Cochin to Trichur by foot

Unlike my previous blogs where after the event an experience was blogged, here i announce my feat and then perform it.

Cochin to Trichur by foot

I am planning to do walk from cochin to trichur on saturday the 4th of April.I have the confidence of having finished 106 kms in 18 hours in hyderabad.But this would be a feat of a sort as this would be from one district to another.Why am i doing it , just for the sake of achieving it or as what some say my madness.Hoping all goes well i make this announcement.

4th April

As usual before the event there is monkey trying to persuade you to quit, this time the reason is cochin to alwaye bypass would be around 16kms and alwaye to trichur is 66 kms so its not another pushing limits instance so why not call off.

I have my mumbai marathon sling bag ready with a pack of glucose and my company id , if highway patrol bothers me, pan card , Mumbai Marathon BiB and i plan to carry along a pack of biscuits and a bottle or water.

Yesterday i made the announcement as announcing as possible by pinging everyone on gtalk, most wanted to know if i am alright, but a high school friend found it intresting , i am not sure if she was mocking me by saying it is intresting.

awaiting for 4:00pm

April 6th

I couldn't update the blog earlier.

I started the walk @ 4:00pm on saturday as i had intended and reached home @ 8:50am sunday thus completed the distance in 16 hours and 50 minutes.

I had a parchement on which i had scribbled the time at most common locations but strange things do happen in life, my clothes soiled in sweat was dumped into the washing machine which had this parchemnt,creditcards,Ipod,cash,Mobile Sim card, luckily not the mobile,Subhan allah.

I will have to recollect the timings and then do the blog.

April 6th 5:30pm

after a little of recalling the experience i hereby begin to put it on blog.At sharp 4:00pm i left and started to walk with a bottle of Cold water in Hand and a sling bag on my shoulders i continued to walk through the footpath and road and often crossing the junctions as there are many from Ravipuram to starting of MG Road it was 4:30 when i reached there i don't know the exact distance but speed must have been slow as i had to move through the traffic and cross the junction and more i continued to i had to go under the bridge at around north railway station and by the time i reached rbi i had noted the timing on the parchment i was carying but i am unable to recollect the precise timing kept moving to reach kalloor bus stand and then junction followed by deshabhimani junction, edapilly by now i felt a slight strain a kind of effect of warm up, or that is what i wanted to belive as journey had just begun i am only around the starting point but at edapilly bypass i saw the Distance marking on the arches it read 78 so that meant 78 kms to go + mannuthy to home another 6 kms , i wanted to belive that distance between vytilla bypass and ravipuram junction would be atleast 12 kms , questioning and answering this in mind i continued to walk and walk sling bag shifted from my shoulder to my fist and a mouth full of water was occasionally consumed and it went on and on fianlly to reach alwaye bypass by 7:15 pm and then continued to past parambayam and on.Before the Airport Junction i saw a place where they were selling juice i asked them what they had ? only thing which appeared fine to me was grape , i ordered for a glass of it from the begining they were offering to add sugar as i had no time to waste i rushed to take a sip, i spat out and emptied the glass immediately as it was made from overripe or rotten grapes i offered him the money and he was asking if i wanted more sugar i replied its not about sugar , and asked him to pay the balance immediately as i was later, something made him to refund and i continued to walk but airport was like a mirage and i kept walking walked past the airport now it was it was around 8:xx pm i suppose (i told you about the parchment) for some odd reason i expected angamaly town to be very near to airport and i was experiencing the mirage , at every corner or point where the end was not visible i expected the amgamaly junction but  it was not that easy and i continued to be disappointed again and again but yet focusing on the speed i was by now experiencing tiredness on my legs but i was nowhere near the half way so i continued it did not matter if i felt fatigue or pain reaching home in trichur was the destination but a calculation to be active needed a dinner so when i reached angamaly by around 9:15 pm i gave myself a 25 mins to have two porottas with curry and to refil my water bottle with glucose and water and continued to walk to the next milestone of chalakkudy, roads were bad and often or very often there was no street lights and where ever there was parapit on the road side i utilised them for safety as i remembered the warnings not to do it due to lack of safety from the traffic, but that was not reason enough for me to stop and so i set forth but now things were quite alarming as there were trucks on roadsides and as i walked past some just took of now i was tired and i kept walking but it was difficult to stop or to speed up, its a state you would experience when you walk a lot it is no nirvana or salvation but you loose control to a small extent and by now i was already experiencing chaffing despite using nylon swimming trunk

but i just couldn't think about calling off for such petty petty issues to gather myself to do this again would be very difficult so its better to endure or crawl or ... on this attempt that think about another chance rehearsal or any other reason to stop this.... i was near chalakudy the signboard near potta read 32 kms it really was a delight , only 32 more kms now with a energy that sprung up when i knew i was nearer i was detemined to make it i continued i reached chalakudy junction at around 12:15am so i estimated that i could reach home by around 4:00 am or 5:00 am unlike the 10 :00 am that i anticipated so i continued for sometime i had been hoping to find a bottle of icecold drinking water as i was thirsty and tired but there were roadside stalls selling tea not water one of them had soda but not cold, to me it was water water everywhere but not a single drop to drink. walking continued and occasionally stopped to take rest for a few seconds i reached around a sign board which read 21 kms and then on somewhere out there i spotted a shop where there was water but it was frozen. :) i fled from there i was around amballur by now i was experiencing sever pain on my ankle and i was limping i had received a few calls from home and they offered to take me home or if necessary to bring water or tender coconut as it is assumed to be very refreshing when you are tired or in fatigue , i declined and continued to walk maybe by now speed had gone down to 3km/hr unlike the average of 6.5 km/hr or lowest of it @ 5km/hr and next milestone of mannuthy rather seemed to far and almost on the verge of giving up but to do all this again , i found the refuge of a petrol bunk from where i got cold drinking water ,i drank as much as i could and also poured on my right ankle and then contniued , i had no choice but to finish it, as there was something else in mind which depended on this thus i staggered, limped and dragged myself as i had to reach my target pain on leg was so intense and i could not move my foot i could move my right leg not the foot, finally i reached mannuthy and it was 7:15 am now it was just about reaching home on about 4 occasions i sat to rest and continued but i the time i reached the last two kilometers it was around 8:30 and i was racing hard with my strained legs to reach before 8:45 by now the pain was subsiding but i couldn't be faster, i was around the police academy by 8:45 when i got the last call from home when i replied i was nearby and finally reached my gates to see 8:51....

A dream accomplished - City to City / Cochin to Trichur , 

but this was the most enduring of all things i have done so far, though less than the 106kms in hyderabad, it was tougher.

many more to accomplish, an ironman 70.3 miles, scaling everest, marathon des sables,some may remain dreams, but i have done a few things which many have not dared to , 

my madness continues ... but my mind is stable and in control,maybe i can dare to do a few things others can't.

Its all about breaking a mind barrier, i wish to go back to kasaragod to settle an old score, and also see if there are ways to sort out at tirur.

Adios

Hastas luego

Zanil Hyder.