ornoth_cycling | Next is the E

Tomorrow I head out to Sturbridge for this weekend’s Pan-Mass Challenge.

My thanks go out to all the people who are sponsoring my ride this year. The PMC means a lot to me, and I’m deeply honored by the generous support I’ve gotten from my friends and family.

My fundraising has gone exceedingly well this year, and I’m so confident of reaching my goal of $6,300 that when I register tomorrow, I’ll formally commit to raising that much, making me a PMC “Heavy Hitter” for the second time. On the other hand, I’ve still got a lot of money to raise, and more than two dozen people on my “said they’d donate, but haven’t yet” list, so I have a little bit more work left to do before the fundraising deadline next month.

In terms of cycling, it hasn’t been a great year. Having done so many miles last year, I took it easy this spring, and then dove way too quickly into hard training, which caused the my knees to flare up. That, in turn, kept me off the bike for four weeks during what should have been my peak training season. My knees feel pretty good right now, but I’m still going into this year’s ride underprepared, and with low expectations. But that just gives me an excuse to take my time and enjoy the ride, rather than push myself any harder than necessary.

If you’re curious about the route, which has changed just a bit this year, check out the Google map I’ve created, at http://www.ornoth.com/pmcmap/

If you’re local, New England Cable News (NECN) will broadcast the opening ceremonies this Friday at 8pm. They will also have coverage throughout the weekend, culminating with a wrap-up show Sunday evening. Some of their videos can be seen on their site, which is http://www.boston.com/news/necn/Shows/specials/PMC/

I’m hoping this year to make more frequent audio posts by cell phone to my weblog. If you want to get a feel for what it’s like, as it happens, keep an eye out for audio updates throughout the weekend. The URL for my weblog is http://ornoth.livejournal.com/

Shortly after the event, people will start posting photos from this year’s ride in the new PMC group I created this spring on Flickr. The URL for that is http://www.flickr.com/groups/pan_mass/

Look for my postride email next week, and my usual lengthy ride report a week or two later. It should have more and better photos and maybe even some videos, thanks to the new pocket camera I’m taking along this year.

Now, all we need is for the weather to cooperate! It’s looking very hot, with a change of thunderboomers Saturday afternoon.

Thanks once more for your generosity and support, and for helping me participate in an event that means a great deal and has direct impact upon the state of the art in cancer research, treatment, and prevention.

Stay tuned!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Found your PMC route when searching Google Map user data. I plotted last year's route and distributed it as a KML suitable for playback in Google Earth; search for "cartography against cancer." I like your phone-blogging as well. Was a little unclear from the gap between your 1:43 / 4:00 entries on Saturday, but it sounds like you got in around the same time as I did, at 2:00.

Yeah. The gap was really because as soon as I hit Mass Maritime, I had a very regimented schedule: find bags, shower, get massage appointment, eat. Unfortunately, since I came in at 2:22, the first massage appointment was at 7:15pm, and I have to leave MMA by 6pm, so I never did get a massage on Saturday.

But aside from that, the ride was a wonderful experience, and I'll have some photos and videos posted as soon as I can find the time to put them together!

Next is the E

Cool!

Re: Cool!