Bill's Cycling Adventures

22 years, about 55,000 training miles, and about 4400 Pan Mass Miles ridden by me…

I rode my 22nd Pan Mass Challenge on August 7 and 8th. The event has grown significantly since I first started this both in terms of the number of riders and the amount raised. Just to put it in perspective, 1989, my first year participating, there were 700 riders, the minimum to raise was $700, and there was one route, the 192 miles from Sturbridge to Provincetown. We raised a total of $1,000,000 when our goal was $700,000. I remember thinking how amazing this was. I was part of something that raised 1 million dollars in a single weekend.  Little did I realize that this was only the beginning.

I’d love to say I started riding in the event to help in the fight against cancer but that wouldn’t be accurate. I got into the event as a result of a “bar bet” with a friend. We were with others that had ridden the event and after a few drinks we figured that if they could do it that we’d challenge ourselves to do it too. The first year was tough. I had no idea what I was getting myself into from a physical challenge perspective or how this event would come to be such a major part of my life. The training that first season was tough but I think I might have had 1000 miles total with the longest ride prior to the event being 40 miles. Needless to say the first year was tough with the second day being even tougher. It rained non-stop the first day for 85 of the 110 miles. We were all raw, exhausted, and uncomfortable by the time we finished. Yet, we got up and rode day 2. The event was a life changing experience.

What started as a challenge to ourselves became much more. Cancer had touched my family and others I knew and I finally found a way to help fight back. I was blown away by the support of the volunteers and all the people along the route cheering us on. It’s hard to describe until you experience it. Through it all I was convinced I’d be back. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be still doing this 22 years later.

I suppose the best way to explain it is that for one weekend a year I’m privileged to participate in this event and give back along with all of your generousity. One weekend a year I see the world at its best through the eyes of 5000 plus riders, over 3000 volunteers, and countless others cheering us on. I have to tell you, it’s quite a sight. Sure there are teams and lots of individuals riding but this is NOT a race. This is a ride. Everyone out there has a story to tell. Everyone out there is willing to help you. The competition of day to day life, the worthless politics or republicans vs democrats that clutter our news outlets, and all that is bad in the world seems to be suspended for this one weekend.

Sorry for the long intro but the point I was trying to make is that after 22 years it’s easy to lose sight of why we do this. This is the first year I just wasn’t looking forward to the event. It was the first year it felt like I was going through the motions. All that changed when I got out to Sturbridge the Friday before the event started. While a lot has changed about the event the cause that keeps me coming back and all that the event represents to me is still the same.

Three of us drove out to Sturbridge that Friday. There was no rain. There was hardly any humidity. It was just near perfect. We checked in, got our registration packages and settled into another Pan Mass Challenge weekend. My team, PHAT Tuesday, was setup at the hotel registration desk selling raffle tickets to a quilt that one of our team members wives made. It’s one of those items that seemed to resonate with people as the raffle tickets sold well. Senator Scott Brown and his family stopped by and bought some tickets as well. This day, he wasn’t so much a “US Senator” as he was a first time Pan Mass Challenge participant. His famous daughter Ayla Brown had people more star struck than her famous dad. This day however they were just another family participating in the Pan Mass. Both Senator Brown and his daughter Ayla were a large part of the opening ceremonies. Both seemed to “get it” and both were connecting with the event in different ways. Ayla wrote a song for a young cancer patient which she performed that night. The song started out as something she did for an organization that writes personalized songs for these kids but this morphed into a close friendship between Ayla and her new little buddy.

Opening ceremonies wrapped early. I went to the hotel bar to catch up with old friends. While some were overindulging I knew better as the last thing I wanted to deal with when the 4:15 wake-up call came in was a bit of a headache. We stayed at the bar till around 9 and the it was off to bed. Well, it was off to the room to get everything prepped for the next morning.

Morning came all to fast. Lucky me, I woke up with a sore throat and a head cold. Of all the times that this could happen this had to show on a day I was about to ride 110 miles. Oh well, nothing I could do about it and people fighting cancer have it much tougher. I knew I could hack it (no pun intended) riding with my slight discomfort. I put my bike up at the front of the starting line at 4:30, grabbed a quick breakfast, downed some coffee, and was ready to roll out with the other 3000+ riders at 5:30 when the starting gun fired.

