Sunday Final

Pooped!
Pooped and dirty!
No, not that kind of dirty.
The real dirt sort of dirty.
Let me explain.
So I left Flat Tire Central before the crack of dawn, picked up my brother and headed out to O'ahu's famous North Shore.
Oh yeah baby!
Metric century day!
All the eager bicyclists lined up at the start:

I think it was announced that there were over five hundred of us, though it sure seemed like more.
The sun was breaking out of the morning clouds and off we went!

Again, the crowd seemed larger as we were strung out pretty far down the road.
Slowly my brother and I made our way forward, you know, cause we are like pretty fast and all and them slow pokes were well, slowing us down.
The first rest stop was pretty crowded:

It was only six miles out, the 25k turnaround, so we just had a look see and pressed on.
Green energy, the horsey in the corner for scale:

Folks are complaining that the turbines are ruining the view, but I prefer them to oil burning smoke stacks.
Them clouds aren't looking too good.
Nope, not at all.
Yes! that's right horticulture fans!
It started to rain.
Drizzle here, drizzle there, just enough to keep the roads nice and wet.
Okay, who's idea was this again?
I felt like I was riding the cobbles in Paris Roubaix.
Okay, not really.
It was just as messy though:

Right now, I have a pretty nice brown bicycle.
If you know what I mean.
Then came the brutal part as we turned into the wind.
I'm not going to dwell too long on it but lemme tell you it was brutal!
Did I mention how brutal it was?
I think we only held 13-14 mph along a ten mile stretch.
At least we'd have the wind at our backs on the return trip!
Wrong!
After the turnaround, the wind died down and back came the drizzle drizzle!
I stopped looking at my Prevaricating Garmin and just kept my head down.
Okay, it wasn't all that bad.
World famous Sunset Beach:

We stopped to watch some dudes surf for a bit before moving on.
At this point I think both of us were sort of cooked, but we were so close to the end, we kept on grinding.
Image is everything.
Don't you know.
Waimea Bay:

Famous church tower to the right of center.
They say the waves there sometimes are as high as the tower!
It's summer though, so the the bay is flat, even though there were three foot waves at Sunset.
We're getting close to the finish!
Zip up that jersey, I tell my brother, you know so we look all pro!
Victory!

Oh yeah baby!
With plenty of gas in the tank!
Okay, not really.
I could have gone maybe one more mile.
My brother says he had another ten in his legs.
The Crash Test Dummy lies.
Not the greatest weather and I came back looking like I went mountain biking in the mud, but I had a pretty good time.
If you ever make it to Flat Tire Land, the Haleiwa Metric Century ride is a must do.
I'm already thinking about next year.
Okay, not really.
I'm thinking I need a nap.