2017 PMC ride report

The 2017 PMC was my 14^th and it always the ride against which all other rides are measured. There are no other rides that can compare. The PMC is a model of organizational efficiency: like Apple computers and Japanese cars, it just works. It is very difficult to find something that needs to be fixed or that was forgotten.

The PMC raises more money than any other single athletic event.  This year’s goal is $48 million and they will reach it. It is a completely self-sustaining fund-raiser, meaning all (100%) of the donated money goes to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Everything else is covered by corporate sponsors and rider registration fees. Again, this is due to organizational efficiency.

Once again I want to begin by thanking all of the people who made a contribution in support of my ride.  This year, I did the Sunday Wellesley-Wellesley ride. After 14 years, the fund-raising is not difficult and it is due in large part to my friends and family who regularly support my participation in this ride. Thank you!

This year the PMC weekend was a little more complicated. In April, my mother passed away at the ripe old age of 98. She was active and happy until the end. You can visit the webpage my sisters and I created at: https://www.forevermissed.com/ai-li-shen-chin/#about

The reason this is relevant is that we agreed to hold a memorial service on the same weekend as the PMC. This saved me a trip to Boston. Given the many activities planned for the summer, consolidating these events into one weekend saved me 10+ hours in the car.

I arrived in Boston on Thursday and spent the afternoon with my sisters going through our mother’s stuff that was in a storage unit. An important part of this search was finding our father who was somewhere in the back of the unit.

The other thing that made this year’s ride different is that I convinced Stu to join Mike, Walter and me on our annual bike trip. This year’s trip was to Croatia and it was another amazing adventure. If you’re interested, you can read about the trip on my blog: https://cranksincroatia.blogspot.com. I think Stu thoroughly enjoyed the trip and as he said, this replaced the PMC as the biggest riding event of the summer.

Friday afternoon is when riders can pick up their registration packets. I went to Babson College as usual and this is what it looks like inside the tent. This is the registration table - about a dozen stations.

This is the food area - three hollow squares the same size as this one.

There are multiple bike shops and vendors and many have swag to give away.

I got hit on 128 on the way but that’s a different story.

I spent Saturday night at Stu’s as usual and Sunday morning we were off. Here is a “before” picture.

 

The Ride Report

This was the third year that Stu and I did the Sunday Wellesley-Wellesley route. It’s a 50-mile loop starting and ending at Babson College. Compared with other PMC routes, this is one of the shortest but someone on the ride said that mile-for-mile, it is more challenging than some of the longer routes. I can’t compare it with the Sturbridge ride but it is comparable to the Wellesley-Bourne route in terms of climbing but with fewer miles.

Here's a picture of the start of the ride (looking forward - there are more riders behind us).

This may look like a crowd and in fact it does take us a long time to get out of the parking lot and ride clear of the slower riders, but it is only a small number of the total PMC riders. The Saturday morning start from Babson launches about 2500 riders. Another 2500 start from Sturbridge. There are "only" about 1000 riders who do the Sunday rides.

The biggest drawback of not doing the Saturday Wellesley-Bourne route is that we do not meet the Sturbridge-Bourne riders at the Rehobeth lunch stop. This is where we meet up with Chris and sometimes Walter and once Mike Nortman and ride the last 40 miles together. The best part of this route is that we are not dedicating an entire day to the ride.

The start of the ride was in the high 50s and while I normally have extras of everything in my car, I did not have my car and even if I did, I did not have a base layer so I went with two jerseys, one sleeveless, and arm warmers. I took off the arm warmers during the ride but I was not sorry to have two layers.

For the second year in a row, the turn-around point was Gillette stadium and the entertainment was all Patriots.  Here is the approach to the stadium

“Pat” the Patriots mascot was there as were two Patriot cheerleaders. I would show you pictures but I would never stoop to having my picture taken with the Patriot cheerleaders.

Interesting story behind the pictures with the cheerleaders. They offer to link arms. It sounds like a nice thing to do but there is a good reason for it. If your arms are linked with theirs, you can't grab them and they know exactly where your hands are.

As is always the case with PMC routes, the roads they chose were great for cycling, usually quiet country roads and most intersections were regulated by local police and/or PMC volunteers. The ride was fun and well-supported, the weather was pleasant and it is a great cause. Any of you who are toying with the idea of doing the ride, I encourage you to join us. It will spoil you when you compare it to any other charity ride. Do it with us in 2018.

Final stats: 46 miles, 1811’ of climbing, average speed 16+. Nice little Sunday spin.

Then off to Brookhaven for the celebration of my mother's life. Busy weekend!

August 19, 2011