What forest? What trees?

Pan Mass Challenge ride completed

(Reproduced below is the email I sent out to folks after I completed the Pan Mass Challenge ride in August. Yes, this is way overdue. And why am I posting this now? Just for the record, I guess. And maybe to pick up a last-minute donation to the Jimmy Fund.)

Dear Friends,

First of all, thank you again to all of you who have donated to the Jimmy Fund this year. I do appreciate your support.

And yes, the ride is done, all 192 miles. It was a good weekend for riding, and even the rain showers Saturday evening in Bourne were not too disruptive (except for one of the wood beam supports holding up the Big Top tent getting knocked over by a wind gust). I took a short refreshing swim in Buzzards Bay to celebrate the first 111 miles. Salt water, gooood. Mostly everyone made it, 5,390 riders. 2,700 volunteers to help us on our way. A few folks ended up in emergency rooms but I'm told there were no serious injuries. Thankfully.

Once again I was with a group that stopped Sunday morning to have mimosas in Barnstable (an homage to the winner of the Tour de France, who on the last day of the race drinks—sips?—some champagne as the peloton makes its way to Paris for that last torrid bit of racing around the Champs d'Elysee) and we stopped again in Wellfleet to cool off in the pond there. (Clearly we are not interested in an early finish at Provincetown.)

Lots of scenic countryside. Lots of people lining the roads, clapping, and thanking us. And the young boys and girls with their arms outstretched, waiting for the bicyclists to veer towards them to slap hands. You start thinking everyone in the state of Massachusetts is out there rooting for you. Well, maybe not the fishermen we see beside the Cape Cod Canal at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, their lines casting out into the mist over the water. They had business of their own.

But I have to tell you one story. Last Wednesday I was out on a training ride and stopped at a red light in Newton. A car pulled up beside me and the woman behind the wheel rolled down her window and asked me if I was riding in the Pan Mass Challenge. "I am," I said, thinking it was interesting that this time of year everyone in Massachusetts assumes anyone on a bicycle is training for the PMC ride. And that's kinda cool. Then she said, "My daughter died of cancer two months ago." That was like a kick to the gut. She said it matter-of-factly, but you could see her struggling not to cry. This was a woman in her late 40s, so her daughter was what?, 20-something? "I'm terribly sorry to hear that," I said, and then she related how her daughter had worked at Monster, the job search company, and how her colleagues had raised all sorts of money for the Jimmy Fund. That was such a sad encounter. Your first reaction is to think you've failed this woman and her family. Daughter. Dead. That's so tragic. On the other hand, I think someone on a bike represents hope for this woman and I guess that's another reason why we all continue to do this ride.

So far, $21,000,000 has been raised. The goal is $34,000,000. If you'd still care to donate, you've got until October 1st.

I hope you're all having wonderful summers.

Thanks again,

-erik

(I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pictures this year.)

To make a donation online: https://www.pmc.org/egifts/default.asp?Add=EH0050

Pan-Mass Challenge, again

I'm participating in the Pan-Mass Challenge again this year. The event is the first weekend in August. I'm deep into training, in fact will be riding 125 miles on Wednesday, from my front step to Provincetown. And then the fast boat home. Long time in the saddle but come August, have got to two of these rides on Saturday and Sunday.

In case you're not on my distribution list, here's the email I sent out. Would love to have your support:

Dear Friends,

I'm participating in the Pan Mass Challenge for the third time this summer. For those of you who supported me in this ride in the past, thank you again. Last year's event raised $33 million (!!) for the Jimmy Fund, which in turn supports cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. This year's goal is $34 million and I'm sure we'll make it. 

For those of you who weren't included in my appeal last year, the Pan Mass Challenge is a 2-day, 192-mile bike ride (not a race!) from Sturbridge to Provincetown, MA, that takes place the first weekend in August. This is no cake walk. I've been training since April and will complete at least two century (100+ miles) rides in advance of this year's challenge. Billy Starr, executive director of the event, completed the first Pan Mass Challenge in 1980 to honor his mother who had died from melanoma at the age of 49. The challenge has grown every year since, and has contributed over $200 million to cancer research.

For those who donated last year, I hope you can do so again. And for those of you I'm reaching out to for the first time, please help me further the fight against cancer.

