Voice Post: 2009 PMC Fri Southbridge

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

Welcome to the audio coverage for the 2009 Pan Mass Challenge. This will be my ninth year doing the ride and everything looks pretty good right now.

I'm currently out in Sturbridge having checked in, having out-sprinted a bus full of people headed toward registration and then had dinner at a Thai place that is commonly known as "Thai Place". Also caught the NECN PMC Kickoff Show live in the overflow tent where hopefully some of you may have seen my smiling face waving at the camera during a crowd reaction shot.

At this point the rain -- we had heavy rain this afternoon but the rain is just ending and hopefully should be clear by the ludicrously early hour of 5:30 when we hit the roads. So the alarm has been set for stupid o'clock and that's when I'll be getting up, and right now I'm going straight to bed.

We'll have another update -- obviously several updates -- in the morning, but hopefully we'll get one out before the actual ride takes off. So far things look good this year and look forward to a wonderful and rewarding ride. Next update tomorrow morning.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Sturbridge

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

Good morning it's the perfectly dark hour of 5am and I'm lined up in Sturbridge for the start of this year's Pan Mass Challenge. Nice and early, got half an hour yet before the start. So should be all set and ready to go.

Sturbridge here is -- I'm going to work on giving you a few factoids along the way -- Sturbridge is the home of Old Sturbridge Village, which is a 200 acre colonial living museum, a place I visited as a youth and an interesting town.

A little bit further up the road is Charlton, which we'll be passing through about 5:40, where Grizzly Adams, the famous performer for P.T. Barnum's circus is buried.

And a few miles beyond that is Oxford, the birthplace of American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, who was actually born on Christmas Day.

That's the notes until we get to the first water stop, and hopefully things will be good between here and there. It's obviously dark; the roads just are a hair wet but the rain has long since stopped. Most of the roads are dry, at least the primary roads.

So it looks like it'll be a good day. I'm standing here with two or three thousand other cyclists, shoulder to shoulder in the middle of a parking lot waiting to get the firing gun.

Things are still coming together, but looking forward to a great ride. And the next update will probably be sometime around 6:30am, probably also before you're awake. But off we go, and looking forward to a good ride.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Whitinsville

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

Good morning. It seems to be 6:57 and I'm in the first water stop: Whitinsville. Whitinsville is kind of the beginning of the Blackstone River Valley, which is America's oldest American manufacturing area, known for textiles in the colonial era.

And in a few minutes I'll be passing through Mendon, which is the site of Aerosmith's first gig, in 1970 at Nipmuck Regional High School.

Also last year at this stop I stopped and kind of was amazed at the number of people here who had been affected by cancer, just the sheer number of people. And this year it's kind of a little bit different, kinda looking at the sheer number of people who are doing something about it. So very encouraging.

The ride's going well. I started out in the lead group and continue to be in the lead group, averaging 19 miles per hour, which is pretty fast. So hopefully things will continue going well and I'll talk to you again shortly at the next water stop.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Franklin

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

Well things have gone a little bit awry here. Actually right after I talked to you at the Whitinsville stop, realized that one of my rear spokes had broken, which is a pretty dire consequence. Particularly since I have spokes that pretty much no one at the mechanics can fix. So they trued my wheel and I kept going although a little bit gingerly. My average speed has dropped from 19 to 18. So I'm taking it a little bit more careful.

Currently at the Franklin stop, 43 miles in. I'm still right on schedule, time-wise. Pretty soon, actually another 10 miles, I'll reach the halfway point of day one.

So it's not that bad, as we kind of skirt the corner of Rhode Island in the town of Attleboro. Attleboro is the closest point we get to RI and coincidentally it's also a town that has seven companies that contribute to major cancer hazards including the worst offender in Massachusetts, and a landfill containing uranium fuel rods. So I'll hopefully not get stuck in Attleboro on the way through.

That's it. The fog has burned off. It's now a warm and sunny day in the mid-70s. It'll soon be getting hotter as the sun continues to climb, it only being 8 in the morning at this point.

