The Maiden Metric Century Ride
Story of my first 100km cycling experience.
Written on
December
6th,
2021
by
The Millenial
The millenial talks about his first 100km cycling experience on a single speed bicycle, along the coast of Kerala.
“The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew, and live through it - Doug Bradbury”
The quote beautifully summarises my complete experience of cycling from my hometown, Kochi a bustling city in Kerala to the quite and beautiful Marari Beach and back, for my first metric century ride. It all started off in early August, from one of those typical covid era’s lethargic days. I was wasting my time scrolling through random reels, youtube shorts and satisfying my curiosity asking Google about extremely weird and random questions I had on a wide array of topics from trivial day to day life to mind-boggling conspiracy theories. (We will talk about it in maybe some other post.) In the process I found myself reading some old news article about a bunch of cycling enthusiasts completing around 600kms of the ride here in Kerala. The sheer amount of kilometres they logged in ignited my curiosity about pursuing long cycling tours and added a word to which I was pretty unfamiliar till then to my vocabulary, ‘Randonneuring’. Little did I know that this random news snippet was going to change my life forever, opening up a new chapter in my life.
What followed was a series of obsessive reading on randonneuring, AUDAX and long-distance biking, nourishing my burning desire to attempt long-distance cycling myself and gradually become a randonneur. For a person who found it mentally tiring to cycle even a distance of around 20kms despite having a decent physique, it was audacious and I sounded like a blind fool for aspiring to be a randonneur out of the blue. But as they say, and time and again as I have experienced, its foolish confidence along with the naiveness with which you go off to work your ass off persistently that has always helped me to make progress. Thus I decided to approach this gradually, riding on my old fixed gear Hercules Apache cycle, to test out my ability to endure exhaustion and keep going and started off my journey with a rather small 20+ km, followed by a 60+ km, and finally making it to the maiden metric century ride.
For my first ride, as typical it is for a Kochiite, I chose to ride to Fort Kochi beach from my home, making the to and fro ride more than 20 km. It has been quite a long break since I cycled for more than 20km, but despite that, I was sure it was not going to be a challenging task and hence was looking forward to enjoying the ride. It was a picturesque route and offered a very refreshing riding experience topped off with a slight drizzle. I spend some time at the Fort Kochi beach enjoying that strange sense of calmness settling onto you while watching the chaotic and loud waves crashing on the rocks. The roundtrip as recorded by strava was around 24.71 km in 1h 25m time, and as expected it was more of a refreshing ride than a daunting one serving as the perfect confidence booster.
View of the Naval Base area and Cochin Shipyard from the Venduruthy bridge on the way to Fort Kochi beach
The old Mattancery bridge or the Thoppumpady bridge built, in 1940 by Sir Robert Charles Bristo.
After my previous ride to Fort Kochi, I wanted to level up a bit. Because I was not in a bad shape and was able to log around 5km run every other day I decided to cycle to Munambam beach. One of the perks of living in a coastal city in Kerala like Kochi is that you have access to a lot of beautiful beaches with even more charming routes to reach there. I was aware that this would be a demanding ride as it was my longest ride till now and also as the route was full of multiple small and big bridges across numerous waterways connecting the islands. Therefore I planned to start early and also ensured that I am fully prepared with enough water and snacks. My cycle also started getting a makeover gradually, with accessories like bottle holder, better seat cover, tail light, etc, based on the experience I gained from each ride. I started from my home around 06 45 AM riding through the scenic Goshree islands, Vypin, Cherai and finally reaching the destination. I took brief breaks in the middle to stretch and hydrate. It was a tough ride with occasional muscle cramps owing to the multiple short but sharp bridge ascents. But the spectacular view I got to witness at the Munambam beach was worth the ride.
View at Munambam beach with the beach on left and estuary on the right
A fishing boat on its way to the sea, a view from Munambam.
It was raining slightly and I could hear the loud roaring sound of the waves crashing on the rocks. I was on a platform made out of rocks jutting out into the sea. Some people were fishing at the tip of this and I decided to walk towards them, from where I could get a better view of the fishing boats heading into the horizon from the estuary on our left. When I reached the tip, the mix of the loud sound of waves clubbed with the spray of water from their crashing served as a perfect refreshing accompaniment for the relaxing view of the horizon. After enjoying the view and contemplating how we humans take each moment for granted and how we fail to realise, cherish and conserve the beauty surrounding us, I decided to head back home to complete my ride. It was a very tiring ride back as my leg started to give up in the middle and had to take multiple breaks to reason with my leg muscles. Finally, after a very tiring ride, I reached home in the noon logging around 62.35 km in 4h 11m.
