I waffled between eating a full meal but decided against it as the the hard part was coming up and I didn't want to be all full and lethargic.
Looking back, I should have eaten.
The back side of Diamond Head:
The waves here are pretty consistent, since the are mostly wind swell.
Wind that I'll be heading into.
The highway heading east is mostly straight, with a nice wide bike lane:
So wide in fact that it offers no protection from the wind.
This is where it started to get bad.
I had an energy bar, but I think it was a bit too late.
It began to drizzle and I began to struggle a bit.
I did manage to make it to one of my old haunts:
The sanctuary is a large lagoon:
I used to spent a lot of time around this area.
Back in another life.
Maunalua Bay:
The local canoe hale(house) and all the canoes lined up:
This area is called Hawaii Kai and it's one of the more affluent areas.
I guess they can afford more canoes than Kailua.
It was here that I went into survival mode.
The weather didn't look too good and neither did I.
Look good I mean.
I had more water and something to eat and forged ahead.
I got to say, I don't know what the hell I was thinking here.
My body was telling me so get something real to eat, but my mind kept telling me that I could make it to the next stop.
I should have gotten some real calories in, for the hardest part of the ride was coming up.
The Double Hills of Deathly Doom.
No really:
Okay, this is not the real hill, but a street that runs parallel to it.
I knew I was in trouble so I didn't think I could take it all at once.
I was right.
I got up to the top and had to circle a bit to get my heart rate down.
There's a left up there and the rest of the real hill, and after resting a bit, I made it up.
Barely.
Redline.
I think I coasted for the next mile.
Then you go left, back into the wind and face this:
This road takes you up to the Makapu'u look out.
Hey! I did the Makapu'u epic almost exactly one year ago!
Anyways, I didn't make up up the second hill of Deathly Doom.
I had to dismount and plant my feets about three quarters of the way up to keep my head from exploding.
I had a passing feeling of some serious trouble, but it went away after a couple of minutes.
I should have eaten about ten miles back.
Or maybe twenty miles.
I did make it to the 7-11, where I had to lean on the glass once I got off the bike, but that passed too.
A half can of Sprite and something to replenish some sodium and I was back at it.
The soda and the salty stuff really helped.
I took some notes there.
I needed it for there was the Hill of the Exploding Compact Crank:
Okay, that hill wasn't so bad, and it's only about a mile or so from Flat Tire Central so I wasn't too worried.
I mean I was sort of thinking of walking at this point, but after cresting the top, I managed to coast almost all the way to the foot of my hill.
It's weird, for the last time I did this run, it only came out to like 30 miles and today it was 39.
It must have been some major error on my old computer.
In the end, I wasn't in as much trouble as I thought, I did still have some reserve, but towards the end, around mile 28, I really thought it wasn't going so good.
I think today was just a bad day for me, but at least I made it around the horn.
Still, a bad day on the bicycle is better than a good day at work!
Which is where I'll be tomorrow.
At work I mean.