To donate online, go to this address:
http://www.pmc.org/egifts/giftinfo.asp?EgiftID=EH0050

My donor ID is EH0050.

Thank you for your generosity. (100 percent of your donation is tax deductible.)

If you prefer to donate by check, please make it out to Jimmy Fund or PMC and mail it to me at the address below. If you've got other questions, please feel free to call or email me:
erik [at] erikhansen [dot] com
617 264 4717

You can get more information about the Pan Mass Challenge at this web address: www.pmc.org

My photos from last year's ride can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/5zue8p

Thank you again for your support.

-erik

Erik Hansen
228 Winchester St.
Brookline, MA 02446

Bicyclists are everywhere! (but you may not see them)

Here's a link passed on by the folks at the Pan Mass Challenge office. Seems it is aimed at bicycle awareness. Though, as the title of this post suggests, perhaps bicyclists should get bumper stickers that proclaim "Bicyclists are everywhere!" as the motorcyclists have done.

(Sonic) Boom-box bikes

Image from NYTimes

Got no car but you want to get around with your music? Seems there are some young men in Queens, NY, who can really pimp your (2-wheeled) ride. And as they point out in this article from the New York Times, you don't have to roll down the windows to let the music out.

Pan Mass Challenge photo

There are photographers all over the place during the Pan Mass Challenge ride. But last year they didn't seem to ever find me. This year they did. Here I am riding along behind Lee Gavris and Pete Espo. I think this is Saturday afternoon and we're in the final leg on the way to Bourne, MA. I like to believe we're really tearing along here. I think the fourth guy tried staying up with us but couldn't.

Pan Mass Challenge completed

The Pan Mass Challenge ride is over, for this year. Spent last weekend in the saddle of my bike, riding from Sturbridge, MA to Bourne, MA on Saturday and then riding from Bourne to Provincetown on Sunday. It was a great ride. It is a great event. 4969 people completed the ride. There were about 2500 volunteers. It's a massive logistical operation and it goes off without a hitch--at least from where I see it.

The ride may be over, but fund-raising still goes on. I don't know where we stand at the moment, but we hope to raise $27 million from the 2-day event.

I have to admit I'm relieved that it's over. I train a lot for this ride and I ride hard over the weekend. I am not and never will be a leader of the pack rider, but I like my time on the bike. And when I find myself out in front of a group, pulling them along, I couldn't be happier. In fact, at one point on Saturday I was pulling a bunch of folks along and we were hitting 25, 26 miles an hour. That is fast for me! I don't know what happened. (Maybe it was that little energy gel that I ate.) Friends later told me they were behind me wondering just what had gotten into me. Of course, when I pulled over and drifted to the back, I was so spent that I fell off the back end of the group. Oh well. I'll learn to pace myself better when I get older.

As I said, I'm relieved. On the other hand, there's nothing else like biking along the roads of Massachusetts with people cheering and saying thank you and knowing you're part of something that is much much bigger than yourself. One of my donors told me that his sister who is battling cancer finds great encouragement in the fact that all these people are out there riding to fight cancer. For that reason alone I would continue to participate in this event.

See my photos from the event.

Training

I arrive late for the Charles River Wheelmen's Saturday morning fitness ride at Nahanton Park in Newton and as I approach the entrance to the starting area, a small group of guys is heading out and I ask one of the guys what ride this is and he says "28 miles, 18 to 19 miles per hour" and even though I was planning on doing the 42-mile ride at 17 to 18, I jump on. I'm already moving, I figure and I'll just work a little harder to keep up with these riders. We cross the river and head up a small hill that takes us over Rte 128 because they all maintain their speed uphill I know these guys are strong. This isn't going to be easy, I think. But then I realize that the guy who responded to me is a guy I rode with a week ago and he and I were pretty evenly matched.

So we move along. I get in line. 5 or 6 guys in front of me. But the guy right in front of me isn't staying close to the guy in front of him. So you figure he's one of these guys who is just going to stay at the back and draft the whole time rather than taking his turn at the front, leading, or "pulling" as in pulling the other riders along in his slipstream. I pull ahead of him and fill the gap between him and the rider in front. We move along in a paceline. Pass a few other slower riders. Turn right. Turn left. Riders drop off the front and drift to the back, letting the next guy in line take the lead. Somehow I end up behind a guy who has already pulled once and I'm thinking that he's pissed off at the rest of us because he's going to be doing more than his share of work.

