Well, I finished the 2008 Haleiwa Metric Century… and I even did the whole 100km.

Overall, I felt better than I did last year. I rode with two friends, and had a great time.

Starting off, I wasn’t doing so well. My legs ached and felt drained 5 miles into the ride. By the time we hit the first check point at the 10 mile mark, I figured out that I had two problems. The first was that my seat was too low. I had made some adjustments after it had worked loose, and did not get it back to where I needed it. The second was that I was starting on an empty tank. I hadn’t eaten anything in the morning before the ride.

So, I raised my seat a little, and fueled up at the first checkpoint. After that I felt much better.

The morning was absolutely amazing. Beautiful. We fought a bit of a headwind, but that would obviously help us on the return. As the day wore on, it got hotter and hotter. The last stretch was miserable… but we finished.

Distance: 100km (actual bike computer distance: 59 miles)
Time: 4 and 1/2 hours (actual bike computer time: 4hrs 28min)

Not too bad. We started rolling a little before 0800, and rolled back into Haleiwa a little after 1300, so not quite an hour off the bike during the entire ride. Waaaay better than last year.

I’ll tell you what, though… I’m tired of riding the hybrid on these long rides. It’s too heavy and upright. Quite a workout on my legs, but I think I’m ready for a faster road-style bike.

Here’s some pics:

This is the waiting line for the start. It’s about half through right now. There were hundreds of riders. Not quite a thousand, but there were hundreds.

This was definitely a family event! He’d already unloaded most of the family and was “parking the bike” when I snagged this pic. Everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun.