When I turned left onto the Kawaihae Road shit got real. There was a pretty steep descent into Kawaihae and I remember whining to myself: Oh man. I don't want to climb that. I knew that on the way back this hill would be a challenge. Right after town, the six mile ascent began.
I was actually in a good mood I had finished two of my nutrition bottles. I looked to my left from the top of a cliff with a view and suddenly was overcome with gratitude. My thoughts were with Jen and I said out loud: Jen you would love this. I pulled out Don Keyote. Don is a finger puppet that Jen gave me before I left. I had tucked him into the back pocket of my kit. Similar to my Pez co-pilot, she always takes a finger puppet along for long rides and races. Don Keyote is a master at fighting windmills and I thought he would be perfect to bring to Kona.
This section of the ride got steeper and steeper and the wind blew harder & harder. I was grateful for a headwind. At least it wasn't side-wind. It also meant that we would have a tail wind on the down hill. I made it to the turn-around in Hawi. It looked exactly me like I thought it would. It looked exactly like it had on the NBC tv special for the 20 years I’ve been watching.
The mile 60 aid station and the personal needs bags were about a quarter mile apart. I stopped at the aid station to refill bottles and my camelbak. I was VERY disappointed they didn't have ice. But, the water was cold. I played bartender with the help of one of the volunteers (I think it was Hannah) and was off to personal needs. Erin had warned me that it was not a real stop, but I was able to pull the ziploc bag out of the orange main bag……then fish out what I needed: DANISH coffee licorice, three gels, gummy colas, chamois butter and a note from Amy. I ate three pieces of licorice, applied the chamois butter. I ditched a lot of mechanical stuff: tire, tubes and canisters on the side of the road and I took the rest with me. I was fine for about 45 minutes and then the darkness fell. Not literal darkness. The sun was still high and baking everything under it. Let me be clear. There is no shade for 112 miles. But, I went to some pretty dark places. The first and major trigger was seeing the aid station at mile 45 being dismantled and cleaned up. I was at mile 70…..but, hadn't I just been through here? Was I that far behind? Are they sweeping the course? Oh my! There's the last athlete on the other side of the road! Crap! I’m not going to make it.
