Ride My Bicycle Up Haleakala

The photo on my profile might require a little explanation. That is the top of Haleakala, a volcano on Maui that I rode the bicycle shown, up! Dave and I went to Maui in February for a training camp for his triathlon season, I came along as the "water-girl" someone had to do it, so I graciously volounteered (and shed some unwanted volume to fit into a swimsuit). The deal was that he would rent me a bike and support me for the day (or days, hahahaa) it would take me to climb this, the third hardest road climb in the world.
I trained a lot, I started running (sore hip and knees) and cycling on the road more than my usual commute to Coffee on the Moon to drop off mugs, and riding my kona king kikapu up Mt. Prevost (behind our house) a couple times a week.
I started at the base of the climb (not at the ocean in Piai) and climbed for 32 km (20 miles) about 8,000 feet and all in under 4 hours. It really wasn't that bad (yeah yeah) and no one was around when I finally put in my ipod and sang and cried through the pain. I just took things at my own pace and spent an hour riding with a very nice man from Seattle, but that last stretch between the visitor parking lot and the top was HELL!! The road pitches up dramatically, keep in mind I had been climbing for three and a half hours at this point. Dave was dizzy at that elevation (10,000 feet) taking pictures. I must have looked and sounded really bad because I was hanging off my bars gasping for air! He encouraged me to sit up a little to fill my lungs better, sadly there is only so much oxygen at that elevation and I had to keep turning those pedals over!
The photo proves it though, and he drove me back down from the top as I was seeing stars and was hypoxic (he says I was yelling and riding around at the top but I don't remember it, must have been the lack of O2, haha) It was a great break from the endless days in the pottery studio and Dave got all the riding in that any human could do in 7 days, save the day he spent supporting me, and we definitely saw the sights at the beaches too!