Day 1 I usually ride with my friend Marc. We take off faster than I’ll ride all year long. It’s the combination of the event, the preparation, and the adrenaline rush that comes with riding this event for me. It’s my “Tour de France”. Yes, it’s not a race but this is what I’ve trained over 2000 miles for and I was ready, cold and all. The weather was the nicest it’s been in all the years I’d been riding. While this summer was hot and humid somehow the weather broke this weekend and it was like a gift.

We covered the first 40 miles, the toughest of the event, at a 20mph pace and rolled into Franklin, the second water stop and our home riding turf before 8am to a huge welcome from our PHAT Tuesday family and friends. It feels like a homecoming for us rolling in. As tempting as it is to stay around we get in and out of there in about 15 minutes, longer than we care to stop. Much longer and my legs start to stiffen up and rolling out gets tough. We got out of there and back on the road. This time we had a couple others join us on our trek to the third stop at the Dighton-Rehobeth school. We slowed our pace down to about 19 (doesn’t seem like much but believe me, it is) and covered the next 30 miles quickly rolling into lunch around 9:30.

The plan was to be in and out of the lunch stop in 15 minutes. It ended up being about 30 minutes and we added one more to our group. This was another one of our teammates and we all worked well together to make the miles pass by quick. While we stopped at the next two water stops briefly we managed to cross the finish line at 12:20 with a police escort. How did we get a police escort you ask? Well, it wasn’t exactly planned but it worked out really well. We turned onto route 6/28 about a half mile from the finish and we heard sirens that we thought was an ambulance. This was a scary sound as I was afraid cars would slide over into our lane and push us off the road. We stood on the pedals and started to hammer it to the finish. The sirens got louder and we saw what turned out to be a collection of mass motorcycle police officers riding in formation in support of the event. We jumped in and crossed the finish line in style. We thought maybe they were escorting the two senators (Kerry and Brown) in. We got to the finish and I mentioned that to my wife and she said “no, the senators beat you guys in by about 15 minutes”…

It was great to have my Nancy and my son Eric at the finish line. This was the first time in 22 years they’d been there to see me finish. They worked at the Franklin water stop for years and last year moved to the Mass Maritime Academy (aka MMA), the finish line for day 1, but this was the first time they were able to see me finish and that meant a lot. My daughter was there working as well and for me to have them all there involved in the event makes it even better.

Wasting no time we made our massage appointments and hit the showers. In spite of the cold I felt great. I managed to cover the 110 miles at a pace of 18.7 mph. Showered up and in clean clothes it was time to get some food. First stop was the Legal Seafood clam chowder, a couple slices of pizza, a burger, some chicken, and then back up for more. You get a little hungry after riding over 6 hours.

The afternoon passed by quickly. It was a picture perfect day for riding as well as for hanging out on the quad at the Mass Maritime Academy listening to some great bands, drinking a little Harpoon, catching up with friends, and of course eating some junk food. Rather than staying in the dorms as I’d done for 20 years I went back to our home in Falmouth with a few of my teammates. We had a feast of grilled swordfish and pasta thanks to Nancy. Despite the head cold and riding 110 miles I was still going strong and had plenty of energy to cook. We all ate very well that night. Nothing like fresh marinated swordfish on the grill with a bit of pasta and some wine to end a great day. The end of the day came early for most. My teammates were off to bed by 8. I took a walk to the beach, stopped and visited with some neighbors and got home around 9 and it all hit me. I was done. It didn’t take long for me to be out cold once I hit the pillow.

I had set my alarm for 3:45 (yes, AM) as we needed to get back to the MMA to get back on our bikes by 5:15. Nancy wins the award for getting up with us and driving us back to the Maritime Academy. We left my place promptly at 4:15 and were at the MMA by 4:35. The bags got thrown on the trucks, we grabbed some breakfast consisting of biker buns (bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on English muffins), fruit, some coffee and off we went to meet up with the team.

