This Weekend, We Ride

Team Kinetic Karma by the Cape Cod Canal RR Bridge

How is it already August? Seriously, the summers seem to fly by more quickly with each passing year. Because I spend so much of the spring and the first half of the summer training and fundraising for the Pan-Mass Challenge, August approaches especially quickly.

Last Saturday, several of my teammates and I completed a 65-mile bike ride down the Cape, crossing over the PMC Day 2 route several times. Today marks my final training ride for the PMC - a 30-mile ride through the Blue Hills to and from my bike shop for a final adjustment. Tomorrow, I'll start to pack for the big ride. That's when the nerves will start to set in.

Nerves, you say? But Jared,  you've been riding the PMC for well over a decade - how could you possibly be nervous?! I'm not nervous per se, I'm just anticipating all of the special feels that I get during the weekend. Here are some highlights:

• Arriving in Sturbridge on Friday afternoon to see thousands of people doing the same thing as you: registering, catching up with friends over a (free!) beer, and heading to bed early in anticipation of a long but fun weekend.
• Waking to see those same people all wearing the same jersey as you. In the dark, mind you, because it's barely 5 AM.
• Seeing my friend Sheila, who every single year cheers us on with a huge "Go Jared Fijalkowski" sign (I always feel like a rock star!).
• Riding down Cherry Street in Wrentham, which its residents turn into a party. I think of it as a reverse parade - we roll by and take in the cheers and the musical acts.
• Riding up to the water stop at mile 85, where the street is lined with large photos of every single pedal partner (children undergoing cancer treatment). I always, always cry. They are why we ride.
• Seeing our pedal partners at that water stop. Maya, see you on Saturday!
• The luxuries of staying at the Mass Maritime Academy. No, really! Free beer, massages, music, tons of food, and I get to see my friend and volunteer extraordinaire, Kim!
• Riding over the Bourne Bridge and along the Cape Cod Canal Bike Path at sunrise. I never get a chance to take a photo, but take my word for it - breathtaking.
• The uphills and downhills of Service Road. Wheee!
• 'Da Hedge, a veritable sea of children at camp cheering us on.
• Riding across the finish line in Provincetown with my teammates, "champagne" "glasses" in-hand as we toast to another great ride, and another step forward in the fight against cancer.

My legs feel ready for the ride ahead, but I am still short of my ambitious fundraising goal of $12,000. Please make your cancer-fighting donation today. 100% of it will go straight to the Jimmy Fund in support of the innovative research that the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is doing. Research that saved the life of my team captain, Dave, several other teammates, and Maya, our pedal partner. Thank you!