Overnight at Mass Maritime Academy (MMA)

So when we got to MMA, we had no idea what was going on. We didn't know where to find our bags, where to pitch our tent (answer: apparently anywhere you wanted). We didn't know where the showers were. As a result the whole 'setting up camp' and basic personal hygiene was a very slow process. But it was OK - we got everything figured out. And now we know for next year.

We camped where we found all the other tents, which was right below a giant wind turbine. I've decided that I officially love wind turbines. I know, I know, they're awfully bulky. But they are sleek, and fairly mesmerizing. And I like listening to the wind whistling through it. This was the view from our "front porch" so to speak:


For the record, I did not hear a single person say "gee, thats ugly" nor did I see a single bird get hit by any of the blades. They don't move THAT fast - or so it appears from the ground. I guess maybe if I was up there I might feel differently.

Behind the small tents is a big tent - the massage tent. While we were fumbling around trying to figure out where to get our stuff, etc, we blew our chances for a massage. But now we know. you go over and make that appointment before you do anything else - like pee, eat, drink, shower, set up a tent or even find your bags (maybe even before you find your spouse...). You get the appointment FIRST. Otherwise, they run out. You can wait standby, but you'll be waiting in a line a hundred people long. Even with my shoulder pain, there was no way I was waiting in that line.

The weather was great - not a cloud in the sky. Well, that isn't quite true. There was this one that we saw on our way to bed:
But other than THAT, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was beautiful. Windy when we arrived, but that died down as the sea breeze died as the sun set. It was maybe 70-75 degrees.

There was a lot of food to be had. I made Ken accompany me to eat at least one of everything I could find. Except the Legal Seafood chowder. I had 2 of those. I even had a baked potato covered in vegetarian chili, sour cream & cheese. It was very tasty, as was everything else, and it all kept hitting the spot. We ate and ate and ate until we were ready for bed - and by the time I was actually falling asleep, I was hungry again. And of course, free beer. The problem with this is that after riding 110 miles in a 95 degree day, you don't really need any beer at all. We settled on one free beer, simply because it was there. Thanks Harpoon! Seems like plenty of other people were not worried about dehydration or anything like that, though.

There was musical entertainment at MMA as well, although for me it was too loud. But I am a giant stick-in-the-mud who doesn't like loud music. So we went off toward the part of the campus that lies along the Cape Cod Canal & found our little niche. We sat on a 'sea wall' (if you can call it that) and admired the view.
As you can tell, so were many other people. On that wall behind Ken, the photographer was trying to do some big team photographs - but he was getting angry that people were carrying their free beer & plates of food into the photo. Apparently, thats not what they want in their photos :-)

This is the view we had while we finished our beer...
It was still a little hazy out, but you can just make out 2 bridges in the photo. The bridge in the foreground is a railroad bridge, which was actually lowered after I took the shot to allow a train to cross. The bridge in the background, which you can just barely make out, is the Bourne Bridge. That's the bridge we rode over. It was very high, and was nice & quite at 6 in the morning. We had a lane, or part of a lane I should say, coned off for us. I had read that if we didn't stay within the cones, the Army Corps of Engineers was going to take away that lane next year, so I got stuck behind someone who was going very slow over the bridge (it was a little steep). But it was OK - gave me a little bit of time to admire the view. But I had to be careful not to hit the person in front of me. My tendency on a hill is just to spin spin spin until its done - its the easiest way for me to get over it. Apparently, not many people do that. Instead, they slow way down, and use a bigger gear than they probably should and struggle through it.

Berkley, MA

Later during the day on Saturday, we got to the town of Berkley, MA. Now, I know that we were probably toward the rear of the group, and maybe the town had had some issues with some of the earlier riders blocking traffic or something like that (if they didn't, well, then that town must just be plain evil). But as we were pedaling along, suddenly there was a motorcycle cop standing on the side of the road about a foot and a half out from the edge of the pavement. His feet were spread, hands pointing to the LITTLE space between him & the edge of the road, and we was yelling at every rider that passed him - "THIS IS WHERE YOU BELONG - ANYONE CAUGHT RIDING DOUBLE WILL BE ISSUED A CITATION". I can actually understand why he would do this, as I get really upset at cyclists who lollygag along riding double - it isn't safe. And it makes passing them even more dangerous, whether you are a cyclist or a automobile driver. AND when you are a cyclist behind the guys riding double, all the cars that can't pass them are stuck next to you, putting you in danger - you never know when a pothole will pop up and you'll be stuck between, say, a moving vehicle and a giant tree trunk or stone wall.