And, as guys drift back down the line after pulling, I say "good work" or "good pull." I don't notice other people doing that, but the fact is I appreciate a guy doing a good pull at the front. Just means that I don't have to work as hard for that stretch.

A long straight stretch with a couple of red lights. Across another river. Up another small hill and then a right turn with a small hill. The group begins to fall apart. I work hard to stay with the two guys in front.

Another right. Another left and we're on Claybrook road, which runs along the Charles, so it's a nicely winding flat road through a pine forest. Out of the sun it's cool and it smells good. I'm behind big guy, and I'm hoping he doesn't pull long because this is my favorite stretch. I can really move along. Then he drops back, I push hard on my pedals, drop my hands to bhe lower part of my handlebars and really kick it. I pump up the mph to 21, 22 mph and we fairly tear along. And I love this. Glance back to be sure the next guy is right on my rear wheel and I say ot myself, "pull for a mile." I started at 14 according to my odometer. I stare at the road in front of me, staying near the white line at the right side of the lane. And just push. I can feel my thighs straining, and then there's a little bit of a rise. I push harder to keep up the speed. Breathing hard. Five guys being pulled along behind me. And I know I make a good draft because my friend Lee calls me the Freightliner.

Then I hit 15 and I know we're not far from a stop sign ahead and so I pull off to the left and drift down the line of riders. One guy says "good lead!" Nothing could make me happier at the moment. "Thanks," I say, and look at him. Maybe I rode with this guy a couple of weeks ago. Make a mental note to check for him next time I'm out here on Saturday. We seem to move along at the same pace and we both believe in encouraging the others in the paceline.

Pan Mass Challenge

Once again I'll be riding in the Pan Mass Challenge August 4th and 5th. And just yesterday I sent out my plea letter to friends and colleagues. I'm pasting it in below. If you'd like to donate, there's a link further down the page.

-------------------------------------------------

I'm participating in the Pan Mass Challenge for the second time this summer. For those of you who supported me in this ride last year, thank you again. The 2-day event raised $26 million for the Jimmy Fund, which in turn supports cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. This year's goal is $27 million and I'm sure we'll make it.

I got involved in this event last year because cancer had just gotten too close to ignore. Friends are dead. My two older brothers have survived cancer scares. After a long hiatus I had started riding again and it seemed only natural to do something useful with my bike. Some friends who are long-time participants encouraged me to join the Pan Mass Challenge. And what really cemented the deal was riding in last year's event. From the moment we started in Sturbridge, people lined the route, encouraging the riders and waving and yelling "thank you" and there were folks with signs saying things like "I'm a 10-year survivor." It's hard to keep your bike on course when you're trying to wipe tears from your eyes. Then at one of the water stops, there was a young boy holding a sign that read: "I'm alive because of you." After a moment like that, you can't not do it again.

For those of you who weren't included in my appeal last year, the Pan Mass Challenge is a 2-day, 192-mile bike ride (not a race!) from Sturbridge to Provincetown, MA. (This is no easy ride. I've been training since May and just completed a 106-mile ride--including a climb up 2,000 foot Mt. Wachusett--this past Sunday.) Billy Starr, executive director of the event, completed the first Pan Mass Challenge in 1980 to honor his mother who had died from melanoma at the age of 49. The challenge has grown every year since, and has contributed nearly $200 million to cancer research.

For those who donated last year, I hope you can do so again. And for those of you I'm reaching out to for the first time, please help me further the fight against cancer.

To donate online, go to this address:
http://www.pmc.org/egifts/giftinfo.asp?EgiftID=EH0050

My donor ID is EH0050.

Thank you for your generosity. (100 percent of your donation is tax deductible.)

Headless horsemen, sort of

Two thoughts here. Rode again in the monthly Critical Mass ride on November 24, the day after Thanksgiving. About 20 people showed up. That's not many for a ride that often has 200 participants. Those of us there looked around and wondered where all the others were. One guy let us know that plenty of people showed up the Friday after Thanksgiving last year. We waited and waited and the guy who always has food to hand out (apparently he picks up the throwaway stuff at Trader Joe's) asked everyone if they knew of anyone else who was coming. Finally we gave up on waiting and this small group hit the streets.

