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Mang Amor, Jomarc, Carlo, together with a friend in the middle
of the Honolulu Century bike ride |
You read that right! This year, 3 of our friends made their way to sunny, tropical Honolulu on the island of Oahu in Hawaii to participate in the annual Honolulu Century. Here's how it all went down according to one of the participants, Mang Amor:
"
Three Team Mang Cycling members (Jomarc, Carlo, and Amor) just
completed the 2015 Honolulu Century Ride on September 27 together with
about 15 riders from the Filipino Hawaiian cycling club HIClistas.
These guys are as avid and strong riders as you can find anywhere else.
We are grateful for this group, especially Jun Sadang, for providing us
with authentic Filipino-Hawaiian hospitality both during and after the
ride. While most of the group reside in Oahu, we learned during the ride
that some of them came from Maui and the Big Island. There were other
riders, but among those whose names we can remember are: BeeJay, Jeff,
Freddie, Tito, Cecil, Jimmy, and Paul. Thank you Jun and the other
HIClistas!
The ride started from Kapiolani Park in downtown
Honolulu all the way to Kaawa Beach Park, then back. Along the way,
riders pass through the Diamond Head Rd, Hawaii Kai, with the blue green
waters on the right side and the lush mountains of Diamond Head and
Koko Head on the left side.
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Our brave mangs proudly displaying their certificate after
having completed a century ride in Honolulu, HI |
The ride then goes up a couple of hills,
with some head and side winds, but at the top, what do we get? Another
amazing view of the water, the famous blowhole, rabbit island, and more
of the same, blue green waters on the right side… We went through the
towns of Waimanalo, Kailua and Kaneohe riding through a driving rain
this time (not Seattle rain, but Philippine type rain), but it’s all good
since the rain was WARM! While the wind was whipping us sometimes at
20+mph, both front and sideways, we were always rewarded by the amazing
views of the waters and green mountains. We highly recommend that everyone do this
ride at least once in their lifetime. Jomarc also showed us another
potential ride from downtown Honolulu, which is a short one for training
just before the century ride. It’s called the Mt. Tantalus Round Top ride, a
bit windy and steep, but if you’ve done Mt. Rainier, it should be easy.
(Believe me, you can google it). We also learned that there are many
opportunities for riding in Hawaii: go up to Haleakala in Maui (10,000 ft
over 37 miles, Kona Coast in the Big Island where they hold the famous
Iron Man triathlon for 100 miles, and another century ride on the North
Shore of Oahu. Let’s do this ride again next year!"
- Mang Amor
