Now It’s just few more kilometers to Delhi

Total Distance – 228 kilometres

Route : Ayodhya, Hiliyapur, Bikapur

Today at 4 am when Preeti started towards Delhi, her only aim was to reach with 100 kilometres of Lucknow. The special relationship between Preeti and challenges showed up…… The Garmin watch she was using stopped working…. It just would not charge… now how would she calculate her days distance covered.????  to solve this she downloaded Strava app on one of her phones. She also started to use Garmin’s bike computer… and she ended up losing a couple of hours. . The hotel staff had made sure that Preeti’s breakfast was ready and also gave her some sandwiches to go.

Record keeping is extremely important for applying for a record. Whenever she walked some extra distance, that distance isn’t calculated. After the work was done she had to walk back and start her journey again. Only the time on the cycle has to be calculated.

With reference to the watch… she tried contacting the service stations in Delhi, Bareily, Pune and Mumbai but she could not get an answer to the problem she was facing. With the help of Strava and other new equipments she was able to keep a track of things and she could move ahead. Sometime later she realized that the tyre of the cycle was flat. There was a piece of glass lodged in the tyre. She walked for 2 kilometers, got the tyre repaired , walked back 2 kilometres and started the cycling and the cycling clock again

Since morning she had already lost lot of valuable time. She now was cycling without taking any breaks. She reached Ayodhya… went to the Ram Mandir and offered her prayers. There is a tight security in the temple. No one is allowed to carry mobile phone in the temple. While leaving Ayodhya it had started to rain… she thought to her self that she would cycle till it was possible to cycle in the rains. For 4 hours straingth was pouring.

Around 7 in the evening she reached a place 80 kilometres from Lucknow. She had her dinner. The village in which she took the night halt had a wedding. It took some time to find a hotel but eventually she did find a good place to stay. The hotel staff allowed her to take the cycle into her room… the cycle and the clothes were in awful state. She cleaned them both and went off to sleep…….

Original Blog By : Kavita Pipada
English Translation By : Girija Shirurkar