Voice Post: 2010 PMC Sun Sandwich

[ornoth]

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Hi there! Final update from the 2010 Pan-Mass Challenge. The weekend's now over, and it's time for a little analysis, but I'll be brief.

I guess the first question is for the 280 mile route that I took, adding the leg on Friday 93 miles from the New York border at West Stockbridge to Sturbridge, Massachusetts: was that worth it? How was it? Overall it was really good. I enjoyed the ride. It was very interesting, a good challenge, and I seem to have survived the weekend.

Was it the right thing to do? Yeah, I think it was, because I was really looking to find some way to put a little more challenge back into the ride, but also to do something memorable and special for what was my 10th anniversary Pan-Mass Challenge. And it wound up being that not only was that particular part of the ride special, but the whole weekend was just absolutely astonishing, from riding with friends to to connecting with new people to the weather and the countryside and obviously the mission and the fundraising that's gone on, the support that I've gotten from so many people... It's really been a very memorable, and as I spoke earlier, probably the best Pan-Mass Challenge that I've had to date.

Would I do that long extra leg on Friday again? I certainly would consider it, but probably not right now, and maybe not for a couple of years, just because it is quite a challenge, and logistically it's a challenge, and it's a big extra effort. But it was fun, it was interesting, but right now I think I need a break.

I also wanted to send out again thanks to all my sponsors obviously you guys make it possible, and the money that you contribute is the purpose: it does wonderful work in terms of supporting the researchers and the clinicians at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to do the real work that we're here to do.

But I want to give special thanks particularly to everyone who is a first-time donor. My 100-sponsor challenge couldn't happen without a huge flood of first-time donors, and I would say that at this point that probably more than half of the hundred people who have made contributions this year were first-time donors. So I want to especially thank those people, because your support is what made that achievement possible. And you all came through and I appreciate it a lot and I hope you'll be with me in the future.

That's it. Look for more material to come soon, if you're interested, which will include a typically lengthy writeup, GPS logs of the maps of where the ride took place, the route that we took, photographs -- both stills and also I will be putting together a video or two to try to capture the flavor of the event so that you can get more of a sense of what it's like to be out there on the road with me.

If you're interested in those, it may take me a while to put them all together, but you'll eventually be able to get to them by going to my cycling page which is http://www.ornoth.com/bicycling/ and look at the Pan-Mass Challenge 2010 link.

But that's it! Closing the weekend now, and happy to have had you along for the ride... It was quite a ride, and glad that you were there to share it. Thank you!