Day 1 and 2 of the PMC- no need for sunblock

Sorry for the delay in posting, got back too late yesterday from a social engagement....The 35th PMC is in the books! It was as always a fantastic experience but on Saturday we were thrown a curveball, or rather a spitball. To quote PMC founder, this past Saturday put a capital "C" in the Pan Mass Challenge, as we experienced the coldest sustained rain in the history of the ride (more on this part of the day later). The duck on this rider's helmet would be pretty happy most of the day as we headed out at 5:30 am on Saturday. It's an incredible sight as 4000 cyclists roll out of Sturbridge completely taking over Route 20.

It rained lightly on and off for the first 60 miles, and temps struggled to get out of the 60's. The riding was enjoyable enough and as always we were energized by people cheering us on along the way and local police officers waved us through intersections. Here we are in Franklin at about mile 42 (love this sign)!

Some towns really get into the PMC. One of our favorite places is Cherry Street in Wrentham. The street is lined with cheering residents and a marimba band and a children's bagpipe troupe! Very inspiring for us and inspiring and expiring for them as they play.

Talk about inspiring, my friend Michael did the ride with his 19 year old daughter Becca. Here she is smiling at the lunch stop but she was actually very cold at this point as the rain and wind was picking up. We honestly didn't think she would finish as she looked to be at the beginning stages of hypothermia, but she is clealry made of tougher stuff as she finished well. Yours truly experienced numbness in my fingers while having lunch, an ealry sign of hypothermia as it turns out.

So the deluge. The rain started getting heavy at about mile 80 for us, about 12:30pm. Pretty soon it was torrential- there were virtual streams on the road and you couldn't get more wet if you took a bath. We biked hard in order to stay warm and to get 'er done as quickly as possible. It was almost fun biking through the warm pools of water, except you didn't know exactly was underneath them. Here are John and I at the 110 mile finish line in Bourne. Very happy to be done, but drenched to the bone. Within minutes of getting off the bike, we both became uncontrollably cold, and we hustled to the dorm room. John later said I was slurring my speech (more than usual!), another sign of hypothermia. My warm shower never felt so good!! A rider I met on Sunday told me when she arrived at the finish, the volunteers took one look at her and brought her right to the medical tent to get her under blankets. Brrrrrr!!!

So why do we do this ride, and who are we riding for? We are riding for the many people we know, and who are friends know, who have battled cancer. Some of whom have won the battle and others who have lost. There are also riders themselves who are cancer survivors or who are currently battling cancer. They comprise the Living Proof team. My friend on the ride is a proud member of this team as is a rider who I met who lost his right leg to osteosarcoma and cycles the PMC with one leg (he has no prosthesis as his amputation was well above the knee). Truly inspring!! And it puts difficult cycling conditions right into perspective.

Many riders form teams who directly support pedal partners, often young children who are battling cancer. Their photographs can be seen here right before the Pedal Partners rest stop. Shown below is Evan's army posing with their pedal partner Evan.

Day 2 did not have epic weather conditions, but rather was a cloudy cool day of very nice cycling from Bourne to Provincetown. Cycling on the Cape is great fun. Not as flat as you would think, but with varied terrain, frequent water views, and very fun crowds of cheering onlookers. Our favorite are the hundreds of people who line "Da Hedge", a raucous group of fun loving crazies who scream at the top of their lungs at passing cyclists.

This year I convinced two co-workers to do the ride- Michael and Jim. Both of whom had never done a long distance road bike ride like this one before. Here we are posing with our Team Ironwood jerseys (Ironwood is our company). Posing with us is michael's daughter Becca. Hopefully they will do the ride again next year, despite their tough inaugural conditions.

Jim, my friend John and I rode pretty hard to finish out the last half of the 82 mile ride. Shown here are my friends John, Paul and linda and I at the finish. And yours tuly enjoying life at its fullest- a Harpoon IPA and a lobster roll.

Oh yeah, and Linda, Paul and I (and our friend Adam) road 290 miles from West Stockbridge to Provincetown. Another great PMC. We are looking forward to seeing how much the PMC raises this year and hoping we break $41million. All for an amazing cause! Many thanks to those who contributed to my PMC (and/or Anchor House) ride. If you'd like to contribute here's the link http://www2.pmc.org/profile/kc0258

Thanks for following along!

 

 

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Day Zero of the PMC- 100 miles down!

100 cycling miles today on the unofficial PMC day zero ride under the best cycling conditions we'll have all weekend. Tomorrow sounds like a slogfest, er sogfest. We started out in the cool morning air from our motel and biked 5 miles to the NY State border where we posed for the traditional starting photo. The riding crew for today from left to right is yours truly (3 year PMC rider), my three year PMC cycling partner Linda (7 year PMC rider) her awesome nephew Max, our PMC cycling buddy Paul (6 year PMC rider), and my friend Adam (5 year rider). I'd estimate that about 200 cyclists ride from the NY state border, out of the 6000 cyclists who ride the PMC. It seems to be a growing trend.

We rolled through the lovely western mass countryside, through towns like Lee, Lenox and Hunterdon. The weather got even better, sunny, temps in the 70's and low humidiity. And, I hate to admit it, we had a tailwind all day!

This year's Day Zero ride was made special because we had SAG support. Paul's Father-in-law, Lyle, a cyclist himself, volunteered to drive us to West Stockbridge and to stick with us all day, carrying our luggage and food and water for breaks doing the day. Hurray for Lyle!!

We felt great today, lucky to be cycling and fortunate to be doing it for such an important cause. The PMC is the biggest atheltic fundraising event in the US, raising more than $40million each year for the Jimmy Fund.

We stopped for lunch at mile 60 in Amherst at one of my favorite places, Atkins Farm. By the time we got out, dark clouds were in the sky and it started to thunder. That motivated us to get moving and we pedaled hard to keep ahead of the rain. We were largely successful and pedaled hard to get to Sturbridge by 4 pm.

Funny photo sent from a friend today in reaction to the packing list I sent him as a first year rider. The caption was "Ken hauling all the stuff he needs for the PMC"

Speaking of the long haul, our extra day zero ride was totally dwarfed by a cyclist we picked up along the way- Veronica from California (formerly of Medfield MA). Who left from her driveway in Palo Alto and over 46 days biked to Stubridge to ride in her third PMC. Now she has bragging rights!!

We gorged ourselves on food and enjoyed free Harpoon beer. Comfy in our hotel room, we're getting ready for our 5:30 AM start with five thousand other cyclists. Excited about Day 1!! Other photos of the day:

 

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