There were some obvious stats. 192 miles. Six hours on the bike on Saturday with an average of 18.1 mph. A high of 39.6 mph (and I was scared to death!). Average heart rate of 145 with a high of 179! And most importantly 4350 calories burned (which I replaced with some nice Harpoon IPA).
On Sunday it was 4:20 on the bike with an average of 17.6 mph. Average heart rate was only 129 with a max of 165, and 2526 calories burned (which I replaced with Ipswich IPA).
Friday
On Friday we met in Acton at 12:00 to head out to Sturbridge. It was an impressive set up. A box truck for our bikes and bags. The Team Lick Cancer bus and a motor home. After some packing and standing around we got on the road around 1:00. All was proceeding smoothly through Acton and out onto 495 when all of a sudden there was a nasty oder in the bus. Could have been someone on the team but it ended up being spilled antifreeze as the serpentine belt blew off the engine. Due to great planning we all just piled into the motor home and were off to Sturbridge to sell shirts and tattoos. As I would find out, the team sells very popular "Lick Cancer" t-shirts and tattoos as another way to raise money for the Jimmy fund. I think we sold over 500 shirts. At about 6:00 we had an appointment with NECN for a little interview. If was tough to get everyone quieted down but the interview was great and Dave and Heidi got a chance to explain why we do what we do. Here is a link to the interview http://www.necn.com/Boston/Arts-Entertainment/Team-Lick-Cancer-ready-to-rock-the-PMC/1217629157.html
As my sister pointed out, I may be getting shorter as I get older. After the interview and some dinner we headed to the New England Motor Inn for some much needed rest.
Saturday
Unfortunately with my nerves and anticipation, I slept very little. The alarm went off at 4:15, a quick shower, and we were off to the start. It was quite a sight with most of us wearing the exact same shirt. We fueled up with bagels, OJ, H2O, and liquid yogurt and headed to our bikes for the start. A few words from Billy Starr (the creator of the PMC), a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem and we were off. It only took 5 minutes of riding and I was already separated from all of my teammates. I was very cautious during the opening of the ride as I had never ridden in this type of pack. The wonderful thing about the PMC is that there are rest/refueling stops approximately every twenty miles. I got to the first stop, visited the porta potty (this would become a familiar theme over the weekend, if you drink enough to stay hydrated, you spend a lot of time in your friendly porta potty!) and regrouped with our team. My first mistake was after the second rest stop. I had grabbed a bite and filled my bottles and one of my teammates called me a said we were leaving. I jumped on my bike and took off with them. Once out on the road I realized that it wasn't the whole team and I was with the fast group. We flew to the next stop. I had no problem keeping up but I am sure I could not have kept it up the whole day. The next stop was lunch and I was already looking forward to seeing Annie and Jordan. They were coming down to the last rest stop. After lunch I got back into the right group and we cruised down by Rhode Island and towards the cape.
The Gaebels at the Wareham rest stop.
This was my greeting in Wareham and I have to say, I had been looking forward to seeing them for at least 30 miles. Notice Annie with her Team Lick Cancer t-shirt on and Jordan with her sleeping giraffe. Not even the PMC could separate her and her giraffe! After the much to quick visit, we headed off to the day 1 finish. The last leg was less than ten miles but for some reason it felt like forever. We finished in Bourne at approximately 1:30. More food and drink, a little massage, a quick little storm that forced an evacuation of the dining tent and we were in bed by 8:30. I slept a little better the second night but it was smoking hot in the dorms and I was restless most of the night.
Sunday
Here is something that I do not want to hear for a while. "Riders, it is 4am, time to get up and get something to eat". That was our wake up call. It was a slow morning. I had a rough time packing my bag back up. Annie had packed me up on Thursday night and somehow after she packs I can never get everything back into the back. It is like she is a "Zen packer". I got everything packed, took a shower and dragged my butt and bag out the field. The entire two days people thanked us for riding but the real people that should be thanked are the volunteers! There was always someone to tell you where to go or to help you. I gave my bag to a volunteer and they made sure it got to your dorm. The next day I gave it to someone and they made sure it got to the finish. It was an impressive display of logistical coordination and hard work.
We were back on our bikes at 5:15 and I have to say I felt pretty good. The nice thing about day two was that we rode as team. We all had our Lick Cancer team jerseys on and at times there was a 30 or 40 yard line of teammates riding up the road. I wanted to get a picture of it but I am not that steady on bike that I was comfortable taking out my camera. The highlight of Sunday was 'the hedges' and meeting Jack. Jack is a young man that comes out to Nickerson State Park every year thanking us for riding. During a weekend of countless touching moments, it may have been the most touching.
We were lucky to get a team picture with Jack and I look forward to seeing him next year.
Sunday was an interesting day as far as the actual riding goes. I expected to be really sore but the day was surprisingly comfortable. Once we got about 15 miles from the finish we stopped to regroup.
Team Lick Cancer getting ready for the last push!
There are two finish areas at the PMC and unfortunately I had signed up for the wrong one. While the majority of the team finished together at the Provincetown Inn. I rode in alone to the family finish. It was very disappointing, after spending 10+ hours on bikes together it would have been nice to finish with everyone. Well I will learn from that and not make the same mistake next year.
I took a quick shower and headed over to the P-town Inn to reunite with the team. We got on the 3:00 ferry to get back to Boston and as you can see from the pic below, faced some interesting weather.
The band was named Pi Alley and they rocked. There were two separate storm fronts that came through and forced them to run for cover. Both times the fronts moved through and Pi Alley was back out to rock some more. The ferry ride was amazing. A wonderful celebration for work that had occurred, not only during that weekend, but also all year. It was a tearful docking in Boston. I found my bike and bag (again, because of the amazing volunteer staff) and we headed back to Acton. We arrived in Acton about 9:00, a tired but happy group.
First I apologize for any typos. I am scrambling to get this all down. Secondly I would like to thank everyone for their support. See you on the road, training for the PMC 2009.
Living Proof
Well now on a summer night in a dusky room
Come a little piece of the Lord's undying light
Crying like he swallowed the fiery moon
In his mother's arms it was all the beauty I could take
Like the missing words to some prayer that I could never make
In a world so hard and dirty so fouled and confused
Searching for a little bit of God's mercy
I found living proof
-Springsteen
