BRM 200 almost IMPOSSIBLE to I M Possible.....The Agony and Ecstasy

BRM 200 .....The Agony and Ecstasy

What is BRM?

Brevets de Randonneurs Mondiaux (BRMs) 

This was my status and state of knowledge on March,15th 2018.

I googled and found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randonneuring.

Well I love cycling, and I have already written about that in my earlier blog http://manojvanjari.blogspot.in/2018/05/century-ride-on-cycle-beginning-of.html

Well I registered for Mar,31st BRM 200. I had to cycle 200KM and to be eligible for the Randonneur, title should do it with self-support and complete in max 13hrs 30min on the defined route at defined start and end time, with various interval checks.

With lot of excitement, slightly confident and faith in self strength started at 8.45PM IST, 45 minutes late than schedule time.

Route Pune - Kapurphol - Lonavala - Pune

Delay in start, traffic and over estimated confidence in self....It soon became race against time and game of mind.

By 2.30AM after almost 6 hours and covering approx 110+KM I gave up.

I gave up, since was alone. I gave up, as was mentally tired. I gave up as was chasing time.

I hate quitting. It hurt me. It gave me lot of mental pain.

I decided that day, yes I am going to nail it the next time.

The next one was on May,12th 2018. It was going to be a bad weather. I knew with failure of 1st one that baggage will torment me. It was going to be tougher for many reasons.

Quitters never Win, Winners Never Quit.

I made checklist of things which helped me to fail:-)

1. Confidence which bordered around slight over confidence.

2. Starting late, and lagging behind the team.

3. Not estimating the strength required for various climbs.

4. Not preparing for continuous ride for 13 long hours.

5. Appropriate Diet and necessary water intake.(Very very Important)

6. Attempting various short tough rides before such event.

7. Team Team Team of support, Pacer to guide distance time elevation......

8. Mental strength to survive the grind and overcoming fear ....

Once we have the learning from any failure, half the battle is done.

Failures are excellent teachers. I have learnt this the hard way in my last 30years.

Never get sad with failures and start blame game, excuse hurling and downward spiral.

I had applied the same, after my 2 attempts to complete Full Marathon, till I succeeded in my 3rd attempt.

With the above check-list I started my practice.

Well but this time looks gods had decided to make it tough even before I saddle up.

I had freak accident in 1st week April and injured my toe and was subjected to forced bed rest for 6 weeks.

It was such excruciating pain I could barely touch my feet to ground.

I had to sacrifice my Gym for strength training. I had to resign from Running.

I decided to try water therapy in swimming pool , to keep flexibility of leg and also maintain my stamina.

I knew it was going to be tougher as had just  4 weeks and here I was not able to touch one feet to ground.

On 15th April, I decided ,my most important item on checklist was building Mental Strength and overcoming fear and losing baggage of failure, which will torment me on the next attempt.

So I ventured to climb Sinhgad Fort. With pain in leg and fear of failure, I started the adventure.

It was a solo journey and will never forget it in my life. The last 3km to reach top were almost no road. Every pedal required every drop of blood and sweat.

After every pedal was the downward easy track to return. Every minute it was becoming hell and body and mind was aching to give up.

I knew if I had to overcome fear, build that mental strength I needed to crack this.

Yes and I did it. 

I knew I had checked the #4,6 and 8 in the list for preparation.

During week I used to rest and paddle in water. No running and no gyming. 

#6 was important so I attempted Purandar fort again as tough and far as previous.

I could not complete the same, now had built the confidence and learnt strategy.

I followed up with Bike to Sinhgad and Hike up the fort from bottom.

Slowly I was  on top of the learnings one step at time, one step in front of other my running strategy but this time in water........

It was painful, mentally since all were against this madness and the regime to kill self.

I had to fight my temptation to run and gym, which was agony in itself.

But I thank almighty which sent me learning swimming as blessing in disguise.

It proved to me again

Everything happens for a reason.

Weather was getting hot and humid. Short rides were draining my energy. Stiffness in leg was increasing, due to fear i may hit i was over protective of leg and exerting load on better leg and making it worse.

May,12th BRM 200 .

Route : Pune Satara Pune.

Tougher route than my last time. Weather worst than last time. One leg unfit. One failure under the belt.

I had taken care of most of learnings.

The week of event I focused on High Carb High Fibre diet. I had to load energy. I developed to drink lots and lots of water. Hydration is think line between may success and failure in such endurance long activity.

This time I had great team, who were to be with me selflessly and also a pacer(angel in disguise) to guide with distance , route various elevations and hydration and fueling on way.

On the D-Day May,12th @ 8PM IST we as team started ....

Not with confidence nor with over confidence....but slight fear, yes fear is necessary keeps us grounded.

Yes extreme fire in belly and passion in heart, I started to visualize I will complete the Cycle by next day on time and before end close time.

God helps who help themselves.

Patience

Practice

Perseverance

Pain

No Pain No gain.

Today's practice, is success tomorrow.

It was tough. Tougher. Almost felt and nearly came to give up few times.

Had various moments which did test many different physical and mental attributes.

I will pen them later.

After a journey across Pune to Satara and back pedaling in night and facing headwind braving the boredom and frustration of few never ending climbs fighting many times to sleep rest feet facing morning wrath of sun for almost 3 hours test of mental stamina and physical endurance.....I completed the BRM 200 in 13 hours, 30 minutes before the scheduled end time.

Yes I am a Randonneur.

The Agony and Ecstasy, I cannot pen more.

It is a feeling only that can be experienced.

This is write-up dedicated to my entire team, which helped me prepare for the event and were with me thru the complete 200KM with completes selfless approach.

Super Randonneur Mayur who kept giving me tips and got my pace improved, gym buddy Nakul, Ultra Marthonner captain Amol, partner in crime motivator Nidhi and my angel in disguise and god send messiah as my pacer, guide and key behind my success Pankaj the Super Cyclist and KD who has formed COB and brought such great folks together to make a Winning team.