Pan Mass Challenge 2026
Pan Mass Challenge 2026
An upfront and heartfelt thank you to all our supporters: In this year's PMC, Ana and I together raised over $34,000 (and counting) to fight cancer!
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| Ana at the Manchester-by-the-Sea PMC Kid's Ride |
PMC Day -61
The 2026 Pan Mass Challenge began early in our household with Ana riding in her first PMC Kid's Ride on May 31st (61 days before the Grown-up PMC). Ana had been clamoring (or lobstering) to do a PMC Kid's Ride ever since she first heard about the event a year ago. Ana has become a confident 7 year old cyclist and really loves being on two wheels (much to her Pop-Pop's delight and of course much to his complete surprise that she loves this form of active transportation and exercise). She participated in the Manchester-by-the-Sea event and rode five miles (with her Pop Pop by her side). The course was not Cambridge flat and had some significant hills. While she was struggling up one of the climbs I told her that what we experience when doing something difficult like this in a cancer fundraiser is nothing compared to what cancer patients experience in their battle with cancer. Ana understood this and was quite proud of herself by ride's end and she gained a new perspective on using one's own abilities to help others. We are all very proud of her!!
47th PMC has a new start!
The first PMC in 1980 started in Springfield (36 riders, 10 volunteers, $10,200 raised). After that year, the PMC changed its starting point to Sturbridge where it stayed for 45 years. This year, the start was changed to Worcester, beginning at the College of the Holy Cross. The organizers felt that we had finally outgrown Sturbridge and needed a larger ride origin for the thousands of riders and volunteers. I'm all in, and excited to try the new route (the first change in the route in many decades).
Day Zero (Cambridge to Worcester)
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| Beginning of Day Zero ride (in my driveway in Cambridge) |
Not everyone does a Day Zero ride on the Friday before PMC weekend, but we like to tack on an extra day and get to the start on our own power. We used to start on the NY state border (to make it a true pan-Mass challenge), but these days we like to roll from our driveways. So my regular PMC buddies, Steve and Tag, joined me for the start. We were joined by our friend Sylvia (who was not riding in the PMC) who was interested in checking out our Worcester route. The weather was near perfect, after two days of pounding rain.
We had spent a good portion of the summer working on optimizing the biking route from Cambridge to Worcester. The first part of the route takes us across the BU Bridge to Brookline and then through Brookline and Newton via Beacon St, before heading south by southwest through Needham, South Wellesley, South Natick, to the amazing riding in Sherburne, and then to Holliston (LMK if you are interested in the route),
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| Cambridge to Worcester- 55 miles, 2700 vertical feet |
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| Biking in Sherburne |
In Holliston we stopped along he Upper Charles Bike Path to eat at our favorite lunch place where we waited to meet up with three friends who had started out from Lincoln.
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| Lunch stop at Coffee Haven, Holliston |
While we were waiting, we had several interactions right away with Holliston locals who saw asked us if we were riding the PMC. Like so many people we came across, everyone has a connection to cancer and most to DFCI (Dana Farber Cancer Institute). Shelley from Holliston, pictured below, told us that she is grateful to DFCI for curing her husband of renal cancer. He's an 8 year PMC rider and doing the ride again this year.
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| Shelley from Holliston (on the left) and her friends |
I also met Megan from Southboro when I was looking to borrow a phone charger and I noticed a person wearing a "Bicycles Battling Cancer" shirt. Turns out her husband in being treated for prostate cancer at DFCI andshe's super grateful. She hasn't ridden the PMC but wants to. Other people leaving the cafe gave us a knowing thumbs up.
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| Megan from Soutboro |
As we finished lunch, we were joined by my friend, Jason and his young cousins, Heidi and Wilbur. who biked down from Lincoln. Jason and I have biked together on past PMCs and he has since moved to Albuequerque. Ana and I saw him in last month in New Mexico when he told me that he was coming out to ride the PMC in memory of his uncle Mark, together with Mark's kids Heidi (from Walpole MA) and Wilbur (Golden CO). In New Mexico we hatched the plan of meeting up en route to Worcester.
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| Jason, Heidi and Wilbur |
Jason, Heidi and "Bur" started their Day Zero ride in a swirl of emotions by laying their helmets at Mark's grave in Lincoln. Mark was an avid cyclist and rode for 11 straight years (I had the pleasure of meeting Mark and riding with him briefly during one of those PMCs). Mark was known to lift everyone's experience around him with his enthusiasm. As what happens with cancer, it strikes unexpectedly- Mark was diagnosed in 2019 with pancreatic cancer. Despite his daignosis, Mark seemed to always beat the odds and come back and rode the PMC in 2020 (a reimagined ride as many of us did that year). He battled for 6 long, hard years, and road his last PMC during this time, riding a recumbent mountain bike on an Unpaved Event. He passed away in February of this year at the age of 73. This ride's for you, Mark.
