The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well, good morning. It’s Sunday morning and the final leg of my 3-day journey. It’s kind of cool out and certainly heavy overcast. The roads are still wet, but hopefully the rain will be lighter than it was yesterday, and hopefully that’s the forecast. We’ll see how that materializes. Fortunately I only have 70 miles left, so hopefully it can’t be too bad, we’ll find out. Feeling pretty stiff today, pretty achey overall. I think the 225 miles wasn’t so bad as doing 125 in the rain yesterday which was just kind of brutal and has left the equipment — both my equipment and the bike’s equipment — in need of some rest and repair. But otherwise we’ll see how it goes, as long as I stay warm today and just keep ticking off the miles until we get to Provincetown. We’ll see. Kind of been a little more preoccupied with the conditions this year than with the mission, although occasionally it does pop into my mind that it’s the last PMC and of course the memories of Bobby Mac. Still in the back of my mind and comes to the forefront every so often. Appreciate everyone’s support and we’ll see how it goes. Final day; I hope it’s a good one. We’ll see…
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well here's the end of weekend wrap-up for Pan-Mass Challenge 2012.
Overall I'm pretty ecstatic right now. The weekend went very well, despite it being a little warm (a surprise in August), and despite my legs being a little achey (a surprise after 200 miles in the saddle). Overall the weekend went fabulously.
The ride was again very inspiring and just an incredible experience. I love riding out here on the cape and just spending time out here. And having biked all the way from Sturbridge makes it kind of a special little pilgrimage.
And then on top of that, having shared a lot of the ride -- especially Day 2 -- with Jay, my buddy who's moving away... who completed his own trek across the state, having started at the New York border Friday morning. I was glad to share that with him. It was the first time he'd done that. And also with him moving away, it was a nice kind of farewell.
And then on top of all that, when I left the house on Friday I had not yet raised $9,000 this year, which was one of my goals. I thought it was an ambitious goal... but to have surpassed $10,000 total over the course of the weekend really was special. It was humbling. I have raised $10,000 or more on 2 previous years, but still to do that over the weekend, and to be able to cross the finish line... I'm certain this was the first time I'd raised that much by the end of the ride. So that was extremely special.
And that's a teastament to the support I get from a lot of very special people who are willing to give up some chunk of money to help everyone. From the riders, to the volunteers, to the people who line the route: everyone is just effusive with their thanks for this ride, which is a major, major event, raising more than 60 percent of what the Jimmy Fund raises every year. So it's a very important part of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and for that -- and for all of that -- I thank you for your support. it means a lot to me, and it really matters to a lot of people. That's the one thing that I take home from this event every year.
That's a wrap for 2012! Stay tuned for my ride writeup and other postride debriefs. And then I'll be sending out another note when the check is presented, which I beleive is the first weekend in November.
A very successful event, and again thank you for all your support. It's very much appreciated, and kind of superlative, so thank you!
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Hey, good morning, and welcome to day two's coverage of the 2012 Pan-Mass Challenge.
I'm happy to report that last night -- thanks to a handful of friends and actually more than a dozen people who have made donations over the course of this weekend -- I have now exceeded $10,000 fundraising for this year. I haven't done that in the past 2 years, I believe. I did do it for two years previously, so it's the third time that I've broken $10,000.
I guess the next milestone is breaking maybe $10,700 to go from my third best year to my second best year ever. But no worries; breaking $10,000 is a huge, huge accomplishment and much more than I had actually thought would happen this year. Great thank-yous to everyone who has contributed and everyone who has interest.
It's 5:45 in the morning and I'm about to go down to the bike path, where I will meet Jay, who's already been cycling for an hour. That's basically covering the ride that I did last night from MMA to my hotel in Sandwich.
The morning looks okay: it's warm but not hot, its very humid, and partly/mostly sunny... mostly a lot of fog blowing over. The body feels okay: it's a little stiff, but I'm sure that'll wear off over time, and the question is gonna be how my body handles another probably five or so hours in the saddle.
It sounds like were gonna have a somewhat brisk tailwind much of the way: from the south-southwest as we go across and then up the cape, which will then turn into a pretty good headwind when we get to Provincetown, because Provincetown curls around west and south again when we go out to the dunes at Race Point. But I'm looking forward to the day. It looks pretty good.
This is probably going to be my last ride with Jay before he moves away, as he's moving down to Florida, so we're gonna take some time and enjoy that. But first up are about ten miles of rollers on the Route 6 access road: it's crazy up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and up and down these sand dunes, basically. So I'll be doing that for the next hour or so, and the next update will come from Barnstable, which should be approximately 7 o'clock, maybe a little earlier.
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]
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, Saturday night's update from the hotel in Sandwich. Made it here okay although it was really windy crossing the Bourne Bridge and otherwise things were okay. Came in, had supper, hit the hot tub actually, which was kind of nice. Discovered I had blistered one of my toes in my cycling sandals, so took care of that. Otherwise had a real good day. Very tired, so I'm going down right now, going to bed. Up tomorrow morning at 5 with an anticipated 6am depart. Gonna try and meet up with Jay. I did meet up with him at Mass Maritime, but would actually like to do some riding with him this weekend. The sad news is that tomorrow looks like it's going to be a pretty substantial rainstorm. At least it'll be mid-70s temperature-wise, but it's gonna be a washout by the sounds. It eventually may be clearing off a little bit in the afternoon, but the morning (obviously we're leaving at 6am) the morning's gonna be pretty wet. Really not looking forward to that, but it'll just slow down the Sunday ride a little bit as well. Next update probably may be around 6, when I leave here, or it may be a little bit later at the first rest stop, which I think is in Barnstable, which is not very far down the road. But I'm gonna get some shuteye and try and let the legs recuperate overnight, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well good morning. It's 6:18 in the morning and I'm leaving Sandwich, which is a pretty typical cape town with a bunch of little hills and ponds and kind of pine and oak woods around, sandy and marshy. Also a place where the Pilgrims spent some time on their way over toward Plymouth, with a quaint village circle.
