During this time while waiting for the big day, a friend calls and wants to know if everyone would like to wear a Spam jersey. Yes, Spam in the can. A little info here; Hawaiians are big on Spam and you can order it in many restaurants around the island including McDonald's. So Spam is a huge thing here!
The day finally arrived and me, Brian and five of my other friends all met at my house at 7:30 am ready to ride. We started out heading East and cycled through Ewa Beach, Waipahu, Pearl City, by the airport, Honolulu, Waikiki, Hawaii Kai (where we stopped for lunch; Greek food), Makapu'u, Waimanalo and finally finished at Bellows Air Force Base. This ride was 52 miles long with a couple big hills to climb. I felt really good after the ride and wanted to go for a jog but the Miller Lite was staring me down so down the hatch it went with four more to follow. I don't normally drink but we rented a cabin on the beach and the setting was perfect for a few beers after an awesome ride. They went down pretty good and knew I must stop after the 5th one because I knew I had seventy something miles ahead of me the next day.
That night we had BBQ and all the fixins (yes I said fixins, that is what Texans say)along with cookies and smores melted by our camp fire. It was a beautiful night and we all got to relax and enjoy the beach, sunset and camp fire!
Sunday arrived and we woke bright and early to finish the ride. We headed out and not even off base yet, it begins to rain. We pull over under a bus stop and wait it out. It finally stops and we begin once again. About 12-15 miles later we stopped at a McDonald's for a breakfast snack. When you are biking this many miles, you are entitled a McDonald's snack! Once again it began to pour cats and dogs so we waiting and took more pictures! Once the rain had settled it was still a bit dark and grey the way we were headed, but we knew we would probably get wet anyway so we got on our bikes and began once again. Sure enough not even five minutes into the ride it begins to rain and it was coming down pretty good that it was beginning to sting my face but we pedaled through and finally it stopped! We were good and wet and so were the roads which is not a good thing for small road bike tires. Then it started, out of seven of us we had five flats. Two people had one flat and my poor girlfriend had three in a row. At this time we were not making good time with all the stops but we kept on pushing through the Windward side of the island.
Finally making a bit more progress we stopped near sunset beach for lunch at Ted's. It was a great place to stop and we were all starving. I haven't eaten this much in one time in a long time but it was so good and so worth it! After lunch the three flat tire friend was not feeling well so her husband came to pick her up. We were all sad to see her go and not finish with us!
At last we made it to the North Shore and was mentally preparing ourselves for pineapple hill! This hill begins by the North Shore and goes up steadily for five miles to the Dole Plantation. We huffed and puffed and all made it to the top. It was quite the hill and would almost like to try it again for training purposes. We were now 20-22 miles from the house and the last 15 miles were some rolling hills and we were cruising at about 25-28 mph. At last we were back at my house and it was six o'clock and we started at nine o'clock that morning. We had completed seventy-six miles and had been off and on the bike for eight hours. It was a great ride and we all had a blast!
Yes, we got the Spam jersey!
