40km Cycling Event Experience

For the first time, I do not feel the enthusiasm to write about my experience earlier today.

Now that it is over and done with, I can say it is generally less painful than running. 
I did not have any cramps despite making a minor detour on the 40km.

It began roughly on time at 7.15am. 
We left home early after subuh prayers about 10 to 6. We arrived at Putrajaya Ministry of Health about 6.30am. It was still dark. We parked under trees for the shade though the downside was the grass was very muddy.

We went to collect our complimentary shirts at the counter. We went back to the car to change into our uniform. There were two sponsors on the white shirts sleeves, one was a pharmaceutical company. 
There was no gun, just a man or a VIP who counted 1-5 and said "go!". Before that there was another man who briefed us 40km-ers that:
1) This is not a race.
2) There is no time limit, but they expected to finish around lunch time.
3) The objective was to have fun and socialise, not compete.

I remember thinking "Is he serious? I mean, what does fun mean?" Looking around me all I could see were some hard-core cyclists with the expensive bikes and gears ready to zoom ahead.

Then it began. 
Going downhill is always fun. But then, there were equal numbers of uphill for every fun downhill. 
And going uphill, was painful. 
I began to appreciate the different gears and how to adjust accordingly.

The first twenty kilometres were pretty uneventful. I glanced at my phone the first time at 8.5km, the second time 15km and then 22km.

At 22km we got lost. At least hubby thought so. 
He had his phone and was looking at the map and tried to explain it to me, but I was too hypoglycaemic to understand. So when he said we should turn around, I just followed. 
It was a bit demoralising but when we started to move again, my left quads began to hurt. And it was like that for the next 10km. To compensate for the pain, I used my right leg much more. At 25km I began to think to myself "I want to go home". 
I knew that if I said it out loud, that would be the end of it.

Understand that there are no markers or measures or check points to ensure one does the complete 40km. 
All you need to do is make it back to the finishing line and claim your goodie bag. 
And so we continued, up and down, up and down the scenic Putrajaya. 
Writing it is easy of course. But there were times I thought about all kinds of things such as Lance Armstrong, the importance of psychological or mental strength for endurance sports and positive thinking...
I was right about the other cyclists. At one point we (me) were the last of the cyclists, with 'escorts' making sure we made it. 
That was after 30km point when my right quads started to hurt from over-compensating. 
And not to mention other places as well. 
Basically everything hurt, it hurt to stand, it hurt to sit, I just imagined going home and lying flat on my bed was probably the only painless position one could be in. My legs were killing me, I had pain from the seat, pain in my back and pain in my neck. 
The only part of me that didn't hurt were my arms, thank God. 
And yet somehow, I made it. 
The adrenaline and endorphine only kicked in at the very end when the MOH building came into view. (reading this back 2020, 7 years later, what was I thinking back then...haha).

There was a point at about 32km where we had to dismount and cross to a pedestrian/cyclist lane which ended with a flight of stairs. 
There was no way I could have carried my own bike at that point, it looked like an insurmountable 1000 steps. This was when I was thankful for my husband who helped carry it. He also helped push me up a few slopes near the end (about three times).

Conclusion: cycling is less painful than running. I hope more people take it up as a regular form of exercise so we can prevent diabetes.