Rapha Festive 500

Last year, I heard about this challenge called the Rapha Festive 500.  It's a cycling challenge where you have to bike 500km in 8 days (Christmas Eve through New Year's Eve).  I attempted it myself last year but quickly gave up when I realized I wasn't making enough progress to finish.  This year, my biggest advantage was my faithful sidekick, my husband.

I was actually surprised he did it with me because he didn't sound like he was on board at the beginning.  I guess the challenge eventually appealed to him because before I knew it he was taking time off from work to ride!  In the week before the F500 started, we hatched a daily mileage plan and talked about various routes to try.  I hate doing the same route over and over again and was looking forward to exploring other parts of the island.   Here's a brief overview of each day's ride:

Day 1 - West Side (68.3 miles)
We actually did a test ride in Kapolei two weeks before the F500 started, so on Day 1, our biggest day, we headed back out to the wide streets and new developments of the west side of Oahu.  Starting at Kapolei Regional Park, we headed down to some military back roads, headed over to Ewa Beach with a detour to Nimitz Beach and another long, smooth road, then followed Fort Weaver Road all the way toward Waipahu before heading back.  We were going to try to connect up with the Pearl Harbor Bike Path, but we were hot and tired.



Day 2 - Tour de Homeless (40.5 miles)
On Day 2, we started in Kalihi, went across Nimitz Highway (would've been a lot scarier in heavy traffic) to the bike path under the freeway, up through Salt Lake, took a slight detour through Pearl City before getting on the Pearl Harbor Bike Path, riding to the end of the path, went back down to try to find a way through the Waipio Soccer Complex to get to Waipahu (there isn't one), then doing Lagoon Drive and Sand Island before heading home.  Our butts hurt, especially on those bumpy roads, but we finished our first 100 miles in 2 days, so we were happy to be on track.



Day 3 - The wind be wicked (35.6 miles)
Day 3 was a Monday, but it was a state holiday, so we had another day off to ride.  This time, we did our same ol' route along Kalanianaole to Maunalua Bay.  It was soooo windy, though, that I really didn't think we'd get 35 miles out of this day.  We actually did that route twice in order to get enough miles in -- I think that's the first time I've ever done Kalanianaole twice in a row.  Not my favorite thing, but I was impressed that we actually braved the head winds and cross winds to get it done.  Bravo!



Day 4 - Racing the sun (30.2 miles)
Day 4 was a work day, so we took an hour off early to ride before it got dark.  We did the same Hawaii Kai route with some valleys and finished around 6 p.m. after doing some laps around the Capitol to get up past 30 miles.  I think I pushed the pace a little too much going out because our legs were tired the next day.



Day 5 - Connecting the dots (45.2 miles)
Wednesday was our last big ride day.  We decided to connect our Day 1 and Day 2 rides, starting in Kalihi and out to Kapolei.  In the end, we only did the Ewa Beach loop because we didn't really need to add in extra Kapolei miles.  It was a good effort, but our legs were pretty fatigued by the end of the ride.  At least the end was near!



Day 6 - Are we there yet? (32.3 miles)
Thursday was the old Hawaii Kai route.  It's the route nearly every cyclist on Oahu does on a consistent basis.  Perhaps because I've done it a number of times already, I found it difficult to get excited about this ride.  I basically dragged myself through these 30+miles and looked forward to finishing this challenge soon.



Day 7 - Wettest, coldest ride yet (33.4 miles)
We took off from work on Day 7 to ride.  I had planned to drive out to Kapolei again to do some big miles out there, but the weather was terrible -- really strong winds and cold rains -- you'd never guess this was Hawaii.  Because the weather wasn't cooperating, we stuck to our Hawaii Kai route.  Ugh.  At least we changed it up a bit and got on the Ala Wai bike path for the first time.  We got drenched early in the ride, and it just kept on coming.  I forgot to put Chamois cream on, so I dealt with some chafing.  It would've been great to have little wipers on my sunglasses because it was difficult to see at times with all the rain.  Still, we persevered and had only 30 miles left to finish!



Day 8 - Free at last!  (30.3 miles)
This was the third day in a row we did the same route.  Needless to say, I was over it.  I had taken it easy on Day 7, so with the legs I had left, I tried to sprint the valleys.  I didn't quite have gas in the tank after the first one, though, so we limped to the finish.  The best part was that we had another 3 days of vacation ahead of us, which we could thoroughly enjoy without having to worry about waking up early to bike.



I'm so proud of us.  I won't say I'll never do this challenge again, but for now I'm satisfied with the effort.  My only regret is that I have absolutely no photos to document our journey.  That might be the goal for the next time...