EPISODE 40
Commit. You'll Figure it Out!: The Pan-Mass Challenge
Ever wondered what it’s like to be part of a massive, two-day cycling event that has raised over a billion dollars for cancer research? In this episode, we hear from Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) veterans Lew Kornberg and Sameer Kazi. Lew is a seasoned 14-time rider, while Sameer has in recent years transformed from a cycling sceptic into a dedicated participant. Listen in for a heartfelt conversation about what makes the PMC so special. Discover the powerful sense of community, the emotional moments during the opening ceremony, and the incredible motivation that comes from pedaling alongside thousands of other riders, including cancer survivors who call themselves “Living Proof.” Lew and Sameer’s stories reveal how this event is more than just a bike ride; it’s a life-affirming experience that builds lasting friendships and provides a profound sense of purpose. Get ready to be inspired to commit and figure the rest out later.
Episode Transcript
Lew: It was during that hour-long opening ceremony, my first, that I really got the sense of what I had gotten myself into, and that it was going to be something very special. I was just supercharged at that moment in time and probably could have left the opening ceremony, and had I had adequate light, ridden from there to Provincetown that evening.
Gabriel: You just heard Lew Kornberg, recounting his favorite moment during his 14 years of writing the Pan-Mass Challenge. The PMC is a two- day bicycle ride to raise funds for cancer research, which in 2025 included 10,000 riders and volunteers, more than 350,000 donors, and another 200 corporate sponsors. Alongside Lew on today’s episode is my longtime friend, Sameer Kazi, who in recent years has transformed from someone who ridiculed me for bicycle touring, to a man who puts in some serious miles on his bike and just completed his fourth PMC this August. Both Lew and Sameer made a serious commitment to ride the PMC, and they’ve certainly figured out the rest.
Sandra: You’re listening to The Accidental Bicycle Tourist. In this podcast, you’ll meet people from all walks of life and learn about their most memorable bike touring experiences. This is your host, Gabriel Aldaz.
Gabriel: Hello, cycle touring enthusiasts! Welcome to another episode of The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast. While this podcast usually focuses on unsupported bicycle touring, it’s important to recognize that supported tours are also extremely popular. So today we turn our attention to the Pan-Mass Challenge, or PMC, a fundraising bicycling event held on the first weekend of August every year. In this context, “Mass” is short for Massachusetts, as the route crosses much of the state from west to east over two days. Here to tell us all about their experiences at the event are two PMC veterans, Sameer Kazi and Lew Kornberg. Thank you both for being guests on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast.
Sameer: Gabe, it’s great to see you and thanks for having us.
Lew: Likewise, wonderful to be a part of this.
Gabriel: Excellent. Just to give a little bit of background, Sameer, you and I and our third friend, Jason Ruhl, have known each other since our University of Arizona days, many years ago. In recent years, we have been spending a week bicycling together somewhere in the world. In fact, the recent episode called “Alpine Escapade” recounts the tour that Jason and I took in Switzerland and northern Italy as you could not join us this summer. I know you listened to that episode. What was going through your mind as you heard it?
Sameer: Well, first, I really enjoyed the familiarity of the banter between you and Jason. I felt like I was right there with you guys. I could feel all of the emotions, but in classic Gabe, Jason, and Sameer format, all sorts of ridiculous, unexpected things happened during that episode that had me cracking up, had me going back and listening to certain sections of the episode several times, with my kids who know the both of you. Lots of fun and hilarity ensued, especially with the two of you, quote unquote, the best engineers in the world coming up with an ingenious solution about how to stop a bike going downhill in the Alps. I love bungee cords. They’re great.
Gabriel: Yes, they did their job for a while.
Sameer: That taste test was crazy. I mean, I don’t even know where that came about. Had you ever had that drink before?
Gabriel: Yeah, so the Crodino taste test, it actually came about because Sandra, my wife, is an avid drinker of Crodino.
Sameer: Got it.
Gabriel: And through that, I felt like I was also an avid drinker of Crodino, which I realized that I wasn’t. So when the taste test happened, I actually got it wrong. And so I’ve given Jason a set of four Crudino coasters to remember the taste test and he has them now in his rustico in Northern Italy.
