Hi,
First a big thanks to Joy and Jon for helping my teammate Greg and me out on this race. Believe me, I don't know what we'd have done without their help.
Greg and I stayed at the luxurious Royal Hawaiian Resort (Motel). Next time we're going to do the Bun Boy
instead. We got to the start area at 6:35 in the AM and parked near jpconrad and Happytime. I was pretty much ready to go and went to the start area just as the pre-race instructions were starting. genedoc was also in our race which ended up being the Pro/1/2/3 field combined with the Master 30+ 1/2/3 field. We had a whopping 20 racers or so.
We rolled out at 18-20 MPH for the first couple of miles and then it started. The primary stat that I was able to get off my computer was that we covered the first 31 miles at an average of 26.9 MPH.
I got dropped fairly early on the climb, kept a steady pace and caught a big guy just before the feed zone. Happytime did an expert job of handing up the bottle I wanted and retrieving the bottle I tossed.
This big guy and I hammered on the descent but after 10 or so more mile my back was cooked and I couldn't push on the pedals anymore. So 50 miles into the race I'm by myself hoping that the 4/5 pack would catch me as I could barely ride 12-14 MPH into a relentless headwind. A small group that was the 4/5 break caught me so I didn't want to interfere with them and I couldn't get on them anyway.
Then a small chase group came up and I got onto them for a very short distance and again thought better of mixing it up with them. Finally, a larger group that had jpconrad, WhiteCarbonDude, and genedoc. I sit in and work with them for about 10 miles but then I decide to try to sit at the back -- big mistake. This big guy is back there on genedoc's wheel but he keeps yo-yo'ing and everytime he tries tto get back on genedoc's wheel he stands up and hammers. I stay with him for a few minutes of this but it is killing me and I don't have the strength to come around him. So with about 10 miles to go (which turns out to be 8.5) I drop off to crawl to the finish. Another PAA guy catches me and we have a nice chat for the last few miles about another of my teammates whom he knows.
Finished and get to the van where Happytime hands me a fresh bottle with water.
We get packed up and trade war stories during the drive back to the start.
Not a stellar day for me but fun nonetheless. I'll definitely do it again.
EDIT: BTW, it was nice to meet UMD and WhiteCarbonDude in the flesh.