The Challenge

My brother finished the Pan Mass Challenge today. At least, I assume he finished; I haven't heard otherwise.

I got to see him yesterday at a water stop along the way, which was very cool. This is his third year riding, but the first year we'd been able to make it up there to cheer him on.

We met him at Lakeville's regional high school; I think the stop was about 2/3 of the way into the first day's ride. It was pretty impressive -- tons of people there to cheer on their family and friends. We parked way on one side of the lot and then had to walk to the other side to get to the road. I have to admit, I got a little teary-eyed when I took in the whole thing, seeing the riders come in, exhausted but energized; the people cheering them on and thanking them for sacrificing so much time and energy for cancer research; and just knowing that, in some small way, this was for me. (And other cancer patients, of course.)

It was good to see Mike ride in, and I was glad to see how good he looked. He and his teammates all -- they looked like they could have gone on for another 100 miles. In fact, they came in 20 minutes ahead of their schedule, which was impressive.

We took some pictures and gave some hugs, and sent Mike and his buddies on their way. It was all very cool.

I took a few pictures, and got a few from my sister-in-law, but alas -- I can't get either the camera to upload or the scanner to work, so I can't post any pictures right now. This is what happens when my wife, the family photographer, leaves us for a long weekend. I'll get them up soon.

In the meantime, you can read this story from the Boston Herald, and see a few photos that someone put up on flickr. I'll post my own pictures soon, and get some links to other online photos when they get put up.

Thanks, Mike. You're awesome.