How I Cheated Death Twice Over Two Eventful Days

Once-in-a-lifetime experience in Pokhara, Nepal

Picture this.

The last time you rode a bike was when you were 13, in a casual city ride like any other teen, and you were still not really a regular biker. Fast forward 13 more years, you’re now 26 and are thrown into a Cross-Country triathlon championship which includes 40km of a bike ride with massive uphills and downhills, and a 10km run in the middle of the Himalayas in Nepal.

Narrow road, about 3 meters wide — cliff on one side and mountain on the other. You don’t own a bike so you’ve rented a 3x9 mountain bike that you’ll be testing for the first time on this treacherous trail.

Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it? Well, this was my friend’s idea of a vacation, and I, being blissfully unaware, jumped right into it!

Part 1 — The Build Up

Let us rewind a bit. It is December of 2014, and Vikram, my friend from business school, sends me and another friend a harmless email on a “vacation idea” for the spring of 2015.

About a year before that, in December 2013, Vikram and I did a half-marathon together in the beautiful Indian beach city of Goa and had a great time. I hit my Personal Best of a tad over 2 hours for the first time, and Vikram had set his own PB, a good 8–10 mins faster than me.

So, another fun vacation combined with some competitive fitness activity sounded like a great idea. This is what Vikram’s email to me and another B-school buddy, Gaurav, who is into fitness, reads like. A quick, harmless question along with the details of the event.

“What say boys?”

We are glad to announce that the registrations for Himalayan Rush 2015 are now open. The date for the next triathlon has been set for the 28th of March, 2015 at Begnas, Pokhara.

Vikram had been working on his cycling and swimming skills. And so he was keen to take it to the next level. My other friend, Gaurav, who is also good at all three disciplines politely enquires:

I couldn’t find details like what distance is the run going to be? What gradient? How much we would have to cycle and at what incline? And what’s the distance we would have to swim?

All very valid questions when you’re talking about a first triathlon — not at a stadium but in the tallest mountain range in the world — the Himalayas!

Vikram, as casual and confident in his skills as ever, comes back:

Run — 10 km

Cycle — 40 km

Swim (optional, there’s a triathlon and a duathlon) — 1.5 km

Gaurav — I highly doubt they will publish the exact gradient, this is hardly an Olympic event :P Suffice to say that there will be hills.

Gaurav comes back with a quick and affirmative reply, typical to his nature:

I am in, all three, at least I can do :P

While Vikram has been pushing his limits with swimming and cycling as well, I am happy to just get away to Nepal on a backpacking trip. I’ve been focused on running, but hey — riding a bike couldn’t be too hard. I don’t swim at all, so I am in for the “duathlon” option that the event also has.

The event is in March — and it promises to be the perfect vacation in the beautiful mountains of the Himalayas. And by Vikram’s version of it — “it isn’t an Olympic event, but there will be hills,” it doesn’t sound too daunting.

By the time we’re finalizing details, Gaurav backs out owing to a work commitment. Vikram and I get to the details and book our tickets. Here are our itinerary’s key points, important to the context of the story:

• A flight from our respective cities into Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
• Another local flight booked from Kathmandu to Pokhara — the venue.
• A twin-share hotel room in a small hotel booked by the organizers, similar to many other participants.
• Rental mountain-bikes which we will be given at the venue an HOUR before the race. We don’t own mountain bikes — I haven’t been on a bike in 13 yrs, Vikram has a road bike which isn’t fit for the course.

Part 2 — The First Hiccup

We arrive into Kathmandu and are told that the weather is too bad, there’s a chance for a storm and so the tiny aircraft that is supposed to fly us from Kathmandu into Pokhara won’t operate.

So, the organizer books us onto a multi-utility van, shared with three other girls heading to Pokhara. Two of the girls are Irish — good looking girls about our age, currently living in Dubai, and here in Nepal for a meditation camp. A 3rd, like us, is here for the triathlon and has been living in Nepal for the last 3 yrs, while originally from Canada, and has her own bike and looks quite ready for the challenge.

We spend the arduous journey in good company chatting with the two Irish girls who are both thrown in the back of the van, while the Canadian is in the front, and relatively less social.

Both teach English in Dubai — the one that looks adventurous — partly shaved head, tattoos, tall lean look — is actually the more mature one and hits it off well with me. The other seemingly quieter but actually more quirky gets along well with Vikram.

Don’t get any ideas, it’s all strictly friendly banter — we’re all in that sub-standard vehicle as a result of a badly arranged trip, and a weak transport infrastructure in a developing country. So it’s all just a good conversation between fellow tourists.

