Barry Davis's
Pan-Massachusetts Challenge
to benefit the
JIMMY FUND
My PMC Second Attempt '05
AND WE'RE OFF
Saturday Morning, October 1, 2005, 6am. I'm ready to begin my Second Attempt from the parking lot of the
Sturbridge Host Hotel.
(L-R) Paul Fahey, Mark D'Agostino, myself, Joanne Butler.
13 Down, 97 To Go
That's me in the lead, with Mark behind me and Paul in the car behind him. Joanne is taking the picture. We just crossed over I-395 in Oxford.
If At First You Don't Succeed
Preface
This story is long, but it represents the spirit that all PMC riders have, a desire to find a cure for cancer through a dedication to fund raising for the Jimmy Fund And Dana Farber Cancer Institute. To truely and fully understand my personal feelings about the PMC, I ask you to read the entire story.
For me, the Pan-Mass Challenge has become a very important part of my life. So important, that if I could not complete the ride, it would bother me tremendously. No more so than in 2005.
Preparation for the 2005 PMC was going well. I had purchased a new bike over the winter, a "Felt F65". The bike brand was new to the market and contained many carbon fiber components, including the pedal arms. Training was going we thru the spring and summer. The bike felt real good under me.
PMC 2005 weekend came along. Things were going well. I picked up my friend and fell PMC'er, Mark D'Agostino of Syracuse, NY on Thursday of the event weekend. Friday went well for the Sturbridge set up and opening ceremonies. It was a near perfect Saturday morning of the event weekend. A slight fog hugged the ground as all of us left Sturbridge at 6am. Six miles later, near the right turn from Rt 20 on to Masonic Home Road in Charlton, I started noticing a rhythmic clicking sound coming from below me as I pedalled. I got off the bike and located the sound, my left pedal arm developed a major crack in it, causing it to bend inwards towards the frame. I could not continue. a PMC safety van picked me up, drove me to my family waiting for me at Oxford Center. My best friends' wife Vicky was driving my truck to Provincetown so I could have it after the event during our vacation.
A few hours later, we arrive at the Mass Maritime Academy entrance. There was a bike shop there and I used their phone to call every bike shop on the eastern Massachusetts coast to try to locate a replacement pedal arm. Unsuccesful, Vicky took my bike and the kids onward to Provincetown while I walked into the Mass Maritime Academy and crossed the finish line of Day 1, FIRST. Not quite the way I wanted. I went to my room, cleaned up and waited for Mark to arrive later in the day. Once he did, we spent the rest of the evening as we always did. The next morning, I secured a ride to Provincetown via a PMC safety van and met up with the family and welcomed Mark in. For the 2005 PMC, I rode a grand total of 6 miles.
All my responsibilities for the PMC were complete. But in my heart, I did not complete the PMC. I did not put my body through the nearly 200 miles of riding in the PMC, as I had promised I would do so to my mother and wife Linda. While vacationing on Cape Cod after the event, I got depressed, really depressed, that I didn't complete the PMC. Before heading home, I came up with the idea of riding the PMC myself, by myself. So I started planning out what I would call my "PMC Second Attempt '05".
My planning started with a telephone call to PMC Road Coordinator, Allen Eyden. I got to know Allen over the years. I needed some maps of the of a 30-40 mile stretch of roads because the PMC had changed the route the year before and I had not yet got to know the route. A few days after the phone call, Allen called me back with good news. He could do me better than just a map, he recruited four crews of road safety volunteers, including himself, that would guide me from Sturbridge to Provincetown on the weekend of October 1 & 2, 2005. These four crews, totaling seven people, came to the rescue of a PMC cyclist in need. They all took another weekend out of their busy lives to allow a PMC cyclist complete the ride. Those road crew members are....
