NECN meteorologist Joe Joyce climbed aboard his bicycle on August 2 for the Sunday ride from Bourne to Provincetown for Day 2 of the PMC.
(Editor’s Note: We’re not saying Joe didn’t train much, but many of you out there may have put more miles on your bike wheeling it to and from the garage than Joe did on the road this summer.)
Joe and fellow NECN staffer (and PMC icon) David Beauvais set out together from Bourne at 5am on Sunday – and seven-plus hours later, they pulled into Provincetown with a great reminder of the support, mission and fun that makes the PMC the special event it is.
This year, more than 5,000 riders took part in an effort to raise $30 million for the Jimmy Fund.
The Provincetown II made its way to Boston, filled with PMC riders who completed their rides earlier on Sunday.
Family and friends seemed to be a recurring theme when riders were asked their thoughts on the event.
“This is my second year riding in the Pan Mass Challenge. I ride in memory of my dad and a friend of mine,” Pam Bird said. “It’s been an amazing experience.”
“I have a friend who died a year-and-a-half ago,” Eric Hudson said. “You think a lot about your friends, people you love and people in your life.”
“My cousin Henry passed away of cancer, and he was an avid bike rider. I decided it would only be appropriate if I did a bike ride in his honor. There were borne the flying Henry’s,” Karl Beauloukian said.
And there were so many more riders who found the inspiration to ride from their family and friends.
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For eight years, he rode to honor his mother, a cancer survivor.
This year, he’s riding in her memory.
Hidden in the sea of riders rounding the turn and heading into Nickerson State Park in Brewster is a man riding with a heavy heart.
On this second day of the Pan Mass Challenge, Rob Goodman pedals along, cheers from the crowd ringing in his ears, his mind wandering from the road ahead.
“I’m thinking about my mom, of course, I hit those hills, I mean I feel selfish for feeling tired because I just think about her, what she went through, and it gives you that extra bit of adrenaline,” Goodman said.
Joyce Goodman fought breast cancer 15 years ago and won.
Then in 2007, she was diagnosed with a rare form of uterine cancer.
She kept coming to support her son Rob in the PMC, ever the family matriarch, continuing to battle cancer and enjoy precious moments with her children and grandchildren.
“Her doctors didn’t give her much time, but amazingly she made it two years. And I’m sorry to say she passed away in May, the day before mother’s day, but she fought amazingly well,” Goodman said.
A Babson College grad who lived for several years in Boston and has now returned to Westchester County, New York, Rob’s first 8 years in the PMC were to honor his mother while she lived.
He is now riding to remember her life.
“This is all about her. We’re going to keep it up and ride in her memory, and it’s tough. It’s tough not being able to ride in Bourne and see her and get that first hug from her and kiss,” her son said.
Also riding in Joyce Goodman’s memory, is her son-in-law Mark Feldman who is riding for the 4th year.
“We’re just going to keep on going. You know, this is just, we’re a small cog in the long long wheel here. It’s a great cause,” Feldman said.
Only adding a layer of emotion on a day filled with them is that today, August 2, was Joyce Goodman’s birthday.
She would have been 72.
“We always had a birthday cake for her the Saturday night, but you know, we had a birthday cake for her last night, in her memory. And we keep going on because we want to help other people and hopefully the money we raise keeps someone else’s mother, sister, brother, father, still around,” Goodman said.
Goodman has raised close to $175,000 in nine years.
Even after losing his mother to cancer, Rob Goodman pledges to continue to ride the PMC in the years to come.
Our station is the media sponsor of the Pan Mass Challenge, but our commitment runs deeper than that title. Eight NECN employees rode in the 30th annual PMC as part of Team NECN, riding for pedal partner Caroline Lane.
Meteorologist Danielle Niles rode the Wellesley-to-Bourne route on Saturday, then hurried back home to prepare for her all day shift in the NECN weather center on Sunday. She chronicled her first ride on this very blog.
She joined R.D. Sahl and Beth Shelburne on NECN’s PMC Wrapup Show to share her experience as a first-time rider.
“It was my first PMC, it is definitely not going to be my last,” Niles said.
“I was having a difficult time going up one of the hills and a gentleman pulled up next to me and he just turned and said, ‘How’s your ride going?’ and I said it’s going well,” Niles said, who then asked him why he was riding. “‘Last year I was in remission from cancer, but this year it came back.’ I just though to myself, ‘I’m complaining about my sore muscles and this guy has cancer right now’.”
Cherry Street definitely knows how to keep the riders going.
And so do two sisters who have made rooting along the route an annual tradition.
Brenda Hebert of Leominster, Massachusetts and her sister Evelyn call themselves “the over-the-hill cheerleaders”.
On the first day of the 2009 PMC, the pair was yelling for riders while dressed as leprechauns.
“They struggle so hard and if we can give them a little lift along the way,” Evelyn Wisnosky said. “And the cause. Let’s face it — that’s the root of it, you know, the money coming in. If they’re willing to ride for it, we’re willing to kind of make ourselves look a little foolish for them.”
Brenda and Evelyn dress in costume each year. This was their 23rd straight year cheering along the PMC route.
The 30th running of the Pan Mass Challenge was in the books on Sunday night, as riders traveled back to Boston via boat.
The event raising money for cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Donate to the cause by visiting Team NECN’s PMC profile page.
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Pan Mass Challenge riders were on a high after biking nearly 200 miles across Massachusetts over the weekend.
But Provincetown was not the only finish line. There were several places that riders could end their trek, including Babson College in Wellesley.
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The Pan-Mass Challenge celebrates its 30th anniversary with more riders than ever August 1 and 2.
Eight NECN employees will ride this year, making the commitment to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Learn more about Team NECN, the more than 5,000 other riders, and the thousands of cancer patients their ride - and your donations - can help.
The Pan-Mass Challenge celebrates its 30th anniversary with more riders than ever August 1 and 2.
