3h 45min...really...NOT what I expected...
Left Oahu for Hilo on the Big Island on Friday, one day AFTER Homeland Security implemented a totally retarded ban on ALL liquids into the terminal and on to the plane. But for once, I didn't have to wait not even one second to get through the terminal security!!! What luck...guess I picked a right time to leave.
Unidentified Objects - Hilo Airport Terminal
By luck, I met climbing ace Jiri Skrobanek on the same flight and we got into Hilo at about 2:45pm. Since one of my other good friends Cal Asaeda was already in Hilo, he offered to pick us up from the airport. Well, not really Cal, but
his good friend James picked us up and was nice enough to take us to the
Naniloa Hotel where we met up with
Mike Zagorski to go on a reconnaissance of the course.
Being a new course for us, it was really nice to get the pre-op intelligence so we knew where the main landmarks and steep sections were.
Warning Sign: Danger...Altitude Sickness...
Once we drove through the cloudy inversion layer, the view above from the 9,100 ft
Onizuka Mauna Kea Visitor Center was fabulous. The temperature was a cool 70 degrees F. and the air was super clean. No wonder they put all those world class telescopes on the top of this mountain.
Clear skies from Mauna Kea to Mauna Loa.
We got back to the Naniloa at about 6pm and walked over to Hilo's world famous Ken's Pancake House which is open 24 hours a day. Looking for some pre-race carbs, Mike settled for the standard Teri Beef Plate w/ mash, while I opted for the locals favorite, Oxtail Soup w/ 2 scoops rice. Jiri, being an adventurous soul also decided to give the oxtail a try. Little did Jiri know...you NEED to use chopsticks to get the most out of this meal!
The 10:00am race start was a real luxury. Lots of time to wake up late and eat breakfast. Much earlier that morning, my good friends David Lum and Mark Miyamura pulled a "commando raid" and were on the early bird flight into Hilo. When I finally woke up at about 8:15, I saw them outside my window putting together their bikes in the lobby area. As it stood, I was the only one with a room till Sunday, so everyone piled their bike boxes and stuff into my room for pickup later that day.
The race started with a short section of neutral racing till we got out of Hilo town. Once free of the reigns, it was every man (or woman) for himself and within 10 minutes or so, the fast guys were soon up the road and out of sight.
As far as how my race went...I plain and simply...sucked! And unfortunately, this has been a common theme for me this year. The worst thing being, I feel really really strong as far as endurance goes, but having good endurance doesn't necessarily covert to speed ;-(
On the brighter side, I was truely happy to finally make it to the top without walking...just barely though as I must have ended up putting on an extra kilometer by weaving back and forth over the road to make it. My low gear of 34x32 was perfect...as I didn't HAVE to stand to make the steep sections. Both Mark and Cal used 34x27's and both HAD to stand to make the steep sections.
The course was awesome with nice scenery, few cars, smooth roads, and wide shoulders for most of the way. The 6,000 feet of climbing in 29 miles along Saddle Road was not that bad, except for several short steep kicker sections which I used my 34x32 to keep my power down.
Saddle Road steep sections.
Mauna Kea Access Road was the most challenging part of the race with 3,000 feet in 6 miles of climbing to the visitor center. I took this turn at 2h 35min, the same time winners were crossing the finish line above. From that point, I took 1h 10min to cover the final 6 miles. All I can say, is that it was STEEP, LONG, HARD, STEEP, HARD, LONG, and VERY DEPRESSING!!! It took all I had to just finish this portion of the race...the part where I thought my endurace would really shine. In fact, 3 riders passed me in this section and all were doing the zig zag to reduce the grade of the hill.
Final steep grades.
Mike and Jiri got to beat at each other and both had awesome rides. Mike, using a low gear of 38x29, took 1st with a 2h 36min ride whilst bashing the course record by over 20 minutes. Jiri, using a 34x25 came in 2nd about 3 minutes back. David did well with a 3h 30min ride, Mark did about 3h 50min, and Cal took 3rd in the Golden Masters division about a 4h ride.
All in all, the race was very very well run by the
Hawaii Cycling Club. There was never a shortage of support: Gatorade, water, gels, as well as lots of moral support all along the way. The only area where I could see any improvement would be to have one last aid station half way up Mauna Kea Access Road. I spoke to several people and they all felt like they could have used an aid station in that stretch. At the finish, the food anrefreshmentsts were very good with the beef soup being my favorite.
More Pictures and Captions: My Flickr Mauna Kea Set. And here's another set of pictures from this race:
Another Flickr Set.
Next next weekend, I, along with Mark, David, Jiri and Mike, will be doing it all over again, but this time to 10,000 feet at Cycle to the Sun at Haleakala. I really hope to do a lot better there...
Haleakala by Air.
After my disastrous outing at Mauna Kea a couple of weeks ago, I am re-evaluating my strategy for Haleakala. See official website: www.cycletothesun.net.