- Allen Eyden
- Al and Janice Homer
- STEVE AND CHERYL CARLSEN
- Paul Fahey and Joanne Butler
So, on Friday night, Sept. 30th, 2005, I arrive at the Sturbridge Fire Station as I always do before the event. The Sturbridge Host Hotel, oine of the starting lines of the PMC, was strangely quiet. There was nothing in the exhibit hall where opening ceremonies is held, no big meal tent out back, no TV production truck. So I walked over to the Oxhead Restaurant on the hotel grounds, and had my pasta dinner. After that, I walked back to Sturbridge Fire HQ and sat down and watched so TV, since it was only 7:30pm. Around 9pm, Mark called me on my cell phone. He was coming back this way to go to the Patriots football game with his brothers on Sunday. He said he was going to stop by SFD to wish me good luck. Around 10:30pm he arrived and wished me well. We finished watching the news and said, " He Ba, help me bring my bicycle inside". HIS BIKE. Surprise, surprise, surprise, Gomer Pyle would say. Mark was going to join me on Day 1 of my Second Attempt. WOW!!! No thats a true friend.
The next morning, 5:45am, Mark and I arrive on our bikes with our gear bags with us, to the parking lot of the Host Hotel. The lot is EMPTY. Except for this gray sedan. In it was PMC Road safety Crew members Paul Fahey and Joanne Butler. They were going to be our "tail end Charlie" for the weekend. The vehicle had a yellow flashing light bar on it and was stocked with typical bicycle supplies, extra wheels, tires, tubes, pump, first aids kit, water, food.... everything a safety van on event weekend would have. Just prio r to our start, Mark noticed something wrong with his front wheel, the tire was flat. OH BOY, was this an omen of things to come. Ten minutes later, with front tire repaired, we are on our way.
It's darker out than the event weekend of course, but Paul's high beams are very helpful. Mark and I arrive at the Masonic Home Road right turn 25 minutes later and I raise a fist in victory and yell, "Not this time!!!". We continue on to Oxford center and............ no family members to greet us, just some of the differences I have to accept. Paul and Joanne suddenly blast past us. What's going on. Minutes later, the car returns....oh well. Moments later I see Joanne on the side of the road...she's taking photo's of Mark and I. Thanks Jo.
There are so many things are different about the ride it would mean this story would be twice a long. The two biggest things, only one other bicyclist to keep me company, Mark and no stocked waterstops. An advantage of this is I can take as many or little stops as I wish. The route is of course very familiar so I'm not worried about getting off course, but my trusty road crew is there to wave me on and even stop traffic for us. Things are going smoothly.
Around mile 66, we arrive at Valerie Souza's home on Agricultural Ave in Rehobeth. Valerie is long time PMC rider Matt Dillis, who heard about my second attempt and volunteered his sisters house as our lunch stop. Valerie offers her home for Matt for his and his friends' lunch stop. Things were starting to get tough for me at what is usually the fourth waterstop. I was starting to get very tired and sore. Around mile 90, my legs began to cramp. I was surprised about this since I didn't have alot of training for the Second Attempt since the event weekend because of the wait for the replacement pedal arm. So, at mile 96, I called it a day. With my road crew gathered around me, we load the bike's on to the cars and drive to the Onset Inn on the Harbor Hotel. What I was about to learn blew my mind.
As we about to say good bye to Mark, One of my road crew members, Steve, noticed a weird twisting at my bottom bracket. Well, unknown to me, I was riding a broken frame on my Felt F65. The right chain stay to bottom bracket weld was broken. That explained some of the shifting problems I was having all summer. So Steve took the Felt and a spare bike he brought along, went to his bike shop that night and transferred all my gear from the Felt to the Axion Seven bike. The rest of us spent a great night together in the hotels restaurant. Fortunately, there weren't too many other customers eating because we were a little loud. Unfortunately, Steve and Cheryl did not join us due to making the changes on the bikes. Thanks guys for your sacrifice.
