Dick Evans Memorial Road Race

Photo by Mike Abbott

 Wow, today. where do I start? I guess I can start with waking up at 2:45 in the morning after having dreams about missing the peleton and chasing them down... then woke up again at 4:40, five minutes before my alarm went off. Ate some quinoa and half a sprouted wheat bagel. Got dropped off in Hawaii Kai by mom, dad and totoro. No one from my team was there although I knew a bunch of people there: Jason, Kevin, Shawn... A few other familiar faces. Mellow ride through town at an average of <20mph. Lots of stoplights. So happy when we got to Nimitz for our "nature break." I heard someone yell my name and looked but then I realized I didn't hear them say- don't look! If you call my name I will look! Goodness! Someone ate it coming down the curb from their pee break, second solo crash of the day. By time we got to Kunia I was a little worried because my legs were sore from yesterday's bricks-so stupid. I bridged one group to a few guys up ahead and we ended up forming a nice little group, Tai, Katy, me, Kawika and some other tradewind guys. Nice little mish mashed group of Cambio, Quick Release, Pac Velo and Tradewinds. Getting to sunset wasn't too bad.

Photo by Mike Abbot

The front group had a lot of flats so we passed some of them but they caught up to us by our first stop, Sunset Elementary School. The fast girl, Monique/Pua/... ate it pretty bad on the white lines. After our break we were on our way again. The fast group had more flats but we held on to our pace at ~20mph till almost Kualoa where Katy flatted. Pain. Tai did the fastest tire change I've ever seen. So glad there were at least three of us. Fast group caught up but they weren't going to stop at the second water stop at Kualoa so we pulled over to get water and eat. Met up with our tradewinds guys again. Once we hit the valley of the temples I was dead even though I attempted a couple short pulls. God some help going up the hill, my muscles hurt so bad I felt like I was going to cry. Literally. Suppressed my whiny urges. Dump road wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Everyone held it together pretty well even though everyone was tired. Skipped Olomana with Katy and we pushed it to the end. ~18mph through Waimanalo and ~29 down Makapuu almost till the end. Unknowingly dropped Tai who had worked super hard pulling all day plus running 12 miles yesterday! I guess he stopped at 7-11 for a red bull and vodka I mean snickers. So happy once we finished, especially since Katy lived like a block away. Got some ice for my aching joints then went to meet up with everyone at Kona Brewery. 1 hour wait for the food. Drama, whatever. Learning how to brush things off... Pizza was so good. A ride back in AC was so great. Even though we didn't have an official race, despite the pain, we (I at least) had so much fun! Maybe more so than if we actually raced. It was so awesome to have such a team spirit among people we just met. If we raced I would never have gotten to meet a bunch of them and have lunch with them! So great.