As soon as the exhaustion from the previous ride wore off I started thinking about going for a longer ride. The plan was to prepare for a route that will give me around 80kms to and fro. The search for potential routes and destinations was on, but I should admit that the ambitious fool in me kept on asking, “why shouldn’t I try for a 100km ride directly? after all it’s just 40kms more than the last one”. Yes, I know that is a very irrational thought process, but what could I say, borrowing words from the American singer, Cher “Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great.”
Thus the destination was fixed as Marari beach a quaint countryside beach in the district of Alleppey around 52.1 km from my home. There were two routes which I could have taken, one through the highway and the other through the coastal road. I chose the busy and urban route through the highway, thus missing out quite a lot on the views but gaining solace in the fact that it will be easier to get help, in case something goes wrong. Sacrificing the views was a foolish decision in hindsight. But by then I had become obsessed with the thought of completing 100kms of ride successfully and thus started losing on the fact that I should also enjoy it. You will notice this from the absence of any pictures of places or people I encountered en route.
Finally, the day planned for the ride arrived and I was completely prepared for the ride with new accessories fitted on to the cycle, enough water to hydrate and also snacks to maintain my energy. I ensured that I had a very good carb-rich dinner the previous day and also got a very sound sleep. I started my ride early in the morning at 06 00 AM, the weather was also very favourable supplementing it with a gentle breeze. I had planned already to split the journey into 20km chunks so that enough break is given to the body to stretch and hydrate. But as the destination reached closer the weather started to become hot and so did my hunger to finish the complete ride in 6 hours. This was another mistake that I made, compromising on a decent break and food to replenish energy and I had to pay for it later in the last leg of the journey. Once I reached Marari beach it was more or less very much empty probably because of the heat which was reaching its peak. I took a very small break on the beach, walked around a bit, took some pictures and videos and even before my legs got enough breathing space, I was on the cycle ready to ride back. And there started my journey back home, which was the most tiring and daunting part of the whole ride and also where I paid for the mistakes I did in the journey towards Marari.
A view of the Marari beach.
On my journey back home I had around 52 km ahead of me with the weather playing the villain. It was very hot and I was getting dehydrated easily, legs were showing the signs of exhaustion but the thought of completing a 100km on cycle kept me going. Slowly the lack of proper breaks in the first half of the journey started to show and I started to take more frequent breaks. The exhaustion and the temperature were competing to reach the peak while I was trying to focus riding the cycle, visualising the sun draining me via a straw through my head. I was starting to lose focus and during the last 30 km of the journey, it felt as if I will not be able to complete the ride. I was also getting irritated because all the while when I was trying to track my progress by keeping tabs on the name of the place on the name boards of shops, I noticed that I was going very slowly owing to the exhaustion and frequent breaks. It was getting so intimidating to the point that I was thinking of even catching a ride back home by abandoning the whole cycling plan. Finally, I decided to take a proper break when I reached a major intersection and also rewarded myself for all the effort I put in by buying myself a fruit drink, probably because of the fatigue, I was starting to crave sugary drinks. After a much needed break, stretching my legs and hydrating myself, I continued my journey with around 25kms ahead of me.
After getting a proper break, I was again able to get some traction and but still had to push myself. The final stretch was a continuous effort to convince my mind that I will be able to complete it one small step at a time. As painful as it was, the final stretch was also exhilarating as I was getting closer to completing my first 100 km ride. Finally battelling through all the pain and doubt, I reached my home in the afternoon covering around 101.21km in about 6 h 40m, thus completing my maiden metric century ride. I celebrated this milestone by lying down on the floor with pain, exhaustion and relief, staring at the ceiling fan cheering for me and my amma and appa confused about if they should be happy as I am back safely or should be concerned with this new obsession.
All the way throughout the last leg of the journey I kept promising myself that I will never attempt another long-distance cycling, but at the back of my mind, I knew how foolish and insane I was. Reassuring me about my insanity, I started preparing for a 125 km ride on my fixed gear beast once the pain and fatigue from the ride wore off. Long-distance cycling somehow feels like mobile meditation, it clears your mind and you will be focussed on the goal, at the same time giving you a thrilling experience, It will also teach you to be extremely patient and keep going despite all the suffering. You will learn to cope with pain and also to keep going against it when it tries to force you down.