(Note: Photos will be added soon)
Enduro3 is India's first and only adventure race. It is organized by an organization called NEF (National Education Foundation) based in Pune. The race is conducted once a year and is held in different categories. The race comprises a mix of Cycling, River crossing, Trekking, Rappelling and Navigation.
The race experience I had made me to pen down my experiences. We were so close to the finish line and we almost believed that we grabbed the prize; but the fate had other plans for us! We had to quit the race and when we did it, the second team was 1 hour behind us!
The team - Trailblazers.
Sarvesh C Deshpande – Team Captain
Arun M B
Dattatreya G Pujar
The Start – Climbing mighty Simhagad and Vinghani Ghats
The race started with the deadly climb of simhagad, under the hot sun sharply at 12 in noon - thanks to the organizers! The climb was awful and so does the dry heat. The temperature was 37+ degrees and was quickly sucking the vital salts of our body. Here we got the glimpse of Sarvesh being un-usually slow. No doubt we were also losing out our energy levels in very quick time. After the Simhagad climb was a small and very steep downhill which followed with another strenuous uphill - Vinghani Ghats. The dust of sahyadri hills made the breathing difficult and as a result our body could not get sufficient oxygen. We struggled through the route - 5kms of tiring uphill - and crossed it under the angry Sun. By then each one of us were under extreme exhaustion. This was expected from the Enduro and were prepared to face it. It was the first experience for our teammate Arun, as this was his first Enduro participation. These very situations test the endurance of a team and the team that conquers it grabs the race.
A break before the Heartbreak
The downhills from here were steep and sharp. We crossed them quiet easily and reached a tar-mac road which continued for about 35kms to a village called vihir. From here started a tough climb and unfortunately that became our last climb in the race! There were no trees in this route to feed us with shadow and the sun was as hot as he could be. I remember it was around 2:45pm we started climbing this uphill. It’s true that our body reacts in a strange way when put to extreme physical and mental stress. I don't understand how and why, we three were feeling the goose bumps! Was it because of the tiredness under such hot climate combined with the lack of food and rest? I don't really know the science behind it. Alas, we continued.
We took break at one of the curve. I could guess that this place was about 2km away from the top. From where we were sitting, the stretch of the road was visible till the top of the hill. At the other end of the hill was a downhill for 4kms (a rough road) followed by about 10 to 12kms flat tar-mac road that continued till the Panshet dam - the place where we were supposed to do river crossing. It was our 3rd break in less than 10km ride! From the point we were taking rest, we could see the road stretching around a huge mountain, with more than the normal gradient, bending at the edge to take a turn and reach to another mountain and extend from there till the top.
The disaster that shunned the victory
We got up and started the climb, slowly and steadily covering inch after inch and meter after meter. I was determined not to stop till I reach the top. I rode about 500m and looked back. Arun was on his bike, hell bent to ride all the way to top. I could not see Sarvesh. I was looking back again n again (it’s hard to do so when u r climbing at a considerably slow pace) to see Sarvesh. After few attempts, I saw him. There he was way behind, pushing his bike! Still it never occurred to me that he is tired to the full. I struggled and reached the top and after some time Arun arrived. He is a strong guy; he too rode all the way to top. Sarvesh came after about 10-15 minutes pushing his bike. He looked very much tired and he was not talking much at this time - which was highly unusual of him! Though I observed it, I didn’t take it seriously as I thought he might be saving his energy!
We took some more rest here. I couldn’t stop myself feeling this - after two years of unsuccessful attempts, we were about to brag the prize! Every one of us were feeling it, though we did not want to discuss it until we finish the race. Its only me who couldn't control the excitement and spilled the words, "Finally under Sarvesh's leadership we are winning Enduro". No one bothered to give me a reply!
I started riding down, followed by Arun and Sarvesh. Sarvesh over took me in one of the sharp curves and quickly went past me. I am usually slow in downhill and very soon Arun overtook me as well. It was a hard trail with fist sized stones all over. It was increasingly getting difficult to control our handle in turns with the speed we were riding. My tired hands and fingers were trying their best to negotiate the turns. After about 3kms we saw that the road has picked up some tar yet there were lots of gravel over it. Arun was at a visible pace from me and Sarvesh had gone quiet far that he was not in my visibility.
