The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Okay, it's 5:30 in the morning and I'm headed out to meet Jay. It's wet, wet, wet out, although it's not raining right now. We seem to be in the lull between two big storms, so I'm fully kitted up with fender and rain jack and so forth. Hopefully this day won't be too painful; that's all I'm really asking of it. I think it's gonna be wet. Hopefully the cell phone will continue to work throughout it. Taking what steps I can to to protect it, but we'll see how it goes. Not very optimistic that this day is gonna be very fun, but once you get wet you can't get any wetter, so at that point it doesn't really matter. So it's just a question now of getting over the hump and getting soaking wet and then saying the heck with it all. That's the way this day's gonna go. Thankfully it'll be over by 10:30, I think, should be in Provincetown. Next update from the first water stop.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Okay, I'm here in Barnstable, 14-15 miles into day two. I met up with Jay at the end of the bike path, after he'd already ridden for an hour. Again, conditions are wet but actually it's not too bad right now. A lot of standing water but no rain. Feeling kinda sweaty inside my plastic rain jacket. I may actually shed that for the time being. Rode with Jay, which lasted all of six miles before he jumped on a paceline and was gone, so that's probably the end of that. Just gonna grab some Gatorade and head out of here, but so far so good. It's not a complete washout right now. In fact I can sorta maybe vaguely see patches of blue, but that can't last. But we'll see, maybe I'll be able to shed the rain jacket after all. We can hope, but I don't have much hope. We'll see. See you at the next stop!
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Okay, we are at Brewster, at Nickerson State Park, which is usually where we see Jack O'riordan, the kid who for the past 12 years has been holding up a sign saying "Now I'm 3 thanks to you", "Now I'm 4 years old thanks to you", "Now I'm 12 years old thanks to you". He's not here this year, but the good thing is he's actually riding this year! Won't be visiting him here, but know that he's out there also, continuing to support the cause since he was 3 years old and diagnosed with a rare cancer. Gonna do the usual: grab some water and see if I can find Jay somewhere. I did strip off the rain jacket, and glad I did. It's still really heavy overcast here. It's standing water, but nothing in the air, so it's not bad, just kinda humid. Still low 70s. Pretty pleasant ride, except I'm covered with road grime and stuff. I did go by the Cape Cod Sea Camps hedge, solo this year. The first year I've ever gone by there and wasn't either in a pack of cars or in a pack of riders, so I got this huge solo cheer from everyone at camp, which was much appreciated. It brings a tear to the eye. That's it from here. Next stop is Wellfleet, so I'm actually not quite halfway thru today's ride already, even though it's only 7:42 in the morning. It'll be a quick one today. Hopefully we'll beat the rain or avoid it somehow. Next stop: Wellfleet!
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.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Hi! Phone reception here in Provincetown is bad, so I'm gonna keep this short. I just want to say thank you to everyone who sponsored my ride and made it possible, because of all the really great work that it supports. I'll have another wrapup update this evening from the hotel in Sandwich, but right I'm now gonna go refuel and meet up with my friends Jay and Sheeri. That's it, it's a wrap. Great finish but windy, and again just a great weekend and ride overall, so thanks!
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]
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