With summer here, I’m once again preparing to ride my bike in Massachusetts and some of the New York Capital Region to raise money to fight cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

While this will be my 26th PMC, this year is different. With a global pandemic raging, getting 7,000 riders and 4,000 volunteers together isn’t doable. Instead, the Pan-Mass Challenge will be reimagined this year, with each of us riders keeping the PMC spirit and goals alive by creating our own PMC experience. The pandemic has also brought significant challenges to Dana-Farber. Carrying out their research and treating immunocompromised cancer patients has become more challenging and costly – and their revenues are shrinking considerably. At the same time, the Jimmy Fund’s fundraising is expected to fall by at least 60 percent.

And yet in important ways this year is not different: cancer is not taking the year off and it will kill more than 600,000 people in the US alone. Therefore, the PMC isn’t taking 2020 off and neither am I. Our commitment this year to the mission of funding cancer research and care at Dana-Farber is more critical than ever.

And so, we ride. If all goes well (always a consideration these days), my reimagined PMC will include something old, something really old, and something very new. It includes a solitary return to Sturbridge on Friday, July 31st – continuing a quarter-century tradition. Early in the morning of Saturday, August 1st, I’ll do a mostly new to me, hilly 43-mile loop west of Sturbridge that includes a couple short stretches of our old NY-Mass Ramble route from Albany to Sturbridge. I haven’t ridden on those roads since 2003, so I look forward to seeing how they – and I – have changed in 17 years.

Then, as I’ve done for the past five years, I’ll return to Albany – a lot earlier than my normal PMC return time of 11:00pm. To maintain the tradition of a many-mile weekend, beginning early on Sunday, August 2nd, I plan to ride at least 70 miles in the Albany area. This will be the sixth year I’ve done my PMC Sunday ride like this, so Sunday should be comfortably familiar.

All in all, I’m looking forward to both the challenge and the adventure of this reimagined PMC!

The PMC offers each of us an opportunity to do something positive in what often seems to be a deeply troubling world. The news today is filled with stories of intractable problems that we feel powerless to address. But while we may feel unable to make a difference as individuals, joined together with many other motivated souls we can accomplish incredible things. The PMC is a prime example of this; treatment for cancer at Dana-Farber has advanced tremendously in many ways since I started riding the PMC in 1995. And the Pan-Mass Challenge made much of that change possible by enabling new and cutting edge approaches to fighting cancer.

Please join the fight against cancer and support my fund-raising goal by clicking on the Donate To My Ride button above. All transactions are secure and THE most cost-effective way to give money to the PMC and the Jimmy Fund. And 100% of all donations go directly to the cause!

Thanks!

My Links

Riding in the 2015 PMC 2020 won't be anything like this!

Alive Video recap reflecting the spirit of the 2014 PMC, which featured a little...weather. Again, 2020 won't be anything like this - including, hopefully, the weather!

Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies PBS News Hour report on Ken Burns' series on cancer.