Haleakala climb day. There were some whisperings of not going from sea level but we decided if we were going to down in flames, we may as well make them as big as possible. It was a surprisingly subdued and quiet breakfast mostly due to everyone being a little nervous about what we were about to try.
Stage one involved us riding down 3,000 ft for half an hour just to get back to sea level before turning around and starting our accent.
That’s the volcano in the background. The first part of the climb was brutal, not because of the hill but the heat as we were on an open highway, with no wind and the sun directly in our faces. I don’t think I’ve sweat so much in my life (Alan and Martina are sure of it) and thought there was no way I was going to make it if it stayed like that.
Luckily at about 2,000 ft we turned off the main highway and headed into a more forested area. After a break to refill water at 3,500 ft we started up the portion of the climb we did on Tuesday. We all had our own pace so at this point, each of us was pretty much on our own. The views were amazing but, again, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it the entire way.
Just before the 7,000 ft mark, I caught up with Martina and it was a good thing (I think for both of us) that I did. I’m not sure if the road flattened out a little bit or if it was just having some company but I started feeling much better. There wasn’t a lot of conversation (although I did get tested on some calculus, damn you Martina) but we took our turns leading into the headwind and drafting off each other.
Alan (done over a half hour before us), came down to encourage us the last kilometre or so and I gave it everything I had up the final (and steepest) part of the climb. And what a feeling to get to the top. Almost as good were the looks we got from everyone else at the summit. Not sure if they were amazed or just thought we were insane.
I think Alan put it best when he asked me when we got back, if a year ago before I started training if I would ever have imagined doing a ride that that. The answer would be a very simple: No.
The final stats:
- 7 hours
- 150 km
- 10,000 ft of vertical
- 4 Clif Bars/4 Power Bars
- 6 Gels
- 6 L of liquids (~5 L of Cytomax)
- 1 Amazing View
This is only after the turn around and my altitude function wasn’t working completely so it only kicks in part way up.
Naturally we spent the rest of the night (what was left of it since we didn’t get back until 4 pm after leaving just before 9 am) laying around wondering how we were going to feel in the morning.