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| Heidi laying her helmet by her Dad's grave on Day Zero |
From this eventful lunch stop, our 7 person team road the lovely Upper Charles River Trail to Milford and then made our way to Upton
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| Blackstone Gateway Park in Worcester |
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| On the Upper Charles River Trail |
In Upton, we picked up our last rider, my colleague Jay. Jay is a wicked strong rider, and was chomping at the bit to get riding. We would all be chasing Jay the next three days! Jay and I work together at the Wyss Institute. If you're interested to learn about what motvivates Jay and I to ride the PMC, see this well written article by one of our colleagues in the Comms Dept. Tackling Cancer through Riding and Research
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| Jay the Stallion |
The riding from Upton was on busier roads until we got to the Blackstone River Trail in Millbury. My friend Galen that the best approach to Worcester by bike was from the south on this trail and he was right. We all breathed easier as we had five miles of peaceful riding on a lovely trail (the alternative would have been super busy roads).
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| Blackstone Gateway Park in Millbury |
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| Blackstone River Trail boardwalk |
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| 2 miles to go! |
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| A Holy Cross Crusader |
We were happy to arrive, and Holy Cross right away seemed like a pretty welcoming place. That is until we learned the name of their mascot, the Crusaders- medieval Christian warriors who slayed Jews and Muslims. Well, we figured we'd be okay as long as we talked bikes and not religion! Speaking of talking bikes, we ran into our friend Galen Mook (Executive Director of MassBikes) who was leading his own crusade about motorists keeping a safe distance from cyclists. I'm a believer!!!
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| Ken and Galen, pontificating bike safety... |
At the welcoming ceremony, PMC founder and 47 year rider Billy Starr told us that as of Friday evening, we had raised $54 million towards our $79 million goal. Billy teased us by saying that there was going to
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| Other cool stats of the 47th PMC: Riders: 6,082 Volunteers: 3500+ Living Proof riders and volunteers: 1,234 Riders 65 and older: 1,325 Riders 35 and younger: 1,752 First year riders: 1,317 States represented: 44 Countries represented: 8 |
be a special guest star tonight. Governor Maura Healey spoke, and the head of DFCI and 8 year rider, Ben Ebert, also spoke. But then the special guest star was revealed- Bruce Springsteen! Brue appeared by video. In this video, Bruce thanked Billy, and the PMC riders. He also thanked DFCI- his wife, Patty Scalfa, has been treated for 8 years at DFCI for multiple myeloma, and this year went into remission. Bruce then sang an acoustic version of Born to Run (watch the video and enjoy). I couldn't hold back my tears during the song- my daughter was a huge Bruce fan and proudly considered herself a Jersey girl. What a powerful performance and moment. This is the power of the PMC.
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| Bruce appearing at the PMC opening ceremony via video |
"I've spent my life writing songs about the people who keep believing when life gives them every reason not to and for those who refuse to leave someone behind. That's always been the best of America to Patti and I.… Now, more than ever, the world needs more everyday heroes like the folks who make up the PMC."
Day 1 (Worcester to Bourne, 100 miles)
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| Worcester to Bourne- 100 miles, 4037 vertical feet of climbing |
After 14 years of starting Day1 in Sturbridge, it was kinda cool to start in a new location.
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| Steve getting his bike ready |
Because Holy Cross is on this huge hill, we walked our bikes down to the starting location where it was relatively flat. Close to 2000 riders started from Holy Cross. The photo below gives you a sense of what 2000 riders looks like.
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| Walking to the start line at Holy Cross |
We eventually made our way to the start, and then we were off. The weather at the start was near perfect, mid-70's at 5:30 AM. The humidity was high, and would be all weekend, but the temps would only hit the low 80's. No complaints! (We've seen all kinds of conditions over the years....)
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| (Almost) rolling! |
The route out of Worcester was good, especially surrounded by 2000 cyclists and with police waving us through intersections. People ask how you train for a ride like this. You definitely need to train- I typically like to get at least 1000 miles on my road bike (I also bike another 600-800 miles combined on my commuter, mountain, and cargo bikes). A lot of people train much less, but then you don't enjoy the ride as much. But as shown below, the overall ride (100 miles today) is a series of shorter rides between rest stops.
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| Ride segments between start, rest stops and finish |
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