Voice Post: 2011 PMC Sun 9am: Wellfleet

[ornoth_cycling]

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Okay we're in Wellfleet, with just 20 miles left out of 192. Still feeling strong, and that's a blessing. As I always say in some of my writeups, riding the PMC takes strength and endurance and strength of will and courage and peresevence, and the reason why I do it is the fact that those same attributes are demanded in much higher quantities from cancer patients and their families, and they don't have a choice like I do to undertake that or not. So that's part of why I ride. Wellfleet is usually where I stop and reflect on the ride, and today obviously I'm reflecting on my friend Ken, who just went through hell during his six years fighting Hodgkins Lymphoma and eventually succumbing to it, and I really don't want anyone else to have to endure that kind of suffering that he went through. I also feel the same the reason why we're riding is for every person who ever finds themselves in the position of having to walk through the door of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. I'm very proud that that buliding has been built largely with PMC funding. It's going to do so much good, not just for this year but for decades, for generations. Hopefully the need for that building will become less and less over time, but there's a lot of cancer survivors out there too, and they also require care and attention as well. All in all, I feel that's an incredible result of this ride. Again I wish it wasn't necessary, but that's why we're out here. So that's the things I'm thinking about as I close this ride out over the next 20 miles. Weather-wise we had a little bit of a sprinkle while we were on the Cape Cod Rail Trail in Wellfleet, but it seems to have passed. It's still really overcast and threatening, but the roads are actually a little drier, since there hasn't been any precipitation since early this morning. So it looks like we should have a pretty good run in. We have a south wind, which is a tailwind for us until we get to Provincetown and do that crazy loop out Race Point. So we'll have a headwind at the finishing line and through the sand dunes, but otherwise it should be a nice, easy ride in. That's it from Wellfleet. The next update will be after the finish in Provincetown! Really looking forward to it, and obviously thank you to everyone for helping me be a part of this event and part of everything it accomplishes. It's very meaningful to me, so thank you.