“One in a Billion.” That's what the Pan-Mass Challenge says we are this year, whether we ride, whether we sponsor riders, or whether we slather a few hundred pieces of bread with peanut butter, slice a thousand bananas, and hawk endless water bottles to the road warriors - and especially if we do all of that. That's because in 2024 the cumulative amount raised by the PMC and the awesome people who support it will exceed one billion dollars. ONE BILLION DOLLARS! Every last one of which funds research and patient care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The 2024 PMC, my sixth, is particularly meaningful to me because my brother George, a multi-year volunteer, will ride his first PMC with Team Eric Chase. Along with my son Rob, we’ll be riding the relatively short, 50-mile route on Sunday, but we – along with my wife, Barbara; Rob; George’s daughter Ella; and other family members and dear friends – will also be on duty at 5:00 a.m. the day before our own ride at the Franklin water stop to help keep the two-day riders hydrated, fed and motivated to get the job done.

Please sponsor my ride. I’m grateful to be alive, grateful to be able to do this at least one more time, and grateful for your support.

Finally, I invite you to return to this video the PMC produced and distributed in 2021, which features my friend and my very own oncologist Dr. Ann LaCasce (a PMC rider herself!) and me. (For the record, my own lymphoma STILL remains nothing more than background noise, though it does help motivate me to do what I’m doing. It also turns out that if you interview me for an hour and if you are a good editor, you can make me sound reasonably articulate for +/- 90 seconds.)

Thank you, Carl