Bourne to Provincetown

Sunday was beautiful day. Sunny, highs in the 70s to 80s. A bit breezy, but I bet it always is on the cape. Seems we had a head wind most of the day. I was pretty uncomfortable with the shoulder thing in the morning. Poor Ken pulled most of the day, but he seemed happy enough to do it. We had a blast on Sunday. The cape is NOT flat for the record, but is a series of rolling hills that just go on and on. It was a lot of fun, even with the shoulder issue. If we had been able to ride at the rate we were riding without me having to stop and get patched up every 20 miles or so, we would have been done WAY earlier - I feel a little bad about that. But as it was, we did OK & didn't miss our bus home or anything.

After we got over the Bourne Bridge, we worked our way down to the Canal Bike Path, which is lovely stretch of bike path that follows - you guessed it - the canal. Along the canal were several older gentleman fishing along its banks at 6 in the morning that Sunday. It was very peaceful to ride by, and to just watch them fish. Just beautiful. And fast. We then worked our way over to "Service Rd" in Sandwich was a GREAT road. It had this huge hill as soon as you turned onto it. It was sudden, and sharp, and had several turns. It was just a lot of fun going up it. We may have been the only ones enjoying ourselves then from the looks of it, but it was really a fun road. The rest of the day seemed to be a mix of quiet rolling hills on back roads, and traffic plagued near-gridlock on Route 6 (which was our fault, I am sure). Lot of people were out cheering, although I heard that when compared to other years there weren't that many out. But we were very thankful for the ones that did make it out to cheer us on. Its so touching to read all the signs saying "thank you" or to read the names of those people the PMC has helped. It pulled my focus away from any pain I might be feeling, thats for sure. What's a little shoulder pain compared to loosing a child, or a parent, sibling or spouse to cancer? I often don't want to think about how hard that is to watch. To not be able to keep that suffering away from your child. To not be able to step in an take over for your spouse while they fight a battle for their life. A little shoulder pain is nothing. Sore legs heal. Saddle sores heal, as do sunburns and achy knees.

In Brewster, we picked up the bike trail again at Nickerson State Park, which is one of the bigger water stops. Here you can see the general confusion the ensues at a waterstop:There are bikes & people everywhere. It's loud. People are all largely dressed the same & wearing helmets. You can get lost there if you aren't careful (people were misplacing their bikes). BUT they are usually full of helpful volunteers handing out good food, refilling water bottles, mixing gatorade or patching people up. This water stop had washcloths in tubs of ice water - a very nice treat.

The Nickerson State Park is also where Jack stands with his sign - you've probably seen Jack on TV, if you saw either the opening ceremonies on NECN or the wrap up (I'm not sure about the rest of the coverage during the weekend - I didn't record it, and I was busy riding so I didn't see it). Jack is the boy who stands with a sign every saying "I'm 11 now, thanks to you" (or however old he is that year) - He started doing this when he was a toddler, because Dana-Farber saved his life, and he & his family credit the PMC riders for raising the money to do it. Jack has become somewhat of a PMC celebrity, an icon. Jack is getting taller by the year, and this year he was wearing a volunteer T-shirt. I believe last year he rode a portion of the PMC as well. I didn't take his picture & I didn't shake his hand. I'm too shy. Hopefully next year he'll be there and I'll get over my shyness to thank him for giving back so much.

We convinced a nice man to take our picture while he waited for the rider of the other half of his tandem bicycle:
Those are last years jersey's. I like them because they are brightly colored (good visibility) and nice & lightweight.

After we left Nickerson SP, we hopped on the Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT) which was absolutely beautiful. Smoothly paved, no potholes, no seams...just smooth & fast. Thats Ken, looking back & trying to figure out why I'm not on his rear tire... We didn't stay on the CCRT for too long, although it was memorable in its slickness. We bailed off in Orleans (I seem to remember the CCRT just ending there) and enjoyed some really nice back roads with more rolling hills (although much gentler than earlier in the day).

When we got to Wellfleet, there was a huge arch of balloons over the street. We had met a guy "Dennis" at dinner Friday night & again a couple of times on Saturday - and these, apparently, were the people from his neighborhood. This is where he lived. He must be a lucky man to have such a supportive and outgoing neighborhood. Seems like a nice place to live. Anyway, here is Ken approaching the Wellfleet Welcome:Our last water stop was not long after that photo was taken. Just before we got to the water stop, we were on this beautiful rolling hill road called either Long Pond or Lawrence - it was like a roller coaster. And we had our first and only equipment malfunction. Ken's chain fell off (chain suck). But he got it only quickly & we were able to catch up to the group we were riding with before we got to the water stop.

The waterstop is where I had the most painful massage I've ever had. I think that massage is what made me go get some xrays taken on Monday. A very well meaning volunteer decided she was going to get that knot out of my shoulder (which may or may not be associated with what may or may not be a muscle tear). And you know what? It hurt. A lot. BUT my shoulder was good for the next 20 miles, and I finished the ride fairly comfortably (although it more or less ceased to work shortly after I got off the bike). I'm paying for it now, but it was worth it. Muscle relaxants are helpful.

After the water stop, we worked our way through backroads to Rt 6/ Mid Cape Highway. Its a busy highway, and there was a headwind. But luckily for us, a nice man named Alfred came along and asked if he could pull for a while. Who is going to turn THAT down? Sure, we said, and he pulled us a long way down that stretch of windy open road. Ken, who had been pulling, said his heart rate dropped by 40 beats per minute as soon as Alfred took over. He never asked for a break, although we would have gladly given him one. It was along this stretch that the NECN camera crew came along & started filming (which caused some traffic back up). I don't think we made it into any of the broadcast stuff, though.

When we got onto Provinceland Road we got very excited. We just spun & spun. We were averaging about 20 MPH for the last portion of the ride. Adrenaline, maybe, I dunno. But after 180-something odd miles, we were able to sustain that pace for the last few miles and it felt great. It was beautiful out, and we were finishing, finally. I couldn't believe it.

Here is Ken as he starts approaching the finish line:
And here is Ken more or less at the finish line. Its a bit blurry, but I was trying to keep up...
The Bourne to Provincetown route took us just under 5 hours, and about 2900 calories. Over the 2 day event, we rode the entire 192-mile route and spent approximately 12 hours in the saddle. We burned a weekend total of 7,384 calories just while riding. Our highest speed was 39 MPH (down one of those hills on Saturday). Our average speed on both days was about 15.5 MPH.

So that's it. That's our ride. It was long. It was hot & it hurt. It was great & we cannot WAIT to do it again next year. The riding was fun and the people were great (you'll never ride with a better group of people than the PMC riders). What's a little pain when so much is at stake?