Please join me in celebrating this year's Pan Mass Challenge with a well deserved victory lap.  At this writing, you and I already have collected over $8000 for this year. And that is why we do this each year with hope beyond experience that it could be for the final time.

As much as I get wound up about the physical challenge of the ride, the bicycle ride is really secondary.  Each year I get the job done.  And this year, for a guy who could only use one leg walking up stairs as recently as March, the results were outstanding.  I finished Saturday's 111mile journey from Sturbridge to Provincetown earlier than I had in the past few years and felt strong at the end and on Sunday. Nonetheless, I am always happy to get off the saddle and get a good shower.

I don't know if I can ever describe adequately how moved I am at the response we riders receive on our journey.  Nor can I hope to share the adrenaline rush of riding with 5000 of my closest friends on the roads of eastern Mass in the wee hours of an August morning.   To many we represent an irritation on the roads on a summer morning, to others a shadow of hope or relief for what we represent.  I know that towns and their respective police will not read this but we are grateful to the support they gave us along the way keeping us safe, controlling traffic and reminding us to behave.  They save our legs and probably our lives.

This year's tale is one of finding old friends and missing others.  We start with the team of Garver and Nagorski,  Marion rising at 3am to ferry me to the start in Sturbridge and Walter rising early Sunday to fetch me back at the end.  Help beyond asking.  Once again, the weather was the star.  In the crowd that was the starting area, I was able to greet Greg Lemond riding with John Kerry.  I met Gary Doak in his third year riding forTerry O'Reilly's Bruins Team.  I crossed paths with old friends and colleagues Scott Taylor, Jon Gordon, Steve Siegel, Tom Tinnery and Nancy Sheppard to name a few. I missed Donnie and his son onthe road in Charleton,  Norm sitting on his porch in North Attleboro and John Gavin in Sandwich.  Nor did I find Rich Block.  Always looking for a wheel to draft,  I did find Ewell, a fellow I drafted on the rail trail last year but he looked so fit this year, I knew I wouldn't keep up.

This year's 'peloton' never really dissipated.  We were a crowd on route 20,  crossing I395, climbing up to route 16.  We were densely packed into Franklin and Wretham, Rehobeth and Lakeville.  There were still large groups of us in early afternoon through Rochester and Wareham. Having company makes the miles go by without much notice but exacts a modicum of energy and alertness to maintain the safety on the road.  The riding on Saturday was in the 70's and 80's and quite humid but pleasant. The trick is to get 40 miles in before the brain knows that you are doing exercise. The hills in Sutton and in Mendon always challenge me.  As I climbed and I found them not nearly as daunting as the ones in Ringe, Ashburnham and Winchendon.  Once they are done, the worst is over, only 71 miles before we sleep.  I felt great the entire ride although I did not have the energy or training to attack the hills.  Drinking enough to ensure hydration is always a challenge under these conditions.  I thought I did a pretty good job of managing that this year.  Cramps a couple of hours after finishing set me to find some help and the medical folks gave me some saline and instructed me to check in on Sunday's first stop to check my vitals.

One of my first pix this year was of Terry O'Reilly and his recumbent tandem bike at the first water stop.  There I ran into Tim Fennell and Tom for the first of many times.  Another picture is at the second  stop in Franklin showing me and a big chicken, another with Jay from Gearworks scarfing down a banana.  My favorite location of all of my years is Cherry Street in Wrenthan.  They shut down the street to traffic and come out to cheer us on.  The picture of me with Jean, in her clown suit, and her granddaughter is my favorite. Her son succumbed to cancer a number of years ago and she is always out there showing her support for our cause. Further along, the two 'over the hill' cheerleaders from Sunday were a Celt and a Red Sox player on Saturday.  In years past they have been Gorillas and Lady Godivas and witches.  I look forward to seeing them again.  All in all, it was a great ride, lots of friends, lots of sunshine, lots of food (more banana and peanut butter sandwiches than I can imagine.)

Sunday was very pretty.  I completely slept through the alarms at the Mass Maritime Academy. They typically go off at 4:15am. I did not waken until 5am when my roommate's alarm went off.  When I got to my bike the parking area was nearly empty.  It was 6:15am.  With that much daylight, I saw lots that I normally would have missed had I started at 5 or 5:30, even with the fog covering most of the canal bike path.  It was eerie riding down the main street of  Bourne by almost by myself.  That followed by getting onto the ramp to ride over the Bourne Bridge always makes me smile with this year's fog making it more special.  Next is the canal path that we share with fishermen and women, the gulls and the heron, all looking for the same thing, a good catch.  One fellow had a huge Striped Bass that must have been nearly 3.5 feet.  No surprise he had a grin on his face.  The canal path empties into old cape cod in Sandwich and the flat start of our journey is over.  We climb by the yearly art festival tents up to the route 6 service road.  These hills are my favorite roller coasters.  Though the first climb is a grinding 5min at 6mph, the rest is a study in inertia and momentum.  Having missed the bulk of the mass exodus from the Maritime Academy, I had the roads almost to myself, quite a contrast from Saturday.  That meant I could get on the throttle downhill and let it carry me most of the way uphill.  It is an exchange of a slow high torque grind for a quick high rpm sprint.  It fits my energy profile pretty well and I was sad when the ended.  We continued wandering the route through back roads to 6A and into Barnstable where the first stop is at the county courthouse.  Checking in there,  Dr. Daly did not like my vitals and recommended that I stop.  In a rare display of reason over stubbornness, I stopped.   This was the first time I had not completed the full route.  Fortunately, my not finishing does not effect anyone but me and my buddy Walt who picked me up there.  Twenty two miles out of 77 on Sunday is alright.  I did my favorite part of the cape though I really miss the ride into Ptown.

I have since seen my GP and he thinks I am okay and could have finished without a problem.  I guess the passing of such as Tim Russert and my buddy Jimmy Jacobs this year made me more prudent than usual.

I need to thank you all again for your support.  No longer working with the DEC/CPQ/HP/Intel group I had been with for some 24years, I was concerned about being able to raise the money needed.  Your contribution is your vote as to whether you find this worthwhile still.  But I was wrong to be concerned.   I am grateful that you continue to allow me to participate.  My 23 year tenure with the PMC and the over $130k lifetime contribution are more a tribute to you all than to me.

Please check out some of the new pictures on kowaleski.org for this year and check out pmc.org for the thousands of pix that they post of the ride.

Thanks again.   Closer by the Mile.

/johnk  JK0013