Flat # 8

Part 2 ( West side and Ka'ena Point) of the 140 mile Bike for Clean Water

Car stuck and its owner nowhere in sight. Don't bring your car here. Ka'ena Point Trail

My water bottles hold 27 oz (800ml) and both were empty as I left Kapolei. I needed water. I stopped several miles up the road at the showers at Maili Point. Drank a full bottle then filled both bottles and headed north toward Makaha. This isn't a relaxing ride. Lots of traffic and bad streets makes for some nervous times. The Farrington Hwy here is mixed business and residential - lots of cars coming in and out of driveways and lots of stoplights.
Fortunately it turned out to be uneventful and I was making good time even with the less than ideal conditions. I passed Makaha (were I've had lots of great times surfing) but made my first big mistake (other than getting lost a few times), I didn't fill up with water at the showers there. I'd pay for that on the trail. I was making good time, had one full bottle and didn't want to stop. Stopped anyway a mile past Makaha with my first flat from running over a broken bottle. Fixed it sweating in the hot sun.
For those of you who don't know this area,  the paved road does not go all the way around this island. There is a section about 5 1/2 miles long that was never paved and is now a very rough and rocky trail. Its a great hike or run, a tough mountain bike trail and a very miserable trek walking -carrying - riding a road bike. 
By the time I got to Ka'ena Point at about 9:30am I had already fixed my second flat and was out of water. I had a slow three and a half miles of trail and two more on the road before I got to water. The sky was clear and it was getting hot. Stopped for a minute and remembered Penny Palfrey starting her swim to Kauai from here.
The North Shore part of that trail is good for a mountain bike but on my road bike it was risky and had my third flat riding where I should have been walking. I sat down in the sun and the dirt and the dust and fixed the tire and started to wonder why I was doing this. I was hungry too and pulled out a raw organic food bar, took a few bites and I was so dehydrated I couldn't even swallow it. I spit it out, got back on the bike and started my urgent race for water.

Part 1( South Shore) of the 140 mile Bike for Clean Water

The alarm rand at 3:30am. Everything had been packed the day before and all I had to do was load the car. I didn't feel like breakfast and only drank coffee and water. Beth and I headed for Ala Moana Beach Park. The plan was for me to bike from there across the south shore, up the west side, around the Ka'ena Point trail, across the North Shore and down the east side till I got to the Makai Pier across from Sea Life Park. From there I would paddle back to Magic Island - hopefully before sunset. A race with the Sun.
I kissed Beth good by and left the parking lot in a very light drizzle at 5:05am.
It was still dark and I was careful riding along Nimitz. The beginning was exciting, as these kind of things always are for me but riding through busy city streets is frustrating, too, slow with all the traffic and stoplights. I noticed the red and yellow sunrise somewhere around the Pearlridge Center. Smiled. This was going to be a beautiful day. Made sure to make regular calls to Beth so she would know I was ok and for her to tweet my location.

Was making progress down the Kam Highway and coming up on the Pearl Highlands Center and looking for the turnoff to the Farrington Highway. Saw the sign that said "Waianae" and took that and found myself on the FREEWAY. I was disorientated. What Happened? I stopped, lifted my bike over the guardrail and started walking my bike back. Rode back about a mile looking for where I went wrong and in desperation turned off Kam Hwy. and headed toward the water. Saw a guy on a bike coming off a bike trail and asked for directions to Farrington. Turns out that was the Pear Harbor bike trail that I had heard about but never been too, until now. Beautiful ride and a relief to get away from traffic for a while. Got a good look at America's Navy.

 Found Farrington and had a beautiful ride to Kapolei where I got lost again, briefly, because you have to turn off Farrington Wesbound before getting on on Farrington Northbound. or else you go to Barbers Point. Was at Kapolei at 7am and feeling strong and excited about the ride up the west side.

The Bike was riding beautifully but I was running out of water and knew it was time to start looking for some clean safe drinking water of my own. I knew I still had a very long day ahead.

140 Miles Self Supported for Clean Water

I've been going through all the photos and video this morning - reliving it all. What an intense day.I started At Magic Island on my bike planning to ride around the island clockwise to Makapu'u and then paddle back to Magic Island. Self supported I no longer think its possible unless I want to do most of the paddle in the dark. I was dealing with the trail from hell (quite beautiful unless you're trying to ride across it on a road bike), heat and humidity, strong headwinds,dehydration , a crash and ten flat tires! Somewhere on the North Shore I realized I wouldn't make it back to Makapu'u in time to paddle back. I was disappointed but knew I was going to get back to where I started on my own.
Fifteen straight hours of biking (with a bit of hiking with a bike on my shoulders), most of it with what I thought was a bent rim from the crash ( my back rim was badly scraped and wobbling the last 80 miles but this morning I put a new tire on it and it rides smooth) and I had to rethink my plans. A solo unsupported 140 mile trip around the island was going to have to be good enough because I wasn't going to get to Makapu'u much before dark to do any paddling.
Lots of people thought I should stop.A crash, bent rim, ten flat tires and way behind schedule - everyone would understand.  Everyone except a young boy in some third world country who heard about Blue Planet Network and how they could  possibly bring clean safe drinking water to his village so he and his family wouldn't have to drink out of the sewage pond. 6,000 people a day DIE from not having clean safe drinking water, mostly children. I was biking and thinking what I would say to this boy about why I didn't finish, about why I couldn't raise enough money to help his village. I was going to finish if I had to crawl back.
Now you have to do your part. Thirty dollars is I'm asking. My Goal is $25,000 by the end of March. Please donate
This adventure has been a great learning experience and I intend to blog about all the details and everything I learned about fitness and endurance adventures in the days to come. Check back for that.