After one left turn, there was a straight downhill for about 150m. This road passes through a village. I saw villagers gathered in the middle of the road. Arun approached the crowd and immediately threw his bike and ran towards them in hurry. I felt it then that something bad has happened. My eyes searched down the road and I saw the quechua bag. Sarvesh was lying on the road head down. Arun ran and grabbed him in his arms. I threw my bike and ran towards him. Sarvesh was lying un-conscious, villagers were trying to tell us something. Probably they were instructing us what to do. I could not concentrate on their marathi to understand in fact my mind had gone blank. Arun was trying to wake him up. We removed his bag from his back and took him in our arms. By this time, villagers had brought water and were spraying water over his face. For the first time I felt movement from him! I took water and tried to feed him. Water came out making a strange noise, which was more like a mix of "Grrrr" & "Hissss". I fed him again and this time he drank a little water. Arun was continuously trying to speak to him and so I also started to talk, not knowing what to. It seemed that he was responding to it. He woke up! We took him to the side of the road under shadow. He drank some more water. By this time the race officials had come with an ambulance. We helped Sarvesh to get into the ambulance. To my utter surprise ambulance stopped at roadside under a tree shadow just 50m from there! They didn’t bother to take him to hospital! We were told by the race officials that they need ambulance for any further causality in the route and they can’t give it to us! Pune was about 70km away from this remote place. We were in no mood to argue with these morons.
And thus Sarvesh was left lying in ambulance at the road side, where there was no network and no connectivity - the only radio set these morons carried was useless at that point of time. Arun washed his wounds and I gathered the scattered things and packed them into our bags. Sarvesh was badly hurt. All the time he kept asking me two questions, "Did I really fall? Is this a dream?" & "Who is this guy (Arun)? Is he our team mate?!”
Wait, it wasn’t over yet!
We decided to quit the race and handed over our timecard to race officials. There was no way Sarvesh could have carried on with the race. And his bike was damaged beyond the riding condition. We waited close to two hours for help and saw the trailing teams crossing us – lucky guys! Arun stopped a car and asked for help. The guy agreed to help us and drop till the simhagad road - somewhere outside the Pune city. Me and Sarvesh got into car and we carried our luggage with us. Sarvesh uttered a sentence while getting into the car, that brought a huge relief me and Arun. He told "Che Naave lead nallidwallo" meaning, "Shit man, we were leading!".
We were lucky to get a car back to Pune, but the task for Arun was difficult. He had to arrange a vehicle to take our bikes back to hotel in Pune. He had to undergo another set of endurance trip back hotel. The feeling of quitting the race when we were almost winning, the in-human behavior of the race officials and the money bragging autowallas made his trip all the more frustrating!
The car guy dropped us near a hospital called "Rakshak Hospital", somewhere in the outskirts of Pune city. I took Sarvesh into hospital, his wounds were cleaned and dressed and X-Rays were taken. X-Rays revealed that there were no fractures. By this time he was back to normal and could memorize most of the events except how he crashed. We reached our hotel at 10pm in the night. Arun had already reached. Sarvesh was feeling drowsy since when he woke up from the crash and he slept immediately. The adventure trip of Arun has delivered our bikes with some gritting injuries! Enduro has always been a memorable race for me and Sarvesh and this time it was yet another proof.
One thing was bothering me; I didn’t see any convincing factors that might have caused Sarvesh to go off his balance. There were no humps, no bends and absolutely no gravels in the spot where he fell! The only convincing conclusion that I could reach was - He fell down because of de-hydration. It might have so happened that his body suddenly shutdown and he fell off! This was convincing enough to me because of two reasons -
1. No evidence of anything that could account to his lost control. It was a plain and strainght downhill with no speed breakers.
2. That he was feeling sleepy even hours after the crash. And he could not remember how he lost his control.
Nevertheless we still have a counter argument that he didn’t collapse due to de-hydration. Its normal that human brain tends to erase the very moment of sudden crash when the person goes unconscious. Well this still remains a debating point for us. However one thing I re-experienced in my life - worst things happen when u least expect them and however tough the things are your best friends make them easy for you. And that’s what my friend Arun did!
And one thing this incident has definitely done; it has made us more determined for the next Enduro. We will hit back!
