On today’s ride from John Day, OR to Baker City, OR there were three significant climbs. As one might expect, these were each followed by a significant descent. The three climbs were relatively indistinguishable. Get in the lowest gear, grind away against gravity for an indeterminable length of time, and eventually one is rewarded by attaining the summit. The descents revealed beautiful scenery, verdant forests and distant snow-capped mountains.
The second descent featured something a little different. I leaned forward with my hands in the drops, and pursuant to my usual strategy, when I reached 32 mph I braked down to 27 mph, then released the levers to the pads would cool off. Repeated often, this is a good way to make a mountain descent on good pavement in low traffic.
So when a deer jumped from the woods and ran across the road I was moving somewhere between 27 mph and 32 mph. I hit the brakes but didn’t jam them on (which would have been catastrophic at that speed) and we missed contact by inches. I managed to retain control of the Merlin and therefore avoided what would surely have been a terrible wipeout. The aging amateur biped and the cute little furry quadruped were both very lucky today. Two sentient creatures, each oblivious of the other, narrowly avoided a collision which would surely have caused severe injury to both. I considered just how random this incident was.
As I tackled the third climb I thought of how similarly random a cancer diagnosis can be. During my father’s final 16 years, doctors often told him “You have cancer.” After colon cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer and then another round of colon cancer, he was exhausted when finally he succumbed, though to congestive heart failure rather than cancer. A little girl named Nicole in my son’s fourth grade class was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Both kidneys were both involved and had to be removed. She suffered with dialysis for months, and died when she was just nine years old. Recently I tallied up those in my circle of friends and family who have faced the cancer demons, and found that there have been at least 50 people who have heard those awful words.
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On August 3 and 4 I will ride with more than 6,000 cyclists in the Pan Mass Challenge, an annual bike tour and fundraiser for Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. I have again registered for the longest route, 192 miles from Sturbridge to Provincetown. This will be my 20th year of participation.
The Pan Mass Challenge raises more funds for charity than any other event in the country, more than $650 million dollars since 1980. This has resulted in real benefits to grateful cancer patients and their families. Since 1999, my first year of participation, together we have raised more than $128,000. This year my fundraising goal is $9,000. Fully 100 percent of rider sponsorship dollars go to Dana-Farber.
In 822 hours we will roll from the parking lot in Sturbridge. Please consider sponsoring me in this event. You can make a safe and secure tax deductible donation at: https://profile.pmc.org/RT0014