Closer by the Mile...Fighting Cancer with the PMC

[92degrees]

Closer by the Mile...The Pan-Massachusetts Challenge

As some of you may remember, I considered riding in the 2005 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (http://www.pmc.org/) last year. In the end I chose to play it safe and participated in shorter rides with smaller fundraising goals. I was very disappointed in myself.

Last week I committed to ride in the 2006 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge. The PMC is the oldest cycling fundraiser in the country and raises more money than any other athletic fundraising event in the U.S. It is also the most cost efficient, with 99 cents of each dollar raised going directly to the Jimmy Fund. The PMC has contributed more than $145 million to lifesaving cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since 1980. On August 5 and 6, I will join 4,000 cyclists who will be traveling eight different routes, logging between 70 and 192 miles over one or two days, through 46 Massachusetts towns. The PMC route I have chosen is from Sturbridge to Provincetown -- 192 miles.

I will be riding with Team LEGS (Legs Eliminating Great Suffering). Team LEGS was founded by my friend Mike whose son Sam was treated in 2002 for cancer at age 3 at Children's Hospital in Boston. My son is the same age as Mike’s, and following Sam’s struggles for two years was truly one of the most gut-wrenching experiences of my life. Sam is now doing well!

Team LEGS was assigned a pedal partner last year and was partnered with an unbelievably brave, tough and fun kid with a great family -- Jake Boudreau. Jake's fighting neuroblastoma. Recently it was found that the tumor is coming back and Jake has some more challenges ahead of him. He's in the best of care at Children’s working with the research fellow who was sponsored directly by the Friends for Life Neuroblastoma fund.

I have decided not to beat around the bush or procrastinate this year! I am posting to ask you for money. I realize that I could lead up to it gently but this money is needed for cancer care and research and there is nothing gentle about cancer. I hope that you will help. My friends and family are committed to taking this challenge seriously and I trust that you want to be a part of the cure as much as we do. I will do the training and the hard work. I will even post pictures if that helps!

My goal for the 2006 PMC is to raise $6,000 or more for the Jimmy Fund.

I am far more nervous about meeting this goal than I am about the ride.

The PMC is a way for the healthy to fight for the ill, and for all of us to invest in the future cure.

If you would like to learn more about PMC, please visit https://www.pmc.org/default.asp

Thank you, Steve

 

[Ken C.]

While your cause is a good one we cannot allow solicitations of donations on BFC. I edited your thread removing the donation links. However, I did leave the link to the organization itself. I wish you luck in your endeavor.

 

[92degrees]

While your cause is a good one we cannot allow solicitations of donations on BFC. I edited your thread removing the donation links. However, I did leave the link to the organization itself. I wish you luck in your endeavor.

Got it. Sorry Ken.

I had seen a bunch of other appeals on the forum...for mods with personal troubles, knifemakers down on their luck, folks in the services...so I thought it was kosher since it was for cancer research.

Folks can PM me if they like.


Steve

 

[Ken C.]

Those appeals for donations were presented to Spark before anything was put into motion. He had the final say. The money donated went directly to the individual and not to an organization.

 

[92degrees]

Those appeals for donations were presented to Spark before anything was put into motion. He had the final say. The money donated went directly to the individual and not to an organization.

Like I said Ken, I got it. I've always played by the rules all these years even if they are not particularly clear to me at first.

 

[Ken C.]

Like I said Ken, I got it. I've always played by the rules all these years even if they are not particularly clear to me at first.

No problem. Didn't want you to think we showed favoritism to anyone. No harm, no foul. You're one of the good guys on my list.

 

[92degrees]

PMC weekend

Friday
I picked up my son early from camp and we drove to the PMC start in Sturbridge so that we could stand on the starting line together and look down the road. It would have been too much stress and confusion for him on Saturday morning before sunrise, and I wanted very badly to do that with him.

Sturbridge was a beehive of activity even at 2:00pm. People arriving by bus and in campers, hundreds and hundreds of bikes. People riding up and down the access roads, bikes leaning on every tree and all over the lobby of the hotel. It was great!

My son gave me a photo of him with his mom that I could carry on the ride. The back reads “When the riding gets tough, just know that we are your biggest cheerleaders and we’re with you with every spin. We love you very much and are very proud of you.”

I checked-in at registration, got my wristbands and tags, and then walked around with my son through the bike fair begging for free stuff. We met up with a few folks from the team to discuss the next morning’s plan, kept an eye out for Greg Lemond or Eric Heiden, and then went back home to pack. My parents came out for dinner (pasta, with a side of pasta), so that my dad could take me to the start and my mother could leave later in the morning and follow with my wife and son to meet me at the finish in Bourne.

