On the Road Again

I think it's been about a year since I biked to work. When I first started making the 13 mile trek from Ewa Beach to the Airport plaza, it was out of frustration. Ft. Weaver, the main access road to all of 96706 was down to two lanes and one of them was under construction. I was spending an hour on the road to travel only 15 miles, and more than half of that time was spent on Ft. Weaver.

On a dare to myself I thought, "This is stupid, I'll bet I could bike to work in the same amount of time it takes to drive it". Despite the fact that I can swim between islands, I had never biked more than three miles. So I felt a little crazy when I set out on a course around Pearl Harbor. It took me over an hour and a half. So much for my lifestyle hack.

For about a year I went at least one way to work twice a week. I did get the time down to about an hour. I also lost about 15 pounds in the process. I'd also found a new athletic outlet, one that got me to work alert and refreshed. After some time, my Gary Fisher bike pretty much squeaked to a halt. It was easier to drag it than peddle it. I figured I'd killed it, and left it in the garage, a repair project for another day. By then Ft. Weaver was up to 4 lanes (thanks to the governor) and the car commute wasn't that bad anyway.

What I didn't know was that all it needed was a routine tune-up. Just last week I took it to Boca Hawaii off of Nimitz, prepared to pay more than I really had on hand. In three days and $62 they had my bike running maybe better than new. I got the bike back last weekend. I biked to work yesterday, and then used the bike to get back home today.

If you didn't know about the bike path around the harbor, you should check it out. Every morning people stroll it, run it, and bicycle commute on it. If you scroll down you will see a map inset in the margin of this page. Click on the link underneath it to see a larger map. The bike path is traced around the harbor, I added some pictures on the map as well.