The Energizer Bunny; $8,356

Remember the Energizer Bunny that just kept going and going. Well, Team Avanti's supporters just pushed my fundraising tally to $8,356 for 2009. Dare I say that $10k is actually within reach? I'm not pushing, but I know it's possible.

Please invite others to contribute to fund the lifesaving research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at http://www.pmc.org/profile/JM0403

Thank you!

John

"Thank you"

Being a part of the PMC makes me a better person in more ways than I understand, and now I understand more than I did before this weekend. This recognition (?) was triggered by great friend Adrienne who said: "Good job!, and thank you - in all sincerity - for making the world that much better for the rest of us by your efforts. Way to go!" Each word resonates in different ways, creating a melody that soothes my tired legs and body.

"Thank you" is on my mind. I heard it, quite literally, a thousand times or more this weekend. Everyone was thankful. Volunteers, spectators, sponsors, friends, patients, and bus drivers thanked riders for riding. Riders thanked sponsors for funding, spectators for cheering and coming out (you can't know how great it is to be cheered energetically about 100 feet from the top of a hill!), patients for sharing themselves, volunteers for pouring water or making the most delicious peanut butter and banana sandwiches. DJs thanked riders and riders thanked DJs.

There were a lot of "Pleases," and ten times more "Thank yous."

Saying "Thank you" makes me more thankful, and I can always recognize more objects of gratitude.

Here's a starter list of ten...

"Thank you" for sharing your loved ones with me. I'm getting "verklempt" just thinking how thoroughly your loving words and beautiful pictures of survivors and angels made it easy to hammer up the hills, descend safely, and speed across the flats. Ask Joe, Ted, Rob, or Rob -- I was stronger than ever this weekend.

"Thank you" to more than 75 people who have already donated to the PMC/Jimmy Fund. Wow! You all pushed me through the fundraising minimum of $4000 before I left for the opening ceremonies on Friday, and now I see that we are $326 $301 short $199 BEYOND the $6000 line to make us Heavy Hitters. I get all the glory from your work -- hardly seems fair -- gotta address that! Wonder if $8006 is possible, just to go beyond the $8005 from last year.....

From those 75+, "Thank you" to the 52 people who have donated online to the PMC/Jimmy Fund. (FYI: the fundraising deadline is at the end of September, so please feel thoroughly encouraged to donate, or to invite 30 friends to join you. (33 friends * $33 = $1,000 more to fund life-saving research.))

"Thank you" to the 16 people who put riders on my PMC PaceLine. I love seeing you there, reading your notes, and knowing that you joined me that way. (Andy, Alison, Stephen and Rob, what were you thinking about with those color choices?! Christy, you look hot! Stephen, you are wearing the Team Avanti blue!)

"Thank you," Jane and Gary, for embracing us in the warmth of your home, family, and friends. It's a highlight.

"Thank you," Rob and Rob, for getting up so early and meeting us at mile 52. The last 25 was funner and faster because of you. And so much more.

"Thank you" to the PMC staff for having Tylenol, ice, antihistamines, vaseline, and sun screen. Whatever we need, they've already thought of and put right where we need it.

"Thank you" to the chiropractor who did free treatments about 7/10 of a mile from the finish. I'm doing that every time I ride from here on in!

"Thank you" to Joy, the massage therapist in the medical tent who takes great delight in finding and exterminating knots in riders necks, shoulders, and backs.

"Thank you" to Harpoon Brewery for......beer!

That's ten and I could go on for hours. Thank you for reading this far!

Gratefully,

John

PS: I'll write a "trip report" soon. This was a very amusing weekend of coincidences and meet-ups.

I'm Riding to Honor Robin. Who Else Will Come Along on the Ride?

This is part of a note I wrote to my friend's younger sister, who's a woman of strength and grace who has faced an unspeakable challenge just the way I would hope to. THIS is why I ride the PMC -- to honor the fallen and, I hope, make this experience less common. To share someone in your life who we can take on the ride, please add a comment to our post "We Ride the PMC to Honor Survivors and Angels." To donate to the PMC, please join my PaceLine.


"Jenny,
"I learned just a week ago today that Robin's memorial service was held the day after I sent your mom a note about my plans to ride the Pan-Mass Challenge again to honor Eve, Helga, and countless others who have battled cancer. I was so sad to hear that Robin had lost her battle, and not at all surprised to hear your mom say you are a rock and an angel. I can't imagine the difficulty of watching either of my older brothers battle and suffer, and I also hope that I'll rise to the level of grace, generosity and love you gave if ever I'm faced with the challenge. Larry and Clarence were amazing, as I can easily imagine you were in the face of suffocating anguish. Let's believe that Robin has joined such lively, just, funny women as Eve and Helga, and that they all are comfortable and content as they watch over us.

