Thank You PMC 2022!!!

Once again thank you for your donations and well wishes. I have said many times you all donate and I get to have all the fun. It somehow doesn’t seem fair.

The Ride

First of all let me give a huge shout out to my road crew!!! It was because of them that I was able to ride my favorite route this year, Wellesley to Bourne and then Bourne to P-Town. I think driving me around for 2 days is the hardest part of the ride. For the amount of driving they did and traffic they endured they could have gone to Pennsylvania.

The PMC volunteers were incredible. In 2019 there were 4000 volunteers, this year there were 2700. Believe me they worked harder than I did. One jacked kid in Brewster with a gallon of water in each hand was standing in the middle of the crowd filling up water bottles and next to him and older woman doing the same. You want to talk about athleticism, how many 1 gallon curls is that? That should be a Cross Fit event or something.

What can I say about the supporters on the side of the rode. Some get up at 5 in the morning just to ring a cowbell. They always seem to know to gather just where you need it. On one hill on the cape they were blaring the theme to Rocky.

I always feel there needs to be some adversity. After all it is called The Pan Mass Challenge. The year my wheel broke I mentioned to my rode crew (Michelle) I can’t ride day 2. She said if the patients you’re riding for can endure their treatments, you can figure out how to ride a bike. I will always remember that. You can bet that, this year, for me and the other 6000 riders we would do our best to beat the heat.

I think because of the heat, Phyllis and I got way more texts asking about how I was doing. I’ll take that as concern and I loved it.

The rides themselves were pretty uneventful, except I seemed to meet more people this year. On day 1 my road crew (Phyllis) dropped me off in Wellesley at about 6:30 and the whole bunch of us were off at 7. It did get hot the last hour or so, but again, because of the PMC volunteers it was a fun ride to the finish.

While recovering in the tent as usual I was sitting by myself. This Irish guy who lives in Bermuda came over and sat down next to me. He comes to Boston for the ride every year. We love Bermuda and Irish guys so this was much appreciated. Before you know it, his whole team came over. I talked with them for a while. I did leave early though, because I’ve learned long ago don’t try and match Harpoon IPAs with Irish guys.

For Day 2, I was dropped off by my road crew (Anthony) at 5:30 in Bourne. That means everyone up at 4:30! I was over the Bourne bridge at 5:40 and then alongside the Cape Cod Canal. It was beautiful. That and the whole first part of the cape might be my favorite part of the ride, although I do have lots of favorite parts.

This year I met some survivors and that was cool. One young kid rode with me for a few minutes and then he was off flying down the road. He must have finished first.

I also need to mention on Day 2 our special angels showed up. They put a thin layer of clouds over us for the whole day 2 ride. That kept things cool and made the day 2 ride really nice. Although, they did leave the headwind at the end.

I really have to laugh. At the last water stop the volunteers always tell you “Only 20 miles to go and it’s downhill”. Now I don’t fall for that. I don’t know what it is, maybe the headwind, maybe the straight pedaling, maybe you think you’re almost done, I don’t know but for me that finish is always a challenge. It was no different this year, but the view from the top of the dunes in P-Town makes it all worth it.

Finally for the best part “The Celebratory Lunch". This year fish and chips and a beer.

Thanks again and hope to see you next year!!!

If you know someone who still wants to donate to this years ride it’s not too late. My link is https://profile.pmc.org/JD0487.

Thank you so much,

John

Watch The Official PMC 2022 Video