Woke up late at 5:45 AM after a bad night of sleep. This was my first real cycling race and my nerves kept me up half the night. Grabbed my bag and headed out the door. The online registration had suggested only a handful of people would attend but it looked as if double the number had shown up for same-day registration.

There was a half-hour between the close of registration and the start. I took the time to do a slow lap around the course. The pavement, by Hawaii standards, was pretty good. Only a few small potholes along the highway. The course consisted of roughly one-mile downhill along the highway followed by a sharp turn and fairly steep up into two-miles of rolling hills and curving road. Though it had rained intermittently the night before the course, thankfully, was dry.

The organizers had combined all the 4/5 races so there were about 25 or so racers at the start. The opening pace along the highway was brisk but not deathly. At the turn between highway and hill, though, the group surged climbing the first hill at 18 or 20 miles. I was afraid to take the turn as sharply as the others and found myself on the outside with a gap. I was able to fight my way back into the pack, but found myself breathing hard from the effort. Over the next two laps I continued to fall off the pack around the turns and by the third lap I couldn't keep up and was dropped.

From there I treated the race as a time trial. I knew, barring a calamity, that I wasn't going to place but I hoped I could at least snipe a few places by chasing down others who had been dropped. Since the sight-line along the highway was good, I was often able to sight struggling riders ahead and use that as motivation.

Eventually I managed to pass a few riders. My turns, however, were still plaguing me. On one turn--thankfully while no one was in sight--I went so wide that, in order to avoid a traffic cone, I had to steer into the bushes. Luckily, the bushes were soft and I was able to scrub enough speed that the 'crash' delayed me by less than thirty seconds. I also found that my gearing was too high for the hills. Even in low gear I couldn't clear the hills at a cadence higher than sixty, which led me feeling as if I was mashing the whole way.

Eventually the peloton found its way to me again. I was able to hold on for two laps, feeling comfortable on the straightaways, before I was left off on the turns, this time for good. I went back to time trialing, receiving intermittent cheers from spectators, which I appreciated. Finally, I reached the last lap. After one more dicey turn, I stood on the pedals and sprinted across the finish.

--Pack a snack. I didn't have time for breakfast and I regretted racing on an empty stomach.
--Put in a lower gear for the hills
--WORK ON CORNERING. I could feel that my straight line speed was good, but falling off the back every turn wasn't a sustainable race plan. I could have stayed with the pack at least a few more laps if I had been able to turn more tightly.