Yun had a late wake up and we were late at the breakfast gathering. We arrived at the school at about 7:30am.
The opening was rather short compare to the few events in the past. The last few events were organized by the school however this event was organized by the local cycling association. The school merely played an assist role. We were at dispatched to group one together with Yun 5 other classmates. The event was actually targeted for the junior high student but allow 6 grader to take part.
The pushing out was smooth and we were cruising at about 17-18 km/h. We had reached checkpoint 1 at about 1:08 hr. I was a little bit surprise to find out that the organizer only supply plain water. In the past event, there would be “cold” water plus plum, not as good as sport drink but at least provide some salty replenishment for the rider. There were also snack and banana at the check point and there was nothing there… I walloped my 700cc of diluted sport drink and urged the kids to drink and refill…
The weather was darn hot and it was about 33 degree Celsius. The push out was delayed for about 30mins and it was 10am before we started pedaling for the second checkpoint (we had completed about 17+km only). I had actually run a check over google map and found that the max riding distance was about 80+km instead of 100km….the distant between each check point are supposed to be 20km(5 check points).
The 2nd checkpoint was about 12+km away and it took us about 40min to complete. The supply at check point 2 was better with a low amount of banana and Chinese cake. I managed to grabbed some for the kids and refilled my bottle with plain warm water.
The ride to the 3rd checkpoint was more dangerous as we had to ride through a main road instead of the less crowded country road. By the time we reached check point 3, I had found that the “collection truck” was filled up with bicycles. There were 10+ participants who quit and get onto the bus and their bicycle were collected by the “collection truck”.
I had gone over to the “betel nut” store opposite check point 3 to buy some sport drinks for Yun and her classmates. There collection truck was doing its second run by now. The ride to lunch(check point 4) was more tedious but safer as there was this cycling lane to ride.
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| up bridege push.... |
We hit lunch point by 1:15pm and the total ride distance was 55km only. 5 hrs had passed since the start and salted plum had finally appeared beside the water supply machine.
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| lunch box... |
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| Yun and her gang... |
The ride started again at around 2pm and Yun and her buddy ZQ were exhausted. We had dropped off the team and was able to cruise at 11-12 km /hr only. At a point, both of them had kept asking me how far it was to the endpoint(School) and I had feared that they could not make it as they not only look fatigue but could hardly pedal and kept up the speed. The bus and collection truck had traced behind of our trail for a good 30min before they had lost their patience and asked us if the kids wanted to take a joy ride back. The kids had given a negative answer and I had promised the drivers that I would take them back to the endpoint; the bus and truck had left us and we had, with the grace of god, completed the ride.
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| exhausted ......end of ride |
The total distance was 71.9km and it was a great experience for me and for the kids. I recalled the 72km I had done with Xian, he was grade 2 then, and we had arrived as the last one despite of cramp and fatigue. As for this time, both of the kid had a great experience of pushing themselves to limit testing their skill of “mind” over matter…..
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| da burn.... |
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