Day 2 is when the entire PHAT Tuesday team rides together. There were more than 20 of us this year. All were ready to roll out on time (quite a feat for this crew) and off we went.

One the road with the sun just peaking through we made our way to the Bourne Bridge. It’s a real treat to have one lane blocked off for us to ride on. If any of you have every ridden over the bridge on the sidewalk you know what I mean. Over the bridge with a gorgeous sunset coming up we could tell it was going to be another picture perfect day. Good thing as today I rolled out feeling feverish and just “blah” from the head cold I was fighting. We cranked along the canal on the bike path at a very brisk pace. Out of the bike path and on to what we call “the rollers”. A lot of people don’t realize that there is a service road that parallels route 6 along the cape. This is what we call “the rollers” as they’re just what seem to be endless rolling hills. It is a really fun part of the ride if you hit your stride and know how to ride it. The first stop came up around 20+ miles in. We all arrived together, filled up bottles, grabbed food, advil, and assembled to roll out for the second leg between Barnstable and Brewster. Another favorite section of the team because this is relatively flat with some great roads. We were making great time. In fact, a little too good as a few of us ended up out ahead of the group. We were trying to get our friend Dave to the place his family would be. They come out every year to meet him on the route, cheer him on and wish him well. We arrived there but they were not there. They were late. Figures as this was the first year I stopped as I NEVER stop if I can avoid it. A couple of his friends were however. One of his friends is battling a rare form of cancer at the moment and for him to be out there meant as much to him as it did for us. We stopped for a bit to chat with them and the team soon passed us. We said our goodbyes and managed to catch back up to the team in time to ride past “Da Hedge” together. “Da Hedge” is an incredible sight. It’s at the Cape Cod Sea Camp and is lined with all the campers and counsellors cheering and screaming as we pass. This sight never gets old. It just about lifts us off our seats as we go by.

We pulled into the second stop at Nickerson State Park very early. I was now starting to feel worse and was halfway to my Day 2 destination. One of my teammates was riding with a few broken ribs and a couple broken fingers and another was fighting some bad knee pain. I was in good company. We ended up getting ahead of the team pulling out of this stop and at this point we never looked back. We all were ready to be done and just wanted to get to the finish line. We would not cross with the rest of the team this year and they would just have to understand. We were “the riding wounded” and we rode extremely strong together. We’d all done this ride enough to know what we had to do to finish it. None of us even entertained going in on a truck. We’d finish under our own power or not at all.

We covered the final 40 miles quickly and pulled into the finish line around 10:15 AM.

It was great to have finished this year. I managed to ride through the head cold and was really looking forward to a shower and be able to kick back and relax in my day room at the Provincetown Inn. After a while relaxing in the room we headed down to the BBQ. More Legal Seafood clam chowder, burgers, chicken, and Harpoon. We hang out for a while and then made the trek into town where we need to catch the ferry for the ride back.

The weekend seemed to by in a blur. I put in over 2000 miles training for this two day event and before you know it, it’s done.

The boat docked around 7 on Sunday. I was exhausted but feeling great. We boarded the busses back to Wellesley. It was a bit quieter than the boat. It was enjoyable nonetheless. I got home a little after 8, had some dinner, sat down and that was about all the energy I had. The head cold was mostly gone and the weekend was over. Another successful Pan Mass Challenge.

This year was different for me. It was more about the fund raising and the cause than the fun of the event. It’s hard to explain. Maybe it was the head cold. Maybe it was just all the changes that have taken place over the 22 years. Regardless of the reason I’m still very proud of what we do on that one weekend every year. I’m privileged to be able to be with people that are as dedicated and committed to eradicating this disease as I am. I will be back next year for number 23 and hope you’ll all be here to support me once again.

Thank you all for all the support you’ve provided all these years. You should all be proud to know that the funds you donate DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

If you have not yet sent in your donation it’s not to late. You can donate online by clicking here:

https://www.pmc.org/egifts//makeadonation.asp?EgiftID=BS0011

Once again I would like to thank you for sponsoring and supporting me in this very worthy cause and for letting me ride on your behalf.

Till next year…