300 km. This time I had set the bar a bit too high. The task was to complete an18-hour-long bicycle ride on Sunday that was to start before dawn and would end almost at the stroke of midnight. The route—Asian Highway 46, Nagpur-Deori (Gondia district)-Nagpur was challenging enough to test both the muscle and the mettle. My bicycle did not let me down. Superbly supported by Abhishek Raut—we shadowed each other all through the ride— and always conscious of the adage that in a ride you must drink before you are thirsty and eat before you are hungry, I kept on pedalling incessantly till I reached the destination: 3 km off Futala Lake in Western Nagpur. Never before in my life did I drink like a fish and eat like a horse. On that momentous Sunday, I did that too—gulping and gobbling as I galloped on the highway.
After the ride, Ashwini drove us back to Sevagram, carrying our tired torsos and bicycles back home. Generously sun-tanned, I had expected to be dog- tired—but did not feel so. For, each segment of the ride lent a soothing touch to mitigate the fatigue: the early morning cold breeze, the mid-winter afternoon warmth, the dimly-lit night, the rolling roads, the picturesque lakes, the verdant hills, the colourful fellow cyclists and remarkably inquisitive passers-by who kept on powering me on the highway. I am so happy that I was able to rise to the challenge and rode to complete what turned out to be a highly satisfying ride.