And the only real noteworthy thing about Sandwich is that we follow the Route 6 Service Road, which is very up-and-down hilly. A lot of rollers that you can actually shoot pretty well, so we'll see how that goes.
Interested to see how the bike's doing this morning; I should be fine, although obviously a little tired. But the weather's beautiful.
And I'm gonna go catch up with the rest of the riders. And I should talk to you again in an hour.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well hello. I'm now in Sandwich after the end of day one of the Pan Mass, in the hotel room safe and sound after 120 miles at an average pace around of something along the lines of 16.7 mph, off the earlier 19 mph.
The motel here actually is kind of oddly renowned, although I think they try and play it down. In November of 2003 actually there was a 48 year old man who was found dead in the bathtub covered head to toe in roofing tar. So that's kind of always been a mystery and I haven't heard anything since.
But actually the motel... it's not bad. It's pretty clean, [???], the bed is comfortable which is key, and it's right next to a place called the British Beer Company, which provides a good board to have on Saturday night, which is where I'm headed next.
Other than that it's going okay. I also have a secondary mechanical issue with my bottom bracket, which actually my bottom bracket was having issues before the ride, and now it's just having more. So hopefully things will hold together tomorrow. But other than that, the ride's going real well.
Didn't feel a lot of fatigue or pain on the way out here, having rested, and hope to rest a great deal tonight so that tomorrow's not bad. And tomorrow I'm not going to push it at all. I'll take it easy and just enjoy the ride. Again, Saturday's the day to push it, and Sunday's a day to actually take it easy.
But all in all, having a very good year, aside from the overbearing mechanical concerns. But enjoying this year's PMC and obviously very appreciative to all my supporters and donors who have brought me up to $7,200 as of the moment and there's a few other people who have pledged money to come [???] and so make both of my goals: Heavy Hitter for the fourth year in a row, and making a lifetime contribution bringing that up above $50,000, $51,000. So very proud of all that and very happy for the support that I've received from people.
But for now I'm gonna go eat a bit more and pass out. And we'll talk to you again first thing tomorrow for the leg from Sandwich up to P-town.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Good morning! It's now 6:20 in the morning and I'm just leaving Sandwich. Not much to report. It did rain heavily overnight but right now the sky is blue, there's a couple of puffy clouds. The ground's are a little moist, but not bad. So hopefully the roads will be okay and I'll stay dry. The radar also looks good. So far so good. It's 71 degrees out and I'm about to rejoin the rest of the riders on Route 6A to Barnstable, where I'll be in probably about an hour. That's it, I'm gonna try and have a nice relaxing ride today.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Well it's 6:00 and I'm in Sandwich. So I'm in the hotel now, although as predicted the rain finally came while we were enjoying the afternoon at Bourne. At about 4:45 it started raining, and raining pretty good. So I actually decided to, since it didn't look like it was letting up, I decided to go just ahead and ride up to Sandwich in the rain with my hair net and my rain jacket. The good news is that there's a washer and dryer directly outside our room, so my cycling gear is in the dryer now and will be fine for morning. Assuming the morning is dry. It's still raining lightly here and probably going to rain intermittently throughout the night. So we'll see what happens come tomorrow morning. I'll have a story and share it with you and hopefully it won't be moist, but right now I'm pretty moist. Gonna go and grab a shower, dry my clothes, and head over to the British Beer Company next door for some savory food, despite the fact that I've already had a slice of pizza, six ears of corn, sugar cookies, and god only knows what else. I definitely loaded up and kinda passed out afterward and definitely a little more worn out than I thought I was. So I'll sleep well tonight and wake up at 6:00 in the morning tomorrow which actually is better than 4:40 as it was this morning. That's it; the next update tomorrow probably long before you're awake.
The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.
Good morning! It's 6:15 in the morning on Sunday and I am in Sandwich at the end of the Cape Cod Canal bike path. A little chilly this morning, but not too bad, I'd say it's about 67 maybe. There's a little bit of a breeze at least coming off from canal but I'm sitting here waiting for Charlie, who's gonna come by shortly for the trip up to Provincetown. I think there are 4 stops total, including the end, but I'm not sure about that. But it looks like it's gonna be another bright sunny day. It may not be quite as warm, especially out here on the cape, but I'm looking forward to a good ride. And thanks to the people who listened to the voice posts or checked out the auto-transcription which is not too bad, occasionally a little bit off, but for the most part it's pretty good, and I'm pretty impressed with that. But I hope to keep you updated throughout the day and the stops are... the legs between the stops are a little longer today, so it'll be a little less frequent and there won't be as many updates. But that's it. Ready to ride and gonna take it easy today and have a good last day of the ride. Thank you to everybody, and I'll talk to you again soon.
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