Jon Siegel's Pan-Mass Challenge 2004 Diary

I probably first vowed to myself that I'd ride the Pan-Mass Challenge back before I was even scheduled for my PBSCT. No matter how early it was, this ride has been really important to me for over a year and now I've Done It! I not only entered and rode, as you can see from the picture - I rode well and finished strong both days.

The PMC gives you a choice of six routes (if you register really early as I did; the best routes fill up quickly! In fact, I had to register and commit to the ride during mid-winter before my tests confirmed complete remission). I chose to ride from Wellesley, MA to Provincetown over two days, listed as about 175 miles but actually just over 166 by my bike's odometer.

The weather in eastern Massachusetts was perfect on the Friday before the ride, and the weatherman predicted that it would stay that way throughout the weekend of August 7-8. I took a vacation day and arrived at Babson College, Wellesley, just after 4 PM to register, eat some carbs for the ride, and chat with some of the few hundred other early arrivals. I left my bike at the ride start on Friday afternoon and stayed nearby overnight. Registration on Friday afternoon was an excuse for a party, with food (lots of carbs, of course), music, and whatever. Every rider wore a name tag so it was easy to find new people to chat with.

Early Saturday morning, I and about 1800 other riders and a hundred volunteers showed up at Babson College in Wellesley, MA (and another 2200 in Sturbridge) where we ate more carbs, checked our duffle bags onto the trucks that would take them to the overnight at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne (on the Cape Cod Canal, 86 miles away), and checked over our bicycles. Our group of about 50 cancer survivors posed for a group picture behind a banner that proclaimed "I'm Living Proof!" I'll get a copy of the pic and post it as soon as I can.

At 0800 hours, right on time, we were off! I was in pretty good shape from months of training including 150 miles each of the past three weekend, so I kept up with most of the other riders (Young whippersnapper racers not included; they started first and were 'way ahead of me all day). A friend from my office waited for me about ten miles out where I stopped while he snapped a few pix including this one here, and then took off again while he shot the one on the banner at the top of this page.

PMC set up rest stations about 20 miles apart towards the beginning of each day's route, and a tad closer together towards the end. The stops had a party atmosphere, with a DJ blasting rock music while riders stopped to rest, eat more carbs, and drink more gatorade. These were not small casual feeding stations - each one had to handle about a thousand riders at a time as folks rode in and out, with separate stations for food, water/gatorade, room to park all those bicycles, and of course, lines of porta-potties. Typically, the station filled a large high-school or similar-sized parking lot. Most had a theme, and volunteers wore appropriate costumes - Peter Pan/Never Land; Hawaii (unbelievable shirts, grass skirts); the Olympics. People lined the entire route, waving signs and cheering us on. Some of the groups were pretty big; a kids' camp on the Cape brought everyone out to cheer and they were loud and enthusiastic!

On Saturday I rode an actual 86 miles at 16.6 miles/hr, not counting time at the rest stops, leaving at 8 AM and finishing at the Mass. Maritime Academy in Bourne at 3 PM. The day's route was pretty flat, so even 86 miles didn't wear me out. It's hard to tell exactly, but I probably arrived in the first third of riders overall on Saturday and at least the first half on Sunday - not bad for someone who couldn't ride at all the summer before, I think!

The overnight at Mass. Maritime was a total party with 4,000 riders, hundreds of volunteers, lots of food and beer (for the carbs, of course), a massage for your aching muscles, a succession of live bands, and off to sleep by 8 PM to get ready for reveille at 4:30 AM!

On Sunday I finished breakfast and packing in time to leave at 0530 as the sun was just lighting the eastern sky, to ride 80 actual miles across Cape Cod, averaging 15.9 mph along roads that wound around and up and down rolling sand dunes and next to wind-swept beaches. It was a harder ride than Saturday's, but my hill training served me well and I kept up with the main group of riders. I pulled in to the Provincetown finish line at 1130, once again cheered by a large group of PMC supporters assembled along the last few hundred yards. It was truly fulfilling to realize that I had accomplished this goal that I set so many months back as I recovered from my transplant.

I rode back from P-town to Boston on the PMC chartered ferry, sitting out on the top deck listening to a great live blues band and sharing ride stories. We were escorted into Boston Harbor by a fire boat with hoses blasting into the air and a police boat with its siren blaring - when your group raises $17 million for cancer research and care in one weekend, people notice!

At the dock in Boston Harbor, we transferred from the ferry to buses which took the various groups of us back to our starting points. My trip to Wellesley passed quickly; back at Babson, I picked up my luggage and bike, said goodbye to yet another cheerful volunteer, and drove home, tired but satisfied - and didn't have to pedal!