"On Saturday, I'll mount my bike and join 5000 riders in a trek from Sturbridge and Wellesley out to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. If possible, can you email me a picture of Robin to carry with me?

"I'm riding 192 miles over the two days, and the miles roll more quickly when I carry the names, images, and stories of people who have battled cancer. Any physical discomfort of riding (mostly on my most posterior point!) evaporates by thinking loving thoughts of loved ones lost too early. It's also an inspiration to push so very hard on the last miles through the softly swaying grass of the dunes of Provincetown. As some sort of gesture, it feels appropriate to push myself as hard as possible those last miles and put everything into finishing strong and fast.

"One paragraph I wrote to your mom felt so true, I'll paste it here: I didn't really realize how special a place Robin and your whole family occupy in my image of my childhood until this week. Robin was the elegant, kind, gracious, gorgeous "older sister" who was really nice to me and the other little kids who I recall buzzing a round her at Lake Valhalla. My memories of those times are painted with pictures, warm sunlight, and fond feelings. Robin, Jenny, Jimmy, Robby, you, and Dwight were anchors of that summer experience, as well as fun times in and around your Elston Road house.

I am so sorry for your loss, and so grateful to have shared wonderful parts of life with Robin and you.

Fondly,

John

A Season of Firsts

This has been a season of firsts for me.

It's the first time I'm riding the Pan-Mass Challenge without my buddy and Team Avanti co-founder, Rob Rodgers.

Last week was the first time I'd ridden farther than the 84 miles of the first day of the Pan-Mass Challenge when I rode 86 miles to reach Mike Moody, my Class of '86 buddy, in Rye, NH.

This Sunday, I rode my first century when I completed the 101-mile "Climb to the Clouds" from Concord, MA to Mt. Wachusett and back. (See the map and elevation chart below.)

Today, I learned that the first of my childhood friends, Robin, lost her battle with cancer. Images of her and her family will dance through my mind and flow through my tears as I roll over the coming miles.

In less than two weeks, I'll ride the original Pan-Mass Challenge route from Sturbridge to Provincetown in this, the 30th PMC. The first 29 have generated $239 million to support the life-saving research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Could this be the first year you support my fundraising efforts for the Pan-Mass Challenge? And/or join my PMC PaceLine where you create a rider/avatar to ride along with me? Or increase your support to $192 (or a multiple) -- a dollar for each mile I'll ride? Or contribute $30 and invite 30 of YOUR friends to support the ride -- a dollar and a friend for each of the 30 years the PMC has been conducted? I hope so!











Climb to the Clouds Map and Elevation Chart (Click to see a larger image.)

Wildlife Impact on PMC Training

Please donate to the Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber through my Pan Mass Challenge PaceLine.

Riding through the western suburbs of Boston is fraught with wildlife encounters you might not imagine. Last year, on an early morning ride, two squirrels launched themselves from the woods alongside the road in front of me. The first was 20 feet ahead of me and caused me to wonder "how likely is it that I'd ever actually hit a squirrel? My wheels aren't really very big -- a squirrel could go in front or behind the wheel, and if I did hit it, I wonder if it would knock me off my bike."

Not 50 feet later, squirrel #2 beat all the odds and actually put its poor little head INTO the spokes of my front wheel. Neither the squirrel nor the wheel survived the encounter, though I didn't crash.

My buddies teased me mercilessly every time I flinched when a squirrel or chipmunk so much as peeked from behind a log.

This spring, we were riding along Rice Road in Wayland, approaching a picturesque spot near a pond with picturesque Belted Galloway cows -- think of a cross between an Oreo cookie and a cow. "Look, there's a cute calf frolicking with it's mamma!" Frolicking right up until it saw our Spandex-clad Posse coming along at 17 MPH. Startled, it jumped like a bucking bronco, which startled the gaggle of turkeys -- about six of them. They jumped off the historic stone wall into the air in something approximating flight and headed across the road -- right toward our heads!


All five of us ducked in our saddles and were grateful to be upright. As we made the next turn, I got to see a huge dump of turkey poop on Rob's shoulder just as he said "Ahhhhh, that turkey shat on me!"

So, when riding your bike, look out for chipmunks, squirrels, cows and turkeys. They can have quite an impact!

If you chuckled, or not, please support the life-saving research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute by contributing to my Pan-Mass Challenge PaceLine ride.

