Hi all! For those of you that don’t know, the PMC is an annual 100+ mile bike-a-thon that raises money for life saving cancer research and treatment at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The PMC has raised more money for this cause than any other event in the country — $831 million since inception.

I am riding once again with Team NextGen, which has now grown from 15 to ~100 people!!! This is my 15th year riding, so a particularly special milestone :)

I know many of us are touched by cancer. Carrying out research and treating immunocompromised cancer patients at Dana Farber has never been more important. As many of you know, the Farber is particularly meaningful to my family, as my incredibly strong and inspiring mother continues her battle with multiple myeolma and breast cancer.

I believe that the most efficient way I can support world-class researchers drive toward a cure is by supporting their work. I hope you will help me make progress toward this goal. Every single dollar will help.

Please consider sponsoring my PMC ride! Thank you! Including my recap of last years ride if you’d like to re-live the fun / get a preview for what this year will be like… promise to train this time!!

Beat Cancer!

-Mads

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PMC 2022: Getting Gritty

As most of you know, Day 1 of the PMC is ~100 miles. This year, I made the genius decision to not do a single training ride before the event. Given I live in fear of being left behind by my family and friends, this turned out to be pretty high-risk…

Stress reached it’s peak as we were tinkering around with the bikes before leaving. Mostly due to the fact that Ryan and Will travel in friend groups of 20+, our team doubled in size. My dad told everyone to arrive at our starting point at 5:30am. Naturally, this meant all ~40 of us exchanged “u up” texts at 4:30 and arrived at 5am sharp. After a few driveway crashes and a morale boosting team photo, we were off to the races.

First Half

The way the PMC is set up, there is a water break every ~20 miles. The first leg of the route is the best for roadside camaraderie. You’ve got packs of bikers dads basically living out their Super Bowl and yelling “ROCK” and “CAR BACK” at random moments. It’s also a great chance to pick up the latest trendy phrases in biker speak. This year, it was “nice kit” which means “sick jersey.”

I started off the ride with Sahir and Grace. Sahir is basically a professional biker and Grace lied and said she was bad at biking. They lost me after the first mile. As I continued to “go my own pace” I saw basically all other members of the team pass me, including my loving brothers yelling things like “you’re a loser, SMADS” and other extremely encouraging words of affirmation.

Second Half

This is where it all went off the rails. It was ~95 degrees out. Everyone was dehydrated. I bumped into Halle while walking up a hill - we didn’t say a word but exchanged a knowing glance that this would be embarrassing if anyone else on the team saw us. It was UGLY out there. Not even a 5th PB & Fluff could save me this time.

Other’s took casualties along the way: Deedle popped a tire and hitched a ride from a stranger, Jackson broke his bike (again, clearly he’s doing something wrong) AND randomly got stung by a wasp, Mackenzie had pedal issues, Parker popped a tire… this wasn’t the glamorous glory ride we were envisioning. Here are a list of things that got me through the 2nd half, aka literal hell on earth:

• The mis and dis information being spread by roadside spectators (“the water stop is only 2 miles away” - LIES!!!!!)
• The group handing out bud lights on mile ~50
• The ice packs to sit on at water stop #2
• Nick nicely riding 2 miles with me to water stop #3
• Random biker packs playing music as they passed me (who knew “Sweet Home Alabama” could get you up hills when you’re too exhausted to think normally)

The Finish

As I pulled into the last water stop, there was my Dad, of course, waiting to make sure I was still alive. We had 10 miles left to go and he vowed to “get me to the finish line.” He was going about half his pace in order to make sure I could keep up. I heard a few people pass him and say things like “wow, you’re really doing great for your age!” This prompted him to immediately ditch me to show them what was up.

Despite my slow pace and terrible attitude, my strategy of “go slow but take shorter breaks” actually paid off! I finished right on time with everyone else — we checked out the scene at the finish line, grabbed a celebratory harpoon, and loitered around before re-gathering in Falmouth for an epic BBQ & pool sesh to celebrate our success. After probably 1 more beer each and a great speech from my dad reminding us why we are all riding, literally everyone passed out around ~8pm.

And just like that — another PMC in the books! No matter how ugly it gets, we get it done, have great stories to tell, and look forward to the next one.

Thank you again for your support!! Ready for another biking disaster next year!