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.
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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