That's it. Next stop is another hour down the line, so I will talk to you again shortly, hopefully with the bike still in one piece. The body's willing, but the machine is gonna have to be treated a little gingerly today. Talk to you soon.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Dighton

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

Well I've made it to the Dighton lunch stop, which is 70 miles in, which means my rear wheel has continued to hold together despite the fact that the last three mechanical stops and two vans on the road, none of them have had the spokes I need to replace my spoke. However things are holding together well, and as I say it seems to be holding together so maybe we're okay for now.

We're in Dighton. Dighton is the location of the annual Cow Chip Festival where people place bets to guess which square in a field the cow will defecate on first (we're kind of in rural Mass right now).

And we're about to pass over a one-lane swing-span bridge, which is the oldest swing-span bridge in the US. Over the Taunton River, it was built in the 1890s. It's a one-lane bridge.

And Berkley, which we'll be going through at about the time we hit that bridge: B-E-R-K-L-E-Y. There's a missing 'E' in there because when they filed the name of the town in the state records, there was a misspelling in the registration, so it's Berkley, not Berkeley.

That's it, things seem to be going well. It's getting hot here. We're approaching 90 degrees. But feel really good, just a little bit of twinge in the neck, but hoping mostly that the mechanicals hold together. So far so good. That's it, we'll talk to you again shortly at the next rest stop.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Lakeville

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

Well I've made it to Lakeville now, which is 85 miles into the ride, and so we've only got about 25-odd left.

Lakeville, obviously, is a place that has lots of ponds and streams and swamps and lakes, including Long Pond and Snipatuit Pond. We kind of go between them on what's called Neck Road, which is very scenic.

Not only do they not have spokes at this rest stop at the mechanical tent, but in fact there is no mechanical tent because the mechanical guy hasn't shown up.

So we continue with the busted wheel, but things seem to be holding together well. My average speed is still pretty decent at around 17.5, so we're moving along.

My heart rate monitor tells me my average heart rate is 126, so I've been keeping it within reason, although every once in a while I'm up above 160 to 170. That's kind of my peak, but with an average of 126, that's not too bad.

Starting to feel it a little bit, but not bad. And by the time I get to Wareham, which is the next stop and the penultimate stop, I will have done a hundred miles. So fifteen miles down the road I'll talk to you again.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Wareham

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

Well we're now in Wareham, 101 miles into the ride, so I finished my century in less than six and one half hours clock time.

Wareham -- basically, there's only eight miles left, so Wareham's the only town I can really tell you about -- Wareham is at the head of Buzzards Bay, so it's also known for its shipbuilding, as well as the oldest nail factory in the United States, and is also the birthplace of actress Geena Davis.

Basically on that last leg, definitely hit the wall. Started having cramps in my left thigh, neck pain, loss of power, all kinds of maladies. But there's only eight miles left, and I'm taking a couple extra minutes here to rest up and just make sure that I can bring it in safely.

Still no sign of spokes, but I'm told that hopefully in Bourne there will be spokes, so hopefully overnight I'll be able to get some repair done.

But other than that things are going well, it's a beautiful day. Hopefully we'll get in Bourne to get my massage appointment all ironed out, as well as get my bike repaired.

Although I'm just looking forward to finishing this thing off right now. As I say, it's gotten a little bit strenuous, so just gonna crank out the last eight miles, which shouldn't take too long. That's it from here, and the next update should be at the end of the first day's ride.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Bourne arrival

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

Well for those of you who've been waiting for the final post, I did in fact make it to Bourne. It was actually quite a slog. I really hit the wall on that last leg, ran out of power and just hobbled in.

Actually though, at the same time, I arrived a couple minutes before 1 o'clock, which I think may be a record, but it's at least 15 minutes ahead of the pace that I had set for myself as a goal. So on one hand it actually was an exceptionally quick ride, but a little bit painful at the end, and of course, I have mechanicals, which...

I just visited the mechanicals tent, or parking lot, or parking space, because there's only one guy with a tire pump, and that's about the extent of the mechanicals here at Bourne. Apparently other repairmen are going to show up later, but again they're not very confident that they'll be able to find a spoke for me even tonight.

