Voice Post: 2011 PMC Sun 7pm: Sandwich

[ornoth_cycling]

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

Okay, this is the final update from our hotel in Sandwich Sunday night after the conclusion of the 2011 Pan-Mass Challenge, my eleventh time riding in the event. What I couldn't tell you in Provincetown is how the last segment went, because cell fone reception there is so bad. We managed to avoid the rain almost entirely for the whole day, which is staggering and shocking to me. We did get a couple sprinkles along the way. We had a tailwind most of the way, which in the final segment when we go out to Race Point and back was directly in our face because we had changed direction. That was just a ridiculously brutal wind, but it was the last three miles, so that was manageable. I finished real strong. I'm extremely happy with my performance. All my times were pretty close to personal bests, as far as I can tell so far; I'll check that out again later, just to confirm. Met up with my buddy Jay, met up with my support person Sheeri, and we spent a little time in Provincetown, stopped at the Sqealing Pig and had a burger. By the time we were eating lunch it started just pouring and it has pretty much poured all day since then. Probably about 90 minutes to 2 hours after the ride it just opened up and has been raining ever since, so again that kinda underscores how fortunate we were in getting the ride done without any more rain, although it was wet in the morning from last night's rain. Hung in Provincetown for a while before coming back here to the hotel, where the next item on the agenda is a good long soak in the hot tub, which is gonna feel mighty good after a day of cold, wet, damp riding and then rain and a long car ride back to Sandwich from Provincetown. But overall the weekend, given the conditions between my wheel problems, which worked out fine, the rain, the weather, all the things that could have gone wrong... Even though it wasn't the best weekend, the optimal conditions, and we didn't do as many fun things afterward, like go to the beach as we normally would... It's still obviously extremely satisfying, and having raised the funds is extremely satisfying. The final message is to thank all of my sponsors for the support you've given me this year and throughout eleven years of riding in this event, and all the satisfaction I get from it. I also want to thank you for the inspiration to motivate me to participate in the event, because knowing how many of my friends care about cancer and are willing to take their own money and see that devoted to working toward a cure for something that sometimes it feels like it's very far in the future. Although the progress we've made with cancer is now incrementally faster... where you used to measure it in centuries, and then you'd measure it in decades, and then you'd measure it in years. At this point great progress is being made, but it still can feel far away because it's a family of 500 very different diseases. Thank you for letting me know how important it is to you and for supporting my ride and helping me be part of the vehicle for your participation in the fight against cancer. That's a wrap for 2011 and I wish you all good heath and hopefully we'll hear from you again next year. You can obviously look for my ride report and photos and other things, which will wind up being posted on my web page under http://www.ornoth.com/bicycling/ and I will be sending out updates to people when that is done, as well as when the fundraising closes at the end of September. Very satisfied right now, but I need a hot tub and I need a good night's sleep! [truncated]