Sameer: The best line in that entire episode was you asking Jason, “Jason, so what percentage of your rustico has a roof on it?” And he’s like, “Fifty percent.”
Gabriel: “That’s better than most.”
Lew: Yeah, he was very pleased by that, I think.
Gabriel: No one will point out roofs more than Jason as you’re bicycling. “Look at that one, that’s an amazing roof. That stone’s probably centuries old. And look at how they’ve got that all tiled in there. Amazing. So yeah, I heard a lot about roofs.
Sameer: Awesome. Sounds fascinating.
Gabriel: For a while. So Lew, you are here as Sameer’s PMC buddy. What is your history? How do you know Sameer?
Lew: That’s quite a distinction. And let me just say, I have been enjoying, vicariously, stories of your collective escapades now for several years because Sameer gives us the complete debrief, usually over several hours of coffee, when we get together telling us about all of the craziness that you guys have gotten into on your most recent tour, wherever in the world that might have been. Sameer and I actually were introduced to one another through one of my colleagues, talking to him initially during COVID, and we were on a Zoom call and I noticed in the background his trainer was set up. So I, of course, being a bicyclist and an avid outdoor enthusiast myself, asked him about his bike, and he was very happy to give me all of the technical specs, as you would expect from an engineer. And I just kind of casually mentioned, “Hey, you know, if you’re interested, I have been taking part in this fundraiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It’s called the Pan-Mass Challenge. Happens every August.” First of all, you got to understand that I have probably shared that piece of information with, at this point, thousands of people and they’re all kind of like, “Oh, that’s fantastic. I’m sure you who enjoy that. Sounds like you’re really excited about that.” Sameer had a similar response, but unlike the countless others that I have shared that with, actually said, “Hey, why don’t you send me some information on that?” Which I gladly did. And he then in pretty short order said, “You know what, I think I’m going to do this.” And I was like,”Okay, that would be awesome.” So I in turn introduced Sameer to the person, my friend, who got me involved in PMC many years ago. Now, I have ride fourteen behind me. Sameer has ride four behind you.
Sameer: Yup.
Lew: And Steven, our other friend, I think has done 17. One of the really interesting things about the PMC is its ability to suck you in and capture you for life. I mean, what’s really interesting to me is during the opening ceremonies each year, they kind of take roll call of the people and how long they’ve been involved. And there are so many riders there that have been involved for 30-plus years that it is really, I think a testament to the power of the community that I think compels people to stay with it. That has certainly been my experience, and I think it has become Sameer’s experience as well. As with anything that’s worthwhile, there’s a lot of preparation that goes into it. There’s also some craziness usually associated with it. But year in and year out, it really does prove to be a very life-affirming and wonderful experience.
Sameer: What’s so funny about Lew and I meeting and getting to know one another was that, yes, Lew told me about the PMC. Yes, I met Steven. We hung out. We had coffee. We talked about that and a bunch of other things. I signed up. We sent a bunch of text messages to each other. Then we all got busy with our lives. And then my first PMC, we just run into each other without any coordination. And we’re like, “Oh, yes, of course.”
Gabriel: “Of course you’re here.”
Sameer: “You’re here. Oh, cool, awesome.” And so that was pretty cool.
Gabriel: But just to back up a little bit, Sameer, it’s very funny that we now talk about biking together for years and you asking about the specs. But since I’ve known you for so long, I’ve always been interested in bicycling, but you had no interest in it.
Sameer: I think that ridiculed you for twenty years.
Gabriel: So what was it that made you get into cycling?
