HONOLULU CENTURY 2008 - BRAH, CAN YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE?

74.6 miles - 4:01:45 Ride - Not a bad way to end the season!


This morning Dev and myself headed out to the 2008 Honolulu Century. At first I wasn't planning on doing this event but last week I received a call from Bob G. saying that the Coast Guard would be paying for several entry fees. At 0430 I picked up Dev and headed to the Hale Koa parking lot for a day of riding. We got to Kapiolani Park and Admiral Brown had set up a photo shoot with the other 12 or so Coasties. Place was packed and rumor said it had close to 4,000 riders.

In memory of the fallen aircrew, we all rode with 6505 on our arms. I also had Dave's initials and it was a nice tribute ride.

Admiral Brown is 6th from the left and has great taste in bicycles. He was sporting a Specialized Roubaix and was signed up to ride 100 miles.

Dev and I headed out about 15 mins prior to the start to avoid any sketchy riders. Somehow with 4000 riders a crash at the start was about to happen. Dev has been sick all week so we decided to ride on feel. I was feeling sympathetic (lol) so I decided to do majority of the work since he was toughing it out with a cold. We hammered a few times on the climbs, rode tempo then backed off for about 25 miles or so. In Kailua the "hammer group" was coming and as I turned around I saw Tony Lang pulling the train. I heard "Jump on Ben" and told Dev to just sit in and hold on. We were screaming through Kailua and the pace quickly accelerated to abut 30 mph along Kaneohe Bay Drive.

I told Dev when your ready to back off I will ride with you. The pace never lifted! In this group was riders like Tony Lang, Carl Brooks, and David Lum to name a few. On a short climb near the sewage plant in Kaneohe, Tony went off the front. The chase group was down to about 6 riders. I saw the split and bridged up forgetting about Dev. I looked backed and saw him chasing. I backed off and bridged him back to the 6 riders and the back riders were blowing up.

We hit the 75 mile turnaround and made the decision to take fluids and slow down. By now the sun was beating down and it was humid! We gathered fluids turned around and headed home. Around the 65 mile mark I decided to give Dev more rest and was screaming down Kalanianaole Road at 28+ mph. Dev took a few turns and made it back to the Hale Koa Hotel. Well, we thought our daily experience was over until we had to pay for parking...



"CAN YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE"
As we pulled up to the parking attendant, she says "dats 4 dollars". I hand he my credit card and she says "we no take credit cards" Shit! She makes up back up and I ask Dev if he has any money. He said no, and I didn't make it to the ATM either this week. I had 2 dollars in my bike bag and we start scrambling for change. I looked under the seat and found nothing! Auuuggghh! I was able to scavenge $3.70 cents in change in my arm rest. But we were still .30 cents short. I found 30 pennies under the pens! Success! We pull back up and I had her the coins. She looked at me all frustrated, maybe she doesn't know how to count. I said it's currency... After 5 mins of counting she replies with "grown men should carry cash". Whatever BIT#H. Then to be a wise ass I ask for a receipt!
Just another beer drinking story to tell someday!