Wordle My Pan Mass Challege Blog

148 days to the 30th Pan Mass Challenge | 200 Days to the PMC Blog
Please donate to fund research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute via the Jimmy Fund/Pan Mass Challenge.
Any help of any amount is appreciated, and 100% of your donations go to the Dana Farber Cancer Center.
To contribute this year, click here or or cut-and-paste: http://www.pmc.org/mypmc/profiles.asp?Section=story&eGiftID=TA0044
Thank you!

Wordle is a fun free service that automatically creates a visual from the words on a web page, or in a blog like mine. Here's the Wordle of my blog. Click to see it in higher resolution.

"Attachments"

150 days to the 30th Pan Mass Challenge | 200 Days to the PMC Blog
Please donate to fund research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute via the Jimmy Fund/Pan Mass Challenge.
Any help of any amount is appreciated, and 100% of your donations go to the Dana Farber Cancer Center.
To contribute this year, click on the bike logo. Or, here is the URL, spelled out for easy cut-and-paste: http://www.pmc.org/mypmc/profiles.asp?Section=story&eGiftID=TA0044
Thank you!

My Avanti teammate Rob shared a wonderful essay on the power of "attachments" over us. To paraphrase, "we are attached to something, or someone, if we believe it is the source of our joy, pleasure, or happiness. Only by enjoying it without clinging to it can we be happy."

That's really, really hard.

Can I love my wife, children, family and friends and enjoy them thoroughly without clinging to them, without having expectations about my relationships and the "outcomes" of our interactions?

That's really, really hard.

But by thinking about it, considering it, and setting the intention to resisting "clinging," it becomes easier and easier to do so.

Friends were talking about attachments, and most identified spouses, children as the attachments they cling to most fiercely. They experience, or expect to experience, tremendous pain at the thought of the death of a nuclear family member. And yet, I am a son whose parents both have died, and whose friends have died, and yet I still can and do live joyfully. I know several parents whose children have died so very prematurely, and they are joyful. That's not to say their hearts aren't broken. I can hear my friend John's voice crying "My heart is broke!" over and over after his son died. And yet, he is resilient and lives and loves.

And so can I, and so can you.

John

Frustration vs. Living in the Moment

156 days to the 30th Pan Mass Challenge | 200 Days to the PMC Blog
Please donate to fund research at the Dana Farber via the Jimmy Fund/Pan Mass Challenge - click the bike.

156 days to the 30th Pan Mass Challenge, and I am teetering between frustration and living in the moment.

Having four of five family members battling the flu-ish bug is frustrating. It made it much more challenging to be enchanted by the present moments that presented themselves over the February vacation week. Like a fun ski race, two beautiful, snowstorms, a day with my brother and his boy, lovely drives with my daughter and an excellent meeting with a client who wants us to do more.

Great moments teetering on the other side of the see-saw trying to overcome the weight of frustration.

Frustration has a strong hold on a part of my professional life. The economy presents challenges for my financial services startup, but also is the driving force behind the need for our products and services.

And today I found a posting what looks like a dream (FT) job for me - the title has four of my favorite six business words. I was flying high with excitement, and then I heard that the company had not secured anticipated funding and downsized drastically.

I can only imagine the frustration of battling cancer, and then I remember how many battlers have been grateful for the shock that leads them to learn how to live fully in the moment.

I'm looking forward to the moments of the coming 156 days!

"Challenges"

The Pan Mass Challenge is a set of big challenges. And "challenge" is in the name, so "hard" is OK!

It's a bit of a challenge to register your first year. It's a big challenge to say "I'll commit to raising thousands of dollars, or pay it myself!" It's a big challenge to raise that much money. It's a challenge to find the time to train enough to be able to be confident heading toward the start of the longest ride you may ever have done. It's a challenge to stay safe, and courteous, through dozens of towns that accommodate the ride.

Those all semm like challenges, until I think of the challenge of battling cancer.

Then it seems pretty reasonable, and well within my grasp.

197 days to go.

200 Days to the 30th Pan Mass Challenge

The 30th ride of the Pan Mass Challenge starts 200 days from now. I'm committing to making these 200 days count. How much can I contribute? How much can I give, and share? What is possible? Who will join, support, encourage, and contribute?

I'm going to look for the inspiring stories among the friends I know and the friends I meet. And their friends, and especially those who have been forced to face the challenge, and opportunity(?), of cancer.

Team Avanti is my starting point for this year. The experience of riding with Rob Rodgers, Matt Schulman, Rob Mosher, and Joe Parrish last year was tremendous, and enhanced by the wonderful people who I met through them. As the snow falls, I eagerly await the first ride of spring in the fresh morning air with "the boys."