We did our third Honolulu Century ride last weekend, the first time for Cole to do this ride up on the big bike (the quad). He did the metric century this past summer, so we set out to do somewhere between 50 - 75 miles on this ride. We hadn't gotten a lot of training in this year, so we were just going to play it by ear to decide on the turnaround point.
The ride starts at 6:15am downtown at Kapiolani park and we usually like to start a little ahead of the mass start, since maneuvering a quad through hundreds of other bikes is a little tricky to say the least. So to beat the start time we headed out in the car at 4:45am. This is even a little early by my standards, but the kids were wide awake and ready to go. Breakfast was in the van - poptarts...
We got the bike put together, the kids all ready to go and set out a little before 6am. It was still fairly dark out, the sky was just beginning to lighten a little. We had been on the road for a few minutes already when I took the pic below, so it is a little brighter.
I think the best thing about this ride is heading up along the eastern coastline just as the sun is rising. The colors and scenery are just amazing at that time of day. It makes it all worthwhile.
The pics above are from the first rest stop along the ride. We got there about the time that rest stop opened, since we had headed out a little early. We didn't stay too long since everyone was still fresh, so we headed out after a short break.
The next rest stop was the 50 mile turnaround point, we had a nice long break there along with oranges, bananas, and cookies. That was also when the sky decided to have a nice little downpour, so I was glad we were at the stop instead of out on the road. We waited it out under the tents.
After the rain was done it was time to head out again. As usual we had a lot of people taking pictures (go figure, a 4 person bike seems to attract a lot of attention!). So I got one of the guys to take our pic with my camera too. I made the call to go ahead to the 75 mile turnaround, I felt pretty fresh and hadn't heard too much complaining from the kids so I figured we could make it.
The morning was really nice and overcast until we got to the 75mile turnaround. Perfect biking weather, but eventually the sun burned the clouds off and it started to get hot. Not too bad though, other years it heated up a lot more quickly. There was a playground at this stop, so we had a nice long break before the ride home. And of course, more bananas, oranges, and cookies.
The ride back is always fantastic views with the full sun making the waters just amazing colors of blue and green. Here is a shot as we are approaching Rabbit island. A little while after this the official photographer took our photo along the route, so hopefully he got a good one and I'll order a print. We don't have a shot of all 4 of us riding on the big bike. I hope he had his ultra wide angle lens on!
Adam on the back, I didn't hear any complaining from him the entire ride, except when he desperately needed to stop to pee.
We hit the last rest stop before the end and by this point me and the kids were getting a little sore in the butt. So I was really glad to see this rest stop...
This guy with the old 1950s Schwinn rode for 50 miles on this bike. It weighs as much as a tank and is a single speed, but he did it. Wow!
Here Adam was cooling down dumping water on himself.
They had energy gel at this stop, so I let Adam try some. He actually liked it and went back for more. I have to admit, the chocolate flavored one he got the second time was actually not that bad.
So after another leisurely break (and more oranges, bananas, and cookies) we headed out for the last leg of the trip. Just looking up and seeing the mountain we needed to ride around (Diamond Head), it seemed like a long ways back to the van but the final bit really didn't take too long. We headed through the finish line for another photo-op and then hopped off the bike and walked it back to the van. It was good to stretch the legs and rest the butt for the last few hundred yards.
Here was a pic of the tents set up around the finish line.
So our third Honolulu Century ride under our belts, 75 miles each time. Probably our last? Who knows where we will be next year this time. Probably riding our bike somewhere...
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