However, the manner in which this officer chose to issue his direction was a) offensive and b) dangerous. This was not a tall guy, and you could not see him standing there above the helmet of the rider in front of you. I saw several cyclists who were forced to swerve out into the road to avoid hitting him because he came up so suddenly. It was completely unsafe - in his, uh, eagerness to show us who was boss in HIS town, he was creating a very unsafe situation both for us and for him. The final straw: it was all for naught - I didn't see a SINGLE car on that nice, wide, empty road before we crossed into Freetown. The only thing that I took out of that portion of the ride is that everyone should stay the **** out of Berkley, MA. Judging from the reaction and comments I heard from other riders, they heard the same message as me: "your kind isn't welcome here." Otherwise, it looked like a nice town. Which is too bad, because the name of the town now conjures up the image of a petty motorcycle cop on a power trip.

And, for the record, I thanked every single police officer helping to direct traffic along the route. Every single solitary one, even when there were more than one at an intersection, even if they had us waiting for several minutes while they let traffic through (as they should, periodically), and even if I didn't hear them reply to anyone else who thanked them. But I did not thank the motorcycle cop in Berkley. I wont thank anyone for threatening me (or my spouse) or putting me in a potentially dangerous position. Especially not while doing a charity ride. I still can't figure out whether he volunteered to detail the ride, or was there of his own volition while on duty. I didn't dare take his photo either...

Saturday: Sturbridge to Bourne

After the massive storms we had on Friday night (and the resulting mere 2 hours of sleep that I got because of said storms), we were running a teeny bit late on Saturday morning. We missed the national anthem. By the time we got over to the assembly area, people were lined up all over the place, and ducking under the ropes that were set up to separate the different paced groups. So we did what we did last year: just kind of waited until the almost the very end before we left. It wasn't a race - what was the point of fighting through throngs of people? The grouping had become irrelevant anyway. I'd guess maybe 100 people started after us.

The much-feared hills in the beginning of the PMC were no where near as bad as I thought they would be, or remembered them being last year. In fact, I kept waiting for the bad hills to start, and they never actually arrived. The hills were basically a non-event. We had been concerned that we didn't include enough hills during our training rides, but apparently that was not an issue for us, and in the future, I don't think we'll bother worrying about it. My max heart rate did get up to 196, which is 92% of my max. But there was never a point where I thought "I can't do this."

It was a hot day. A very hot day. There seemed to be a lot fewer supporters on the side of the road throughout the ride, and I overheard a few discussions saying exactly the same thing. Who can blame them, though? It was such a hot day out - and to stand there for hours and hours must be awful. There were a lot of signs & posters up though, so I get the impression that it was just too hot for people to stay out for very long.

Most of the ride I spent managing some shoulder pain - I learned early on that if I ride without my right arm, my right shoulder doesn't hurt. [For those of you who missed my whining over the past few weeks, we thought that I had torn through some scar tissue & then that was revised the Thursday before the ride to 'I had torn a muscle' in my shoulder - both opinions was that of my chiropractor. My assessment was that regardless of what you want to call it, I had been riding in that condition for a while, so what was one more weekend?] I also learned that the medical tents at each water stop have a ready supply of ice packs, advil, and some really good muscle rub (think: super "icy hot"). So by alternating all of these solutions every 20 miles or so, I hopscotched my way through the entire 192-miles. I spent a lot of time riding with my right arm tucked up near my waist, with my elbow close to my ribs. I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot. Some concerned people asked me if I was OK, and of course I said yes. I felt like a complete moron.

