I fell a couple of days behind on my posts, so it’s time to catch up.
On the 2nd, most of us took a day off to rest, get massages, and do laundry. The weather was not great (rain, cool temps) and there was not a “must climb” on the agenda following the Tourmalet/Aspin day, so relaxing was appealing to many of us.
A handful of intrepid souls braved the rain for a morning climb, and earned our undying respect.
The down time also gave me some time to catch up with folks more one-on-one, and also to reflect a bit on how the arcs our lives have intersected.
I don’t know if it’s a uniquely American thing, or a uniquely Boston thing, or just something that runs in my circles, but one thing that I frequently see with cyclists is how connected they are to charities. I can’t think of a fellow rider who does not ride multiple charity rides per year and/or gives so generously to multiple charities. In the Boston area, almost everyone I ride with is an annual rider of the Pan Mass Challenge to benefit the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Unfortunately, cancer has touched most of our lives. Some of us are survivors (Living Proof, in the PMC parlance), and some of us have family or close friends that are either survivors or ones who ran out of treatment options. Most also ride for other causes — Alzheimer’s, American Heart Association, HIV/AIDS, conservation organizations, and so on.
My own passion for riding started with a charity ride that was organized by a friend and neighbor who was a co-founder of a foundation to jumpstart research into pediatric brain tumors. I bought my first bike at that time. Later, when I started riding the Pan Mass Challenge I joined my friend’s charity team, which is how I came to dedicate my PMC fundraising to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation research line at Dana-Farber.
On this trip, I came to learn that one of my fellow riders, Jack, also used to ride with my PMC team, so he also knows my friend quite well.
Even our current location, Lourdes, has special meaning, which I won’t go into, except to say that it is funny sometimes how our lives trace similar paths.
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about my sister-in-law’s sister, who has been living with cancer for many years.
I’ll be riding the PMC for the 11th time this August. If you’re reading this and feel so inclined, please consider supporting my ride. Every penny goes to Dana-Farber for pediatric brain tumor research.
Fargo and Away 
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