Sameer: I think this is probably a very typical response for people who had not cycled before, but then picked it up. It was COVID for me. I was stuck at home in Chicago, and just thought to myself, I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t start doing something. My wife Fareen bought a Peloton. And so we started doing a little bit of Peloton at home. And that was nice. And then as the weather got better in Chicago, as the spring came around, I went and bought a bike, which promptly got stolen in Chicago. And there was so few bikes to be had during that time, because everybody was doing the same thing. And I remember driving to a bike shop on the southern end of Indianapolis, in some suburb, and picking up a Trek and then bringing it back. And then I was hooked. I started cycling around Chicago and the streets were deserted. It’s insane to think about cycling up and down Michigan Avenue in Chicago with no cars on the street, nobody over there. It’s a spectacular way to fall back in love with the city, which I did.
Gabriel: Yeah, really, a lot of guests have said COVID. It’s been incredible for bicycling and bike touring. As terrible of an event that it was, it really turned a lot of people on to the joys of bicycling. But Lew, you know, there are a lot of these fundraising bikeathons as they’re called in the US. And you and Sameer both live in the Chicagoland area. Pan-Mass Challenge happens in Massachusetts. So why are you hooked on the PMC and not on another one that’s maybe a little closer to home, easier to get to?
Lew: Yeah, you know, initially, it was because of our mutual friend Steven and his involvement in the PMC and his overwhelming endorsement of his experience riding in the PMC.
Gabriel: He’s also a Chicago resident?
Lew: Yeah, he’s also in Chicago, very close to me, actually. And because of that, and because I kind of got into riding outdoors when my ability to run regularly got derailed because I was having, you know, muscular issues. It’s called OLD Syndrome. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that yet or not. You’re too young.
Gabriel: OLD, don’t know it.
Sameer: I’m experiencing it.
Lew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t ever get to know it either, by the way. As a function of limitations relative to running outdoors, which I used to do regularly and really enjoy, I got into biking and I got more into biking and more into biking. And then Steven and I started to ride together and then he told me about the PMC and I got involved. And then, as is often the case, I think with people that get involved in the ride, they’re eager to share those experiences with others. I did that with Sameer and he was good enough to take it seriously and join the crew, as it were. But the reason that we, I think, continue to go back is because there is a gravitational pull associated with this event, which is not to say that there isn’t with others and that there aren’t other really wonderful bikeathons out there. There are several and some of them much closer to Chicagoland than this one. But I think part of the adventure is packing the bike and making the trip and the things that we do once we’re in Boston on the front end and the things that we do once we’re in Boston after the return and the return travel. It’s all grist for the mill and I think just adds to the color of each year’s event and makes each one a little bit different than the other. To me, it’s something that I have marked indelibly on the calendar and look forward to now. You know, once we’re finished with one, we’re already kind of starting to think about the next. And I think actually adding on either end to the adventure is something that is becoming more and more a part of the ride and really something that we all look forward to.
Sameer: It’s a very specific kind of a bikeathon. It’s a fundraise for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. There’s a stat that I only learned about this year, which is that of all of the cancer life-saving therapies introduced in the United States in some period of time, I can’t remember, 20 years, 50% of them have come from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Lew’s family has been impacted by it. Steven’s family has been impacted by it very, very closely. I’ve been impacted by it and the idea that one could make impact at scale is something that’s actually pretty unique. Yes, lots of bikeathons, lots of fundraising that happens, but there are two aspects of it that I think are very important. One, the fundraising you do every dollar goes right to Dana- Farber, which is unusual. There’s no skimming off the top, any of that stuff. You’ve got to carry your own weight for hotels, travel, everything else. The other part of it is that it’s hard to figure out, as an individual, how to make an impact in society. Dana- Farber, it’s one of thousands of hospitals in the United States and in the world that are doing really groundbreaking work, but as an individual, you think, how can I make an impact? This is a great way to build camaraderie, raise money, feel like what you’re doing is making an impact, be healthy, train throughout the year. There’s all sorts of ancillary effects of this that I think are fun, interesting, and impactful.
Gabriel: It amplifies what you can achieve as an individual.