A few days later I met Rod Beckstrom, co-author of The Starfish and the Spider, which is subtitled, "The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations." It wasn't until that moment that I realized that Critical Mass is a leaderless organization. I haven't read the book yet but Rod told me about the extended analogy in the book which is that when you cut off a starfish's leg, it grows a new one. And if you cut off all 5 legs, a new starfish grows from each of those 5 cuts. And this happens because the starfish does not have a central nervous system. It does not have a head; it does not have a leader.

And that's who we are, a bunch of bicyclists without a leader. And so the ride happens every month, whether 200 show up or only 2. (Which I'm guessing is how many show up the last Friday in February. Brrrrr!) But we were 20, which isn't many, certainly not enough to stop traffic as the larger group can do. So we took off, but because there were so few people, everyone was in fact a leader. The unwritten rule of the ride is that the person in front determines which way the whole group will go.

Given the small number of people, I found myself becoming more active in the ride. Usually I stay in the middle somewhere, just following along with the crowd, enjoying the joie de vivre and energy of the people around me, but this week I did peel off at one intersection and placed my body and bike in front of cars at a green light. No one helped out, however. But the other 19 did proceed through the red light. So, I'd done my piece. I'd contributed to the ride. I was content.

And our small and leaderless group pedalled into the evening, eventually making our way to Cambridge where everyone gave up near Harvard Square and went their separate ways.

Critical Mass comes to my town

I kissed my wife good-bye and headed down to the basement to get my bike out and then headed downtown to join in my monthly dose of mobile anarchy: the Critical Mass ride. And as soon as I got there I regretted not bringing my camera, since this was the Halloween version of the ride. There was a woman sporting a 3-foot tall beet-shaped placard on her back that read: Bikes beet cars. Then there was the guy in his white skivvies. Never quite figured that out. A young woman sporting horizontally-striped tights and a black pointed witch's cap atop her biking helmet. But certainly first prize should go to the woman dressed as Jon Benet Ramsey: party dress, cowboy boots, cowboy hat and pink boa draped around her neck. Remember, these folks are also riding their bikes.

Favorite overheard line: young man to young woman. "You know what I love about Critical Mass? I love it when you yell and everyone yells with you." He's referring to a refrain and response chant that happens at various times throughout the ride. Someone will yell: "Whose streets?" All the other bikers (or many of them) then respond with "Our streets!"

Q: "Whose streets?"
A: "Our streets!"

Q: "Whose streets?"
A: "Our streets!!"

On the one hand it all seems rather naive, since I doubt the streets of American cities will ever belong to the bicyclists, but hell, who knows? What's fun about these monthly rides, besides the general anarchy, is the energy of this group of mostly young folks who believe in bikes.

I suppose it does bring a bike awareness to many drivers, but we also manage to piss off a lot of drivers since this mass of bicyclists never stops, meaning we go through green lights and red, and when the light is against us, a few bikers peel off and position their bikes in front of the cars waiting to proceed. I've seen cars inch ahead, their bumpers nudging up against the bicyclist's leg. Really crazy. But drivers want to drive. Does this help the biker cause? Probably not, but often times we're all rolling along and drivers of cars going in the opposite direction will honk their horns in support. So.

This month, for the first time the ride went to Brookline, my town. There is no prescribed course for this ride. Each month it goes in a different direction, guided by whomever is at the front of the pack at the time. Then there we were, veering on to Harvard Street in Brookline Village. Just as I neared Matt Murphy's pub, I noticed a friend getting out of his car, so I veered over and stopped to talk with him for a while. He was off to dinner with his sister and I wasn't much longer for the ride, since I was close to home and wasn't going to go back into Boston with the whole group. It was dark. Time to go home to a warm kitchen.

Then on the right, a small kid in a pirate costume stood beside the road waving a plastic cutlass at all of us. "Aaaaarrrrrgghh!" I yelled out at him.

Then we were in Coolidge Corner, passing by the Coolidge Corner Theater and the Upper Crust Pizzeria where I often pick up a pizza and all the cooks were staring out the plate glass window, wondering at this huge flock of bicyclists rolling along Harvard Street.

I dropped all the way to the back and then peeled off and headed home, my evening's work done. When I got home my wife asked me how it went and I told her Critical Mass had come to Brookline for the first time ever and I spoke with our friend Matt, but I was hoping that someone else I knew would have seen me riding by but that didn't happen.