Tantalus Time Trial...by foot

Do you want to ride a bike up Tantalus as fast as you can? ~1500ft and a little under 5 miles...that's what happened on Sunday. It was the 40th annual Tantalus Time Trial (TTT) here in Hawaii. It is the longest standing bike race on island and a chance for local cyclists to come out and spend some time riding bikes and suffering uphill together. What a great way to spend a Sunday morning....

A few weeks ago, I was approached by my friend Sau (he is known to enter cycling races using all sorts of different bikes: beach cruisers, single speeds, full carbon race bikes, I'm sure he'd use a unicycle if he had the means or opportunity and on Sunday he chose to use....a BikeShare Hawaii bicycle). He had the idea that he wanted to race TTT on this BikeShare bike, so he approached our other friend Lori McCarney, CEO of BikeShare Hawaii to ask permission to borrow a BikeShare bike to race up Tantalus. She loved the idea and threw in a twist...wouldn't it be fun to get someone to run up Tantalus and race you to the top during the race? He suggested me.

Sure, why not, lets run up Tantalus during a bike race as fast as I can and try to beat someone riding a bike. I can do that, easy! Haha! The BikeShare bikes are meant to get you from Point A to Point B; they are heavy; they are commuter bikes, they are not lightweight race bikes meant for racing up mountains, so I was intrigued, sign me up!

There was a little banter between the two of us before the race, I honestly thought it could go either way. He was convinced that I was going to come out victorious and there was going to be a lot of "butt-kicking" (see links below) taking place. But running up a mountain vs. riding up a mountain...I wasn't sure. Sau is a great cyclist and even though the BikeShare bikes are heavy, I knew he would throw down a respectable time.

The race started and we both took off, me, a bit faster than I probably should have, Sau right on target. I might have told him my game plan and strategy ahead of time....that won't happen again but I did have a great Sherpa carrying water and music...that might have given away how close or far I was from Sau, but I would do that again if given the opportunity...thanks, Scott!

I thought my only chance at being able to come close to beating him was to get ahead from the beginning in the steepest part of the climb because once you get closer to the top the road flattens out a bit and there are a couple of flatter sections where he could pick up some time on me. I think I got a little over zealous in that first mile and ended up losing a bit of time in the end, oh well.

I should have kept my strategy to myself because he knew my plan was to go right from the start and he went as well. I kept him in my sights for the first 2ish miles of the climb and then once it started to flatten out, he put more time on me and I wasn't able to make that up in the end.

I think best case scenario, had I kept my plan in my own head and paced myself appropriately, I could have run maybe a minute faster and maybe Sau would have rode 30 seconds slower, which still would have had him winning in the end.

What a fun morning it was. And the fact that you, well Sau, can race a BikeShare bike up a mountain and still beat a good number of people riding fancy, expensive, super lightweight carbon racing bikes is pretty amazing. That bodes well for taking those bikes to get from one place to another all-the-while staying fresh and ready for your meeting, lunch, workday. etc. So, congrats to Sau, Lori and BikeShare Hawaii, I cannot wait for these bikes to make their official appearance here in Hawaii!

Final times
Sau: 34:43
Lectie: 37:34

and here are some links to the pre and post race interviews....

KHON Preview Story

KHON Recap Story

25:00 mark