After a 6-hour drive, at about 6 pm we make it to Pokara, with the “race” scheduled for 6 am the next morning. We load up on our carbs — a nice filling helping of rice and pasta — along with some proteins.

Part 3 — The Race — Cheating Death-1

As we get to the venue in our running gear, we see the beautiful Lake Begnas which is the starting point for the duathlon, and the venue for the swimming leg of the triathlon.

We collect our bikes — standard 3x9 mountain bikes and the helmets — nothing else, no knee-guards, elbow-guards, or the more professional gear.

Important to note here, this is the first time I’m getting on a 27-speed mountain bike. The last time I rode a bicycle was 13 yrs ago on a regular non-gear bicycle for very casual biking. But hey — you can’t unlearn cycling?

So, Vikram goes first, diving into a VERY COLD Begnas Lake for his 1.5km swim, and the duathletes are set to start 30 mins after the triathletes.

We make some new friends, chit-chat, and quickly realize the event is made up of serious triathletes, in their Nth triathlon.

I check my bike for brakes — THANK GOD for those and lower the tire pressure a bit as we’re told the bikes can get bouncy on the trails with too much pressure.

And off we go. The start is a slushy trail thanks to the rain last night, and some minor landslides on the way. VERY uphill — for me and a couple of other novices, we get off our bikes and push the bikes up the trail. This goes on for a kilometer or so before we hit the first stretch of road. Uphill again — a gradient of about 30 degrees at a minimum, and I somehow familiarize myself with the gears and motor along.

The first big shock?

The road is a typical mountain road with no special safety barricades or protection on the cliff-side and the usual traffic, albeit light, also on the roads.

What I then notice in front is a couple of athletes with “Singapore” and “Indonesia” on their shirts. And a little bit further down I see a board “2015 Pokhara Cross Triathlon South Asian Championships.”

Much to my shock, our little “Himalayan Rush” event was merged with a professional cross-country athletic event on the SAME course.

Fast forward to about 20 km or the halfway mark and we’re done with the uphill part of the route — and I’ve spent most of it on my feet, pushing the bike up as I have no experience or strength for riding a mountain bike on steep uphills. As we take the U-turn for the downhill stretch, I take a big sigh of relief before I am met with another harsh truth.

The downhill stretch is naturally on the cliff-end of the road (ride to your left) at a 30–45-degree slope, where your bike with half-jammed brakes still goes at a speed of about 30 km/hr. If I went into a turn too fast or hit a bump, or my brakes gave way, I could have gone flying down a steep cliff.

With a quick look up to the Gods and all the courage I could muster, I take the plunge and start to navigate the bike through the curves at a speed I’ve never dealt with before on a mountain bike (my experience being ZERO).

With regular trucks and traffic coming our way from the front on a narrow road, and nothing but a few feet separating me from a cliff into a deep valley, I somehow survive and navigate through everything to the end of the biking stretch ALIVE.

It took me 3 hrs 30 mins for the whole 40 km stretch, but I was glad I made it. The run, even with heavy quads and plunging levels of stamina, was a breeze. Running was my strength (relatively speaking) and I finished the run in an hour.

Even if it wasn’t for the crazy terrain we decided to pick for our first, triathlon deaths aren’t rare, so I was truly lucky to be alive.

As elated as I was to finish, I was ready to kill Vikram for taking us through this challenge, unaware of the actual level of difficulty.

Part 4 — Nepal Earthquake — Cheating Death-2

All is done and dusted, and we get back on a tiny plane to Kathmandu, and onwards back to India on a regular flight, elated on finishing the most difficult athletic challenge of our lives, and lucky to be alive. The finisher medals a real reward!

Fast forward a month, April 25, 2015, Nepal is hit with a deadly earthquake, with Pokhara at the epicenter of it. In a calamity of epic proportions, nearly 9,000 people lost their lives, and the world woke up to one of the worst natural disasters in recent times.

My parents call me, saddened by the calamity, but thankful and hugely relieved that I hadn’t been in Pokhara at the time, and had closely missed the disaster by a month. I also got a warning to not plan any stupid and adventurous travels like these anymore — parents will be parents! Vikram and I chat and feel blessed to have escaped what could’ve been the last trip of our lives!

And that is how I had the most adventurous few days of my life — a rewarding personal experience, yet a humbling one, allowing me to be thankful for the fact that destiny had helped me cheat death twice in a span of a month.