Before getting to bed, we all decided to get out by 5am the next morning to get to the Maritime Academy and back on the road by 6am. For me, that's one hour later than during event weekend, but I'm not trying to catch the 330pm ferry back to Boston so the extra hour is fine. But, with my history in the PMC, I never sleep well, so I was up at 4am so I went for a walk around Onset. At 5:30am, we meet up with Steve and his wife Cheryl at the Academy and I get some adjustments made to the bike. at 6am, I was off. Rt 6/Main St in Bourne is typically quiet for this hour of the morning. As I approach the ramp to the Bourne Bridge, I meet up with a patrol car of the Bourne Police Department. I had contacted them in preparation for the ride to get an escort over the bridge. One of the east bound lanes of the bridge is coned off for PMC riders during the event. So to insure I can ride over the bridge, the Bourne PD agreed to escort me over. THANKS LT.____________
Being alone on the route of the PMC is so strange. That loneliness ended under the bridge as I was about to get on the canal bike path. Matt Dillis suprised me at the canal bike path entrance....on his bike!! He was going to join me for Day 2. A little over an hour later, another suprise....Al Homer, one of my road crew teams, and a friend JimStewart, a fellow PMC'er, meet up with Matt and I at the Rt 6 rest stop near the Cape Cod Community College. From there, the four of us pedal our way to Provincetown.
Today, October 2, 2005, the second day of my Second Attempt, is just as beautiful of a day as yesterday, perfect for cycling. We get to Nickerson State Park, the site of the PMC's second waterstop on the Cape, but the only cyclists there today are the four of us. We take a brief "nature call" break and continue on. We get to the country store at the end of the Cape Cod Rail trail and we all take a break. My road crew goes up on the Rail Trail to see what it looks like. It seems that there have been thoughts of making this portion of the Rail Trail part of the PMC route. I'm ready to go, but the rest of road crew decide to spend a few more minutes checking out the entire length of the Rail Trail. I was with Matt, Al and Jim so I had support, so it made sense for Allen to do this since he's on the Cape.
We ride past the WELLFLEET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, the site of the PMC's third and final reststop on the Cape. 22 miles to go. It's about 1030am, only a few minutes later than what I usually get to this point of Day 2, so I'm doing OK. OK??? well maybe not so. The climb to the reststop drained my legs considerably. I was starting to cramp. Once we got on to Rt 6 for the final time, I was in trouble, I'm riding slowly. I go into what I call "Conservation Mode". This is where I stand alot in higher gears and coast as much as possible. Standing uses different muscle than the ones that were cramping. And riding like I'm sprinting in high gear gives me decent speed. But getting to Race Point Road was another thing. That hill to the parking lot of the beach was a killer. I started to cramp so much I was forced to walk. I walked and did not stop. I had only 3 more miles to go. It was going to be a long and tough 3 miles of hills.
At 130pm on Sunday, October 2, 2005, I finished the 2005 Pan-Mass Challenge. Not that I was required to, but I made it. I made it the way I wanted to, to put my body thru the hell of riding 200 miles from Sturbridge to Provincetown in two days. Words can not describe the emotions that I felt when I cross past the telephone poles that hold the finish line banner on event weekend. I DID IT. Hugs and thank you's to all my road crew members for allowing me to complete my ride. There were nearly 20 people that was involved in some way in getting me here. There are not enough thank you's for my road crew for the unselfish dedication they showed over the weekend. This weekend ended up to be not about one singular persons goal and desire to achieve a goal. It was bonding of a small number of PMC'ers from many faucets of the event that came together and had a great weekend together.
My deepest and heart felt thanks to the following people that helped me out this weekend......
- Allen Eyden, PMC Road Coordinator and Second Attempt Coordinator
- Road crew members STEVE AND CHERYL CARLSEN, Al and Janice Homer,
Paul Fahey and Joanne Butler (my tail end charlies)
- Sharon Brown for caring for my children
- my sister Janet for getting me to the Sturbridge Host Hotel and picking me
up at the Mass Maritime Academy
- Valeria Souza and Rose Dillis for a delicious lunch stop