The good news, though, was that the shoulder issue was the limiting factor (instead of something else, like being lazy, or being out of shape). We both had the legs to go & go & go. We could have ridden much faster if I wasn't sitting up stretch and riding one handed all the time. I wouldn't say we over trained, but we had trained adequately.

At the Franklin Water stop (43 miles into the ride), we met up with my folks, who were kind enough to come & cheer us on. My mom even made a sign!

After that we peddled and peddled... In fact, Ken calculated that over the 2-day ride, I completed 1,482 pedal strokes more than he did. Apparently, I pedal at a higher cadence than he does.

Other than one minor incident (read the Berkley, MA post), it was a great ride. It was hot, and it was long. But it was great. It was really inspiring to read the back of everyone's jersey. There were names on ribbons cascading down from helmets, there were names written on jerseys, names every where. There were pictures everywhere as well. It was both heartbreaking and heart warming. Here are all these individual stories of suffering - and all these people willingly giving up so much of their time & effort to try and stop more of these tragic stories from becoming tragic. And then there is the thought that each one of these people has their own list of sponsors cheering them on, just like all of you guys, and the imaginary web that links all these people to cancer & the PMC becomes mind boggling large and intertwined. There were riders who rode up from Florida. I saw name labels from London. Apparently, there were riders from 7 different countries. I'm trying to imagine where, across the world, all the funding comes from, and I would really like to see that mapped out. And it's all done for the Jimmy Fund & Dana-Farber. And it all started because of one man who wanted to make a difference. It just amazes me.

For the record, we burned 4,520 calories on the 110-miles (approx.) from Sturbridge to Bourne. Our average heart rates were around 161 beats per minute, even with all those hills (pretty good for me). It took us 7 hours and 4 minutes to complete that portion of the ride (actual ride time, not including icing, massages, eating & waiting in line for the port-o-potty). Our average speed was 15.4 MPH - not fast by cycling standards, but seeing how that was the furthest I've ever ridden, I'll take it. Maybe next year we can go faster. Maybe not. We'll see. Luckily it isn't a race. Although it is kind of fun to see how much you can take...

What a great weekend!

Well, we're home. We made it & had a really great weekend. We're sore, we're tired and I am REALLY looking forward to our now-weekly monday-morning trip to the hot tub before work tomorrow morning.

We'll upload photos tomorrow & give all the details.

Weather forecast

So the weather forecast for tomorrow calls for upper 80s & low 90s (depending on where you are in Mass.). Our start in Sturbridge (6 am) should be in the mid-to-upper 60s. There is a chance of thunderstorms between noon and 3 pm. We hope to be done before any storms develop. We hope.

The weather forecast for the overnight in Bourne calls for a 20% chance of t-storms, with a low in the mid-60s. Not too bad.

Sunday on the cape looks beautiful! Sunny & 80 in Bourne, with a high of 77 in Provincetown. 9 MPH wind, though, which is to be expected - seems like it is always windy on the cape.

NECN coverage

For those of you in New England, NECN (comcast channel 6, at least where we are) has live coverage of the opening ceremonies tomorrow (Friday 8/3) night. Coverage begins at 8 p.m.

I'm sure they will have ongoing updates & footage throughout the weekend, and I think they have a wrap-up show Sunday evening.

We are DVRing the opening ceremonies - as we are getting up around 3 a.m. on Saturday to get to the starting line on time, we plan to be in bed for most of the ceremony.

Fundraising Update 8/2/07

We're up to $3,591.86 Thank you all for your support!

In light of, uh, recent market downturns, Ken & I have decided to donate stock early (just in case prices continue to plummet) to cover a majority of the remainder of our fundraising. We're waiting for the paperwork to go through, and we're not sure exactly just how long it will take. But for those of you who were considering donating stock this year, we'll be happy to talk you through the process & let you know whether it was really as easy as the PMC made it out to be. So far, so good, but like I said, we're still waiting for it to fully "go through".

When the stock donation is fully completed, we'll have an exact number for what our donation was worth- but at the moment, we'll still be about $400 - $500 short of required minimum fundraising. So if you haven't contributed, and would like to, we will be gladly accepting donations until the end of September.