For $10k I will.....ride a "true" Pan-Mass Challenge

Last year, I rode the "original" PMC route, or "the long one," which goes from Sturbridge to Bourne to Provincetown. On the ferry back from Provincetown, I got introspective (which seems to happen) and got hung up on the meaning of the words (which seems to happen): "Pan Mass Challenge." Challenge I got no issue with! "Pan Mass," however, was somehow offensive. "How can it be the PAN-Mass Challenge if it only goes from CENTRAL Mass to southeastern Mass and then out to the pointy little tip of the Cape?" I asked. "Really, it'd have to go from the northwestern-most corner of the state to really be a PAN-Mass Challenge." I concluded.

So, of course, I plotted a route, which is approximated below.

"That's a stupid idea" said my very intelligent wife. "Yup," I thought and said. That it is, and I'm just the idiot to think about it.

And I'll do it if there's $10k in my PMC fundraising account by 11:59pm on July 31. That'd make my ride about 276 miles over 3 days.

I know it's possible, but pretty darned hard for me to do alone. What do you think? Can you help? You can donate yourself, but it's MUCH more likely to happen if you invite your whole network to donate, too. $10k is only $100 from 100 people, or $10 from 1,000. I bet you know 100 who could and would give $10.....

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Cheering

Today was the annual Susan McDaniel Run for Love here inn Weston. A great event with devoted champions, Margaret Randle and Jim McDaniel, Susan's parents. Oh yeah, Kevin Youkilis is also a supporter through his Hits For Kids Foundation. :)

After the race, our friend Lydia said "That was so much fun! There were people cheering for us all the way. I like it when people cheer for me." She went on to say "I wish people would cheer for me when I'm driving kids in a carpool," so I "encouraged" her kids to cheer when she gives them rides, or makes their lunches, or comes to their performances or games. We'll see if that one sticks!

And then I encouraged her to ride the PMC. It's a cheering-fest where thousands, if not tens of thousands, cheer the riders on and say thank you, thank you, thank you for us for riding our bikes. The MOST outrageous example of this is "Da Hedge" on the Cape, where a couple of hundred kids sound like ten thousand. The PMC is a unique event, and a unique experience. I'm looking forward to my fifth!

PMC Haiku

Ride the PMC
Eradicate cancer soon.
Closer by the mile.

A PMC Family Weekend

This Sunday, our entire family will join the PMC Community together. The boys are riding and the girls are volunteering in the Weston-Wellesley kids ride.

Wish us dry weather, please!

If you'd like to contribute to Max's PMC ride, please visit his profile page. There's no fundraising minimum, unlike the $4000+ I get to raise ;) More on that later. If you'd like to create a virtual cyclist, festooned in ugly spandex of your choice, join my "PMC Paceline.

If you'd like to chat, please call or email me anytime on 781-333-8686

68 Days, 50 Miles, 5+ animals, Wonderful People

68 days to the PMC and Team Avanti did a gorgeous, gorgeous 50-miler from Weston to Dover and back. On my way out of the driveway at 5:45 a.m., I rode between two turkeys. I saw another when we got back into Weston.

As we rode through some of the most beautiful countryside on aptly-named Farm Road (Dover, I think), near the head of the Charles River, we came upon the first of two LARGE snapping turtles. The big fella was right in the middle of the road, sunning his belly on the quickly-warming pavement. We stopped and I moved him to the side of the road -- not an easy task as he was large, wet, very snappy, and substantially covered with some very unattractive slimy stuff. The picture is of a MUCH more attractive turtle.

The route took us up Strawberry Hill Road to Wilsondale Avenue, where a best friend, Lalla, grew up with her delightful siblings and her wonderful parents, Charlie and Bootsie, both of whom I ride the PMC to honor. If there has ever been a nicer couple, I haven't meant them. My son Charlie has a bear he named Bootsie. 'Nuff said. Soon, I hope, the tears will stop.
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If you'd like to allow me to ride the 2010 PMC to honor a loved one -- family, friend, or otherwise -- who has battled cancer, please send me an email or click the button to call me anytime.

And if you'd like to support the cutting edge research to eradicate cancer, please visit my PMC Paceline, where you can make a donation and create a virtual rider.

75 Days; 40 Miles Today

Today was the first "real" ride of the season -- Team Avanti hit the roads at 6 a.m., and not a moment too soon, for the PMC is only 75 days away. We rode the "Eastern European" to Carlisle and Concord, though nobody knows why it's called that. One thought is that the stone walls evoke Eastern Europe. More likely, some crazy Eastern European came out and screamed at bikers who were making too much noise at 6:20 some Sunday morning. Can't you just see a "frau" in a housecoat with a straw broom screaming while here husband, wearing black pants and suspenders, looks on with a dour look? Hey, it made the ride that much more fun.

See the GPS trace from our rocket-scientist 'mate, who's just back from "Oz" and New Zealand.

Do you know Ros McLean (right). She's a great friend who was profiled in the PMC Yearbook. Among all the other things she did was jump out of an airplane.

200 Days to the 31st Pan Mass Challenge

It's 200 days until the 31st Pan Mass Challenge on August 7-8, 2010. I'll be riding again from Sturbridge to Provincetown and looking to my friends and family to join my Team Avanti again to join the effort to eradicate cancer by funding life-saving research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

In the first five years of riding the Pan Mass Challenge, Team Avanti members have riased $118,458.

I wonder what we can do this year......

When we ride off the starting line in Sturbridge at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 7th, well be wearing the jersey you see here.

I'm thinking about my mom, her sister, her friend, and the friends and family members of so many friends and acquaintances for whom I've had the honor of riding the Pan Mass Challenge.

I hope you'll join me, and that you'll share your loved ones' stories.

To join my "PaceLine," please visit http://www.pmc.org/profile/JM0403, make a donation of any size, and create your own bike rider on my Paceline.