Packed, repacked, repacked, prepped breakfast, laid out clothes, watched the opening ceremonies on tv and went to sleep at 9:00.

Saturday Day 1
Sturbridge to Bourne
111mi.
Got up at 4:00 and ate breakfast for three and mainlined coffee. Showered, dressed, woke my dad, and drove to the start. I don't think he was prepared for the swarm of cyclists getting ready at the start! Got my bike together, pumped up the tires and filled the water bottles and went in search of a men's room and the team. The only time I've ever seen lines at a men's room (PMC is 70% men, or something like that). Walked to the start -- a sea of bicycles and people. A log jam of titanium and carbon fiber.

The PMC tradition is that everyone wear their new PMC jersey on the first day -- a show of solidarity. On the one hand, it's incredibly impressive to see hundreds of cyclists in a single uniform on the road. On the other hand, it's impossible to recognize the people you know without reading bike tags.

I could not find my team anywhere at the start. I picked the group with the fastest looking guys and cutest girls and figured I could do much worse. Greg Lemond started the ride.

After the mayhem of the parking lot and everyone trying to get clipped in and avoid smacking into eachother, the lead groups settled down to a steady pace. The sun was just starting to rise and the lakes and rivers were covered in fog. Both sides of the road were lined elbow-to-elbow with cheering spectators. It was perfect.

About 4 miles in I came up on the rear wheel of my team captain as he crept up a hill. I was in the middle of a paceline and couldn't do much to slow down. I tried waiting at the top of the hill as for as long as was safe, but never saw him again. I ran into another teammate that I barely know a few miles later and introduced myself but he was not very interested in chatting.

So, it was just me and whoever looked quick and friendly the rest of the day!

The first 40 miles of PMC are said to be the worst part of the ride. Very hilly. The hills all have names. I don't know what they are! Heartbreak this and that. I did not find them especially horrible compared to Western Mass. Plus, there is always something to take your mind off of the pain -- kids to high-five at the side of the road, families with cowbells or airhorns, people in costume, bagpipers, themed water stops -- and lots of fast legs everywhere.

Photos of cancer survivors or people that have passed away on every tree for miles and miles.

I'll spare you the blow-by-blow of every mile! The pace was quick and fun, the first 40 miles were not nearly as scary as the vets say, and before I could settle down and think about anything I was at the 60mi waterstop. Made the lunch stop by 10:15. At that point there were fewer and fewer riders ahead down the road. That's a little scary. The directional signs aren't always easy to spot and the lead groups got a bit lost at times.

I rolled into Bourne/Mass Maritime well before noon. Grabbed a few bottles of water, a Motrin, stretched, waited for anyone from my team (never saw anyone), visited with some folks I know from other places, and then peddled back out of Mass Maritime to find a convenient place for my wife to pick me up.


Sunday Day 2
Bourne to Provincetown
81mi.

All the months of training, there were three things that I looked forward to:
riding over the Bourne Bridge at sunrise,
seeing my son at the Brewster rest stop,
and the finish line.

My wife dropped me off in Bourne at 5:00am and many riders were already on the road. I rigged my bike and said goodbye to wife and puppy and rolled out to the bridge. The riding went very well, and the hop over the bridge and along the Cape Cod Canal was fabulous at sunrise. I tried to keep the pace up as high as I dared because I wanted to be one of the first riders that my son saw in Brewster (40 miles in). My son was right by the side of the road where I had pictured he would be and the look on his face was worth everything and anything.

I showed him the way kids would hold out a hand to high-five the riders as they passed and stayed with him a little too long doing that. Stopped briefly at the Brewster rest stop (Tiki Bar with hula skirts!) to fill up and then spun for all I was worth to P-town to meet the finish time that I projected for meeting up with the family.

Best unexpected sight: Cape Cod Sea Camps -- every camper out by the side of the road cheering. Amazing. 8)

Blistering pace toward P-town, over the hills of Truro, and in to the finish line for 9:30am. My wife and son were right there at the finish (first time they've ever made it to a finish in time!) so that my son could give me a high-five as I went past.

Describing the riding is easy, explaining the emotion of seeing all the people at the side of the road -- the children giving high-fives with one hand and holding signs with their other saying that PMC saved their life -- it's a very very overwhelming weekend. Long stretches of road with signs, mailboxes, and trees decorated by photos and stories. Through thirty-four towns there was hardly a time when there weren’t families sitting on their lawns or standing by the side of the road offering fruit or water, cheering, or saying “thank you for riding.”

I am indebted to so many people. I would not have been able to do this without the moral support, advice, and enthusiasm from my friends here and my family. PMC will raise 24 million dollars for cancer research from this event. If anyone hasn’t participated and would like to, PMC accepts donations for this year through next month.

Thanks for reading!

The finish: