Ornoth

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

Okay, we're now in Lakeville, 85 miles into the ride, so we're getting there. The last leg wasn't too bad. It was a little shorter, and I took the time to talk to a couple of people along the way, so it was a kinda pleasant little ride. It's getting damn hot, but still no signs of rain. A little partly cloudy but it is really humid, so if we get rain it's probably gonna be a big thunderstorm. It's now 11:45, which is pretty much right on my schedule, and we've got something like a little more than 25 miles left to go. Feeling pretty good. The next water stop is Wareham, where we will be at 100 miles and that's the most I've done in training; I did that last weekend. Having a pretty good time and talking to a few people, and moving right along. Gonna get my massage; I'm really looking forward to that (heh), as well as a nice cold shower. But so far everything's going fine and enjoying the ride. And very much appreciate the assistance of the people who have sponsored me, whether it's for the first time or repeat sponsors, it means a lot to me and it obviously has contributed to something absolutely huge, as this event starts to rival the Jerry Lewis March of Dimes Telethon in terms of how much money it raises. That's it for now. I'm gonna go refill my water bottle and get the heck out of Dodge. I'll talk to you in about an hour!

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

Welcome to the Franklin water stop; it's our second stop. It's now 8:35 in the morning and I'm 43 miles into it, which is nearly half -- well not quite halfway, maybe it's a third of the way. Hopefully you can hear me over the music they're pumping here. Things are going real well. Gonna stop for a few extra minutes here because the next leg is one of the longer legs, between here are Dighton, which is the lunch stop. Overall moving right along, still averaging 17 and a half over again the most hilly part of the ride, which probably means I'm gonna hit the wall on the flat part of the ride. But so far so good, having a great time. Just trying to stay ahead of the pack so I can get through the water stops quickly and get to Bourne quickly, so I can ensure that I get my spot in line for a massage. That's it for now, I'll talk to you again in probably a couple hours.

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

Real quick update from Bourne [ed: Sturbridge, actually]. It's about quarter of six and we're all lined up and it's just a mass of bikers here but everybody is happy. Weather is good so far, the sun's coming up, and ready for a good ride. Thanks for staying tuned to the updates, and I'll have another one for you in an hour or so. Talk to you later, bye bye!

With summer here, it’s once again time for my annual posting to ask you to sponsor my Pan-Mass Challenge ride.

Apologies to those of you who have seen this already. Bear with me; I’m afraid there’s quite a bit of overlap in many of my communities.

And since most of you here have already heard plenty about the PMC in previous years, I’ll limit myself to the highlights.

You already know that the 200-mile, 2-day ride raises money for life-saving cancer research and treatment via the Jimmy Fund and Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and that the PMC is the Jimmy Fund’s largest single contributor, generating half of their annual revenue and enabling many kinds of research that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

The PMC is also the most effective athletic fundraiser in the world. Most fundraisers devote as much as 30% of contributions to the administrative cost of running their event. In contrast, the PMC is a model of efficiency, running a bike ride that spans two days, seven different routes, sixteen water stops, and supports over five thousand riders passing through forty-six towns—in addition to running twenty-two smaller kids’ rides—without taking a single penny of the funds raised by our riders.

Last year, I was able to play a bigger part in that awesome achievement than ever before. Thanks to many of your help, I raised over $10,000 for cancer research, treatment, and prevention, and I have now raised over $37,000 during my eight years as a PMC rider. This year’s minimum is $4,000, and my goal is to once again surpass the Heavy Hitter level, which is $6,700.

Last year I rode in honor of my friends Ken and Christine. Ken was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in early 2005, and spent that summer enduring an intense chemotherapy regimen. In 2006, shortly after his first anniversary post-treatment, Ken’s cancer had fully returned, and he spent the winter of 2006-2007 in another six months of chemo.

At the time of last year’s ride, Ken had made it through that treatment regimen, and he and Christine were looking forward to a planned wedding in May of 2008.

But Ken’s cancer returned just before Christmas, and he went through his third series of chemotherapy this past January. Afterward, Ken’s doctors told him that there was little they could do to achieve a permanent cure short of a bone marrow stem cell transplant.

A month or so ago, just before the stem cell transplant, a PET scan showed that Ken has new tumors in his spine, spleen, and armpit. He immediately began his first radiation treatment, which will be followed by a fourth round of chemo, and possibly the removal of his spleen.

All this occurred just days before the original date of Ken and Christine’s wedding, which they had to put off for another year.

Because they’ve had such a difficult time of it, this year I am once again riding in Ken’s honor.

Cancer is both pernicious and pervasive. One in three Americans will contract cancer during our lifetimes, and one in four deaths is attributable to cancer. It is imperative that we devote the manpower and money necessary to better understand, treat, and prevent this deadly family of diseases.

Each year, I make a concrete contribution in the fight against cancer. It gives me an incredible sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, and hope. It’s a feeling I hope you’ll share if you choose to sponsor my ride by making a donation to the Jimmy Fund at this Web page:

http://ornoth.pmcrider.com/

As I did last year, this year I am also offering a special bonus for anyone who contributes $200 or more. This year’s gift is a Pan-Mass Challenge logo refrigerator magnet, such as can be seen here:

http://ornoth.com/pmc_magnet.jpg

And if you’d like to look through my writeups, photos, and videos from previous years, or keep updated on this year’s training, those can all be found at:

http://www.ornoth.com/bicycling/

Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from you soon!

One thing I haven’t been able to share with my contributors is the printed annual Pan-Mass Challenge yearbook. It comes out long after the ride has been completed, the check presentation made, and the press releases sent.

It’s always a great reminder of why we ride, and how much we’ve accomplished, both in the past year as well as over the 28-year history of the event. And the stories inside are sure to bring a tear to the eye of every rider.

This year, I was delighted to hear that the yearbook has been made available online in electronic format. You can find the PDF here: http://www.pmc.org/ems_client/html/pdf/07Yearbook.pdf

I hope you’ll read through it. It has a number of great stories and photos, and will give you an even better appreciation for why the ride means so much to me. And if you check out the middle of page 25, you’ll find me listed under the Heavy Hitters who raised over $10,000 this year… Thanks to your help.

And for more about my own experience last year, check out the photos, video, map, and writeup on my 2007 PMC Travelogue page.

As for 2008… I’ve already registered for this year’s PMC, and I hope you’ll be one of my sponsors come August.

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

Hey, we're here. We are in Wellfleet. This is the last stop before Provincetown, so the ride's almost over and I'm taking my time and kind of enjoying the scenery on the cape. We got our first view of the ocean on I think it's Ocean View Drive in Wellfleet, which is a pretty substantial climb, but you get a beautiful broad expanse view of the ocean. And from there you turn left and cross the cape over to this water stop that's in the middle of Wellfleet. There's some good sand dune rollers and kinda scrubby pine trees and stuff along that route. It was fun. It was still very crowded and I'll be getting into P-town with the rest of the group by the looks, but I'm really enjoying it, taking it a little bit easy. My knees and my neck are starting to act up a little bit, but not bad. I've conserved energy, and the next leg to Provincetown: I think it's gonna be challenging, because there's a real strong wind out and that stretch on Route 6 is completely open for about 5-10 miles, and so that's gonna be a real hard haul, I think. But it'll be fun; I'll take it easy, and this is the time to use up all that energy I've stored over the course of the past two days. So we'll hit it, and make it into P-town through the sand dunes, and I'll give you a call from there. But for now it's starting to warm up, and gonna hit the road again soon.

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

Hello, it is 7:19 so that was a quick leg. We are now at a total of 136 miles and it is 69 degrees out; so it actually was down to 64 this morning. But I am now at the Barnstable water stop, which is just after where I crashed out back in the 2003 ride. And met up with Charlie and his buddies and have been having a fairly relaxing warm-up for the first 15 or 20 miles of the ride so far. Looks like it's gonna start warming up pretty fast, so gonna go get some ice and some Gatorade and hit the road again. But we're now firmly on the cape, having started going over the crazy sand dunes and up and down the little hills. but they're not bad because you can just shoot 'em. You can get enough speed on the downhill to cover the uphill, and do it again and again and again. I think that's it for here. I'm gonna go grab some food while I can, and hit the road again. Next stop will be from Brewstah, at the state park there, which is before the first portion of our ride that hits the Cape Cod Rail Trail, as opposed to the Cape Cod Canal rail trail that we were on earlier, or actually last night. That was actually a good ride; going up the canal path in the evening is very beautiful, and going over the Bourne bridge is just crazy; it's a very high bridge. But that's it; I'll talk to you again soon.

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

Well, I dunno if that last update took, because my cell phone cut out, but I successfully arrived at Bourne. It took awhile to do this update because I had to do some self care in terms of taking a shower, trying to get a massage apppointment (and failing), having some food, and just generally relaxing and cooling off a little bit after a 112 mile ride. Weather here is not bad; it's starting to be a little cooler at least, and there's a breeze off the water of Buzzards Bay, so that's kinda nice. Plan from here is to hang out here till 6pm and eat and just hang out, relax a little, then take the Cape Cod Canal bike path up to Sandwich, where I have a hotel overnight. And I will probably make another update around 6am, when I wind up leaving there. Hope you have enjoyed the updates and that's it for today. Finished 112 miles today, pretty successfully, conserved energy, got a few twinges in my knee, but I think I wound up here 45 mins or an hour later than usual, because I was taking it easy. And hopefully that means I have more legs for tomorrow. Hope you're enjoying the updates and there'll be another series of them tomorrow.

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

Okay, we've made Lakeville, which is two stops from the end. We are at mile 85. It's well into the 90s now and damn hot. Just trying to keep the wheels together right now. The last section was kind of long and a little bit painful, so it's definitely starting to wear, but this is the time in the ride that it usually does; at 85 miles things start getting really hard, so we'll see how it is from here on out. But right now gonna take a couple of minutes, refill my water bottles, and head out. Still riding with Charlie and company and we've made a good pace, although we're not killing ourselves, so it's pretty happy. Enjoying the ride and getting plenty of warm sunshine and lots of sweat, so I'll talk to you soon from Onset, which is the the last stop before the end (at least for today). All's going well and wish you all were here.

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

Ok we're at the Lakeville [error: actually Franklin] stop. It's now 9am and making a very good pace. A little bit ginger in the knees and the ankle but I'm now hanging around with my buddy Charlie and we are taking it easy. Gonna try and hydrate, and all in all it's going well. Sun's coming up and it's turning hot, so not gonna stay here for very long but just gonna recharge the water and get back on the road toward the lunch stop, which is in Dighton/Rehoboth. That's it; another update shortly. Talk to you later. Bye bye.