So tomorrow may be another ginger day. Fortunately tomorrow is usually a day that I take it much easier, so we'll see how that goes. But we'll try them again around 4 o'clock.

Also since I got in I have of course had my shower and massage, which were nice, a hamburger and a Pepsi (sorry for the product placement). Right now I'm sitting next to the Cape Cod Canal and the view of the Bourne Bridge and the elevated railroad bridge that I'll actually probably talk about later.

I will send another update when I leave, probably either when I leave Bourne for Sandwich or when I get to Sandwich at the hotel, but that won't be until much later in the evening.

In the meantime, I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon lounging around, ingesting as much as I possibly can to hopefully beat some of this fatigue that I've got, and eventually just passing out in the sun somewhere. It's a beautiful day, the sun is very warm. So it is hot, but there's plenty of shade around and cool breezes.

Very happy day so far, and appreciate everyone's interest and support and of course contributions. It's been a good year; it hasn't been a record-setting year, but at the same time I've reached all my goals. So I'm very happy with it, and enjoying the ride.

That's it for now, and I'll probably send another update in the 6 or 7 o'clock range.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Bourne departure

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

Okay, it's 20 minutes of 6 and I am leaving Bourne for the hotel in Sandwich. This is the fun part of the ride, where I get the Cape Cod Canal bike path all to myself for about 10 miles.

The canal is actually 17 miles long and connects Cape Cod Bay with Buzzards Bay. Built in 1909 to 1916 and it's cool because there's like a 6 knot current that goes one way when the tide is coming in, and it's the same speed going the other way going out. It's a really strong current; there's always a strong breeze here, but there's a bike trail on both sides.

I'm Leaving Mass Maritime: Mass Maritime is the second oldest state maritime academy in the US. I'll go past the vertical-lift railroad bridge, which is actually the second longest lift bridge in the United States at a 544-foot main span.

And then I'll actually go over the Bourne Bridge, which is an automotive bridge built in 1933 which has a 616-foot span and it's 135 feet up. It's the twin to the Sagamore Bridge, which I will actually be going under while I'm on the bike path.

But things remain grim as far as for the potential for finding any spokes this weekend. So we're gonna continue to hobble along, but this segment is gonna be nice and easy, and hopefully I will have regained some strength from the rest that I've had. And get into Sandwich shortly, and I'll send an update from Sandwich at some point this evening, before probably a start tomorrow morning around 6am. But that's it from here.

Voice Post: 2009 PMC Sat Sandwich arrival

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

Well hello. I'm now in Sandwich after the end of day one of the Pan Mass, in the hotel room safe and sound after 120 miles at an average pace around of something along the lines of 16.7 mph, off the earlier 19 mph.

The motel here actually is kind of oddly renowned, although I think they try and play it down. In November of 2003 actually there was a 48 year old man who was found dead in the bathtub covered head to toe in roofing tar. So that's kind of always been a mystery and I haven't heard anything since.

But actually the motel... it's not bad. It's pretty clean, [???], the bed is comfortable which is key, and it's right next to a place called the British Beer Company, which provides a good board to have on Saturday night, which is where I'm headed next.

Other than that it's going okay. I also have a secondary mechanical issue with my bottom bracket, which actually my bottom bracket was having issues before the ride, and now it's just having more. So hopefully things will hold together tomorrow. But other than that, the ride's going real well.

Didn't feel a lot of fatigue or pain on the way out here, having rested, and hope to rest a great deal tonight so that tomorrow's not bad. And tomorrow I'm not going to push it at all. I'll take it easy and just enjoy the ride. Again, Saturday's the day to push it, and Sunday's a day to actually take it easy.

But all in all, having a very good year, aside from the overbearing mechanical concerns. But enjoying this year's PMC and obviously very appreciative to all my supporters and donors who have brought me up to $7,200 as of the moment and there's a few other people who have pledged money to come [???] and so make both of my goals: Heavy Hitter for the fourth year in a row, and making a lifetime contribution bringing that up above $50,000, $51,000. So very proud of all that and very happy for the support that I've received from people.

But for now I'm gonna go eat a bit more and pass out. And we'll talk to you again first thing tomorrow for the leg from Sandwich up to P-town.