State Champianship Road Race

Here is a great Picture Ben took of our family at my Graduation

Sunday Morning Heather and I got up at 0530 to head to the North Shore for the Pineapple Hill Hawaii State Road Championship. The HACC had to provide a wheel truck and Heather volunteered to drive. Unfortunately she drove for the 123 race and didn't get to see me race.
The first part of the race is a down hill section that we ride every Saturday called Snake hill. I was glad to have the experience with the road as we were headed down it in a tight pack going 35 + miles per hour. It was nice knowing were all the bad spots were in the road. At one point I looked down at my computer and I was going 47 mph. My strategy was to hang in the middle of the pack during the down hill and conserve for the climb. When we got to the bottom of Pineapple Road it went up to the front and did a hard pull. I knew I couldn't hold the pace for too long so I eased back as a group of riders passed. I was able to hold on with the front group of 15 or so riders. Bryant and I were the only HACCers in the front pack. Luckily the pace slowed as we road at the top of pineapple through to the feed zone. It was nice being down to only 10 riders for the fast decent. At the bottom of Pineapple Hill, one of the riders took off, Bryant and 2 others were able to keep his wheel and the rest of the pack split off the back. Unfortunately I was in the back of the pack with the split happened and couldn't get up to the front group. I joined up with 5 other riders and formed a chase group. We worked very well together but couldn't catch the front group. We stayed together for the final climb until we turned off on snake road. A couple of riders took off. I was able to catch their wheel and tried to sprint around them hoping to out sprint the group. As I tried to sprint, my legs turned to jello and 3 of the riders passed me. Bryant placed 2nd and I ended up getting 8th in the 4/5 race, but 2nd in my age category for my 3rd State championship medal which unfortunately I managed to lose between the race and my house. Not to bad for my first year or racing on the island. John Girmsey won the gold master's race by quite a margin. Shannon Cutting placed second in the Women's race. Again the HACC did very well.
The new bike was great. It was so nice having crisp shifting. I put new Keo pedals and was having some pain in my left knee. Heather and I rode down to Momentum and Biz tweaked the fit a little which seemed to take care of it as the knee didn't bother me at all during the race.

Heather has been doing a pretty intense workout for her softball off season. The workout involves sprinting, jumping and an occasional 1.5 mile run. She runs her 1.5 in the 11 minute range but hasn't tried any longer runs. We decided to see how far she could run at a 10 minute pace. We started running laps at the track so we could watch our pace. After 6 laps we were getting board so we decided to do the big loop. After the big loop we finished with a 9 minute mile on the track. I was very impressed that someone who hasn't ran more than 1.5 miles at a time could knock out a nice 4 + mile run finishing with a faster mile than her first. After her college softball career is over, she is going to make a heck of an aerobic athlete. I am sending her my old road bike so she can ride it at school.