Sanjeevini Cycling - Day 1

Mission – Cycling from Shirley to Lincoln (102 miles - 164 kms)

Days – 19-Sep-2009 & 20-Sep-2009

Hosts in Lincoln for Sanjeevini Trust – Dr.Ian and Dr.Rama

www.sanjeevinitrust.com

Cycling Team Members
Rahul Raghuraman – Enthusiastic and Energetic 22yr old
Dr.Shreeram Deshpande (Ram) – Orthopaedic surgeon, Mission Director
Dr.Seshagiri (Sesh or Giri) – Urologist, Trustee of Sanjeevini Trust.
Dr.Smita Deshpande – Surgeon, Trained & Casual Cyclist
Varun Deshpande – 13 year old, Young blood. What a spirit!!!!
Vinod Parthasarathy – Cycling for the first time in 15 years.

It was a casual chat with Giri on 12th of September at my home about the cycling event and the members who will be cycling to Lincoln. Suddenly I have a thought why should not I join the team. Had an immediate consultation with my motivator (who else? It is Veebha.) And go-ahead was a reply even without giving time for a second thought. I have a bike, but have not practiced; we thought we have another 5 days to practice. With full cheers I have informed Giri that I will be joining the team for the Lincoln cycling event.

Out of the five days we had before the event, I just cycled for 12 miles in two days. To be frank, I was a bit tensed on the day before. But still I was confident that I can do this task.

The day has come, 19th September 2009, a pleasant morning. The plan was myself and Giri join the rest of the team in Ram’s house at 8.00am. Veebha gave us a good breakfast with a nice coffee.

We started from home at 7.45 am in Giri’s Renault Espace by squeezing our bikes in the back of the car. Veebha and Ramya came down to say goodbye to us. On the way we pumped up air for our bikes in the near by petrol station. We were on time at Ram’s house. Smita’s mom (Latha Kartha) one of the support person for the cycling team welcomed us. Badri’s (the second support person for the team) car entered the compound in another 5 minutes time. Food for the day has been loaded in the support vehicle. (Unfortunately we did not take the photograph of the food box; you know it was soooo big).

Three cyclists Ram, Smita and Varun are from the same family. All the three walked out in a couple of minutes time with all their cycling gears in place. And finally Rahul the sixth cyclist arrived on his bike.

Now all set for the mission. With a quick photographic session the team started pedalling their bikes exactly at 8.55am. I still had the confidence that I am going to do it with the rest of the team members successfully. The team passed thru the Solihull town centre. 15 minutes passed, I just felt for a second that whether I have committed a mistake by volunteering to cycle till Lincoln, and immediately I said to myself “NO- I CAN DO IT”.

This is the first time I am using a geared cycle in my life, and I was struggling to understand initially what is going on with those gears (of course as a mechanical engineer I know how gears work and the purpose of gears). Still remember Ram keep on telling me to put my gears up to apply less effort to move forward. Technically he was right, but my legs did not understand what Ram told me.

There came a break at 9.15, in around 20 minutes of our start. Smita’s back tyre was flat. Ram quickly gave a call to the support team for a cycle pump. That was a bonus break for me to season myself. We started peddling again at 9.30 and cycled for around 10 miles and we stopped in a village pub at 10:15 for a quick break. To be frank I was OK. I gained more confidence as time passed. Again a quick photo session before starting from that point.

The map which we carried did not help and Ram has to take out his mobile to navigate us from thereon. Aunty and Badri were ahead of us in the support vehicle and were waiting in a calm place for us to feed us. At 11.45 we met but decided not to have lunch now and to cycle for another 1 hour before we stop again for lunch. We utilised the brake to have strawberries and some snacks, quickly we shot some snaps. I think this was the distance Ram and Smita would have expected Varun to cycle. But I did not see any tiredness in Varun’s face. We refilled our water bottles and started pedalling again.

As time passed by, I can feel that my legs slowly reduced its speed to cope up with others. I reduced my gears, this time Rahul pushed me to increase my gears and put up the speed. Wherever you find some berries, fruits, vegetables on the way, there was one person from our team to pluck those and share it with others. Yes it was Smita. Around 1.30 Aunty and Badri were waiting for us in a very calm place alongside the road to boost our energy (what else… it is our lunch time). We were ready to eat anything that’s offered to us. But to our surprise we had Bread and chenna masala for vegetarians and Bread with chicken masala for non-vegetarians, finally to finish with we had some great strawberries. Seriously I wanted to sleep after having my lunch. But our mission director has already started looking at the directions for the rest of the day in his blackberry. Gave a quick update to Veebha about the morning session and about our lunch. More than me she was worried whether I will be able to do this task, because she very well knows how fit I am.

The team had a brisk start after 40 minutes of lunch break. The team had some quick drinks break every one hour or so and rest of the afternoon went on peacefully. Every one of us other than Rahul carried water bottle with us. But Rahul carried his back bag all along the route (should weigh at least 5kgs). It has couple of water bottles, biscuits, some fruits etc., as time passed by my cycling speed reduced; Now Giri has an excuse to pedal slowly. Ram, Smita, Rahul and Varun had gone ahead a mile and were waiting on a left. Oh Yeah! There was a sign board which pointed to say “East Leak” 1 ½ miles, the destination for the first day. We did not miss to take a photograph on this left turn. After half a mile there was a huge downhill, was happily cycling, suddenly something came in my mind, oh no I have to climb the hill back again tomorrow morning, but that thinking subsided quickly because we have reached the destination for the day.

We had a quick photo session to complete the day’s cycling. Aunty did not forget to send the photos taken on the evening to send it to Veebha and Ramya from her iphone. It is time for Badri and Aunty to head back home. We unloaded our luggages’ from Badri’s car and said goodbye to them for the day.

Sheeba’s Bed and Breakfast.
A man in his late 60s, Mr.Barry was the owner of the B&B. He welcomed us and we had a quick introduction with him and right from the beginning he was keen in enquiring about the cycling trip and about Sanjeevini. Our initial plan was the team will split and stay in two B&Bs, but Barry decided to accommodate us in the same B&B with some additional beds in place.

Almost everyone needed a shower before the dinner. We decided to go out for dinner, Smita has already enquired about the nearest available restaurants. There was a church just opposite to the B&B. The clock stuck 7.00 when we started walking. We zeroed in an Indian restaurant and fortunately there were places to sit as soon as we entered. Varun entered the restaurant after confirming whether burger and pizzas are available there. Rahul joined us in the restaurant after finishing in pint of beer in the Lions Head pub.

We had some nice chat about the days cycling before the food arrived. In 20 minutes time the food were on the table. Giri, Smita and Rahul shared the vegetable supreme pizza, Varun was with his burger, Ram with his roti and chicken curry and myself with roti and tadka dal (one of my favourite).

Barry was cooking his dinner when we came back to Sheeba’s, Ram was taking some suggestions from him about the route we have to take the next morning. During the course of conversation Barry has offered some huge discount on our tariff and has offered GPB20 towards Sanjeevini as his contribution.

Back on the room, I was watching x-factor, Rahul was reading some book, and Giri was working on the PowerPoint presentation for the next day. Had a quick chat about the day with Veebha on phone and enquired about the first day of Navaratri. I do not know at what time I slept (definitely before 10pm). I heard church clock chiming every hour right from early morning 3’o clock.

contd.....