps, what I did bring home with this experience, was not so much of the bike ride itself. It was that feeling of having been able to show that I care. I care enough to see that some fellow human being is hurt, I care to tell them that I mean to help, in this very small way of biking for them, with some of them and sometimes, sadly, just reading and listening to some of their stories. I am sorry that on the list of scientific successes, a cure of MS is not written yet; I am sorry that my friends in those fields of research have somehow not been able to help the MS patients fully.
And finally, for some of the people closest to me, I am sorry for your loss.
P.S: Don't let anybody tell you that running, biking, walking for a cause is useless, unless you do it, you don't really see those faces that glow with love.
If you want to support me for the next year, please comment to this blog with your email address and I shall get in touch with you.
If you would like to ride with the team pokes, please register here : http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/COCBikeEvents?pg=team&fr_id=16917&team_id=225438
Multiple Sclerosis For Dummies
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