Lew: Without question, and there are a few tag lines associated with the ride. One is “Closer by the mile,” and the other is “Commit. You’ll figure it out.” I think the latter is something that a lot of people with the best intentions never participate because of this issue or that issue, because the individual riders are committed to raise a minimum of 6,000 dollars, and that’s a daunting task for a lot of people, but the “commit, you’ll figure it out” piece is really a wonderful rallying cry, not just in terms of the ride itself, but I think life more generally. I think so much of what is so compelling about the PMC is that there’s a lot of time when you’re on the saddle, as you well know, to think about things and to put things in their proper perspective, and I think that weekend really seriously focuses your perspective on health and well-being. This was probably one of the most significant positive things that resulted from COVID, but I think that the notion that we are fragile as human beings, and no matter how long we are blessed to be a part of the living here on earth, it’s a finite period of time, and I think the thing that the PMC does for me personally is it really brings that into very sharp focus every year when you are riding amongst cancer survivors. You’re riding past people that are ringing cowbells and saying, “I’m here because of you,” because of the treatments that they received at Dana-Farber. Or you’re riding behind someone and reading the back of their jersey and all of the people that they’re either riding for or have been impacted by cancer. It’s not your ordinary bikeathon, so I think that is the special sauce, if you will, that compels most people that participate to continue to participate and come back year after year.
Gabriel: It’s interesting that you use the phrase “cancer survivor,” because my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She went through chemotherapy, radiation, surgery before being declared cancer-free a year later. I thought, “Great, she’s officially a cancer survivor.” But it turns out it’s not so simple. Later I realized it’s not like you survived an accident and now, okay, that’s behind you. Cancer can always come back at any time, and in fact, for my mother, it did come back. It metastasized to her spinal cord and then to her brain in mom. So, I agree with you, Lew, because every day is something to be thankful about. I think people who are cancer survivors know that and appreciate that, because in the back of their minds, they’re always wondering, will it come back?
Lew: There is a cohort of riders at the PMC called Living Proof. Those are the folks, and it’s usually about plus or minus six or seven hundred riders who are living proof. They have survived at least one round and oftentimes multiple rounds fighting cancer. That is one of the most uplifting and motivating groups to be amongst during the two-day weekend. These Living Proof riders are there and they’re grinding out those miles with all of us and very thankful for the opportunity to be able to be grinding out those miles with all of us.
Sameer: Gabe, you know I do this every year. I prepare a little poster that I wear on the back of my jersey on the second day. It’s a poster that’s a tribute to honor my mom, other family members, and as part of my fundraising, I ask prospective donors, if they would like to honor someone, if they let me know, I will have a name on the poster and carry them on my back on the second day. But I also have a Living Proof section of my poster. And if people want to highlight folks that they know that do that, it’d be great. And I’m just honored to be able to do that. What has been super interesting is I now have colleagues from the past and at my current company who are cancer survivors, who I will either meet at the Pan- Mass and have a chat with them and connect with them, even though we haven’t worked together for many years, which is really special and they are survivors, or I have donors who are survivors who also know those old colleagues. And then we get a chance to keep the network up that way, which is nice. And then in my current company, there are people who I work with who are survivors who have donated and I’ve asked them if they would like for me to put their names on the Living Proof section. And they’ve said yes. And it’s such a great way to have a human connection with people that you work with and you see in a professional context. And then your relationship can go beyond that, which I think is very special.
Gabriel: For sure.
Lew: It touches, I think, so many people in so many different ways and is so very personal that it is a uniter of sorts. It is kind of a form of glue that brings people from very different walks of life, very different lifed and lived experiences together. And I also think that’s one of the most interesting things is just sitting around like on Friday night at the kickoff and just talking to people, meeting people. There’s a sense of camaraderie, I think, that runs throughout this event. And it’s not just the riders, the other really super impressive thing is there are almost 4,000 volunteers.
Gabriel: Wow.
Lew: You began the podcast by talking about supported and unsupported rides. This is about as supported a ride as you can get. And these volunteers are as committed, if not more so, than the people riding. And they are wonderful. They’re really, really wonderful people. They also are responsible for raising money. It’s just kind of remarkable that you can have over 10,000 people come together every single first weekend in August with this kind of unified and very focused initiative. And do so in a manner that I think is so fulfilling and gratifying for those that take part. And that’s not even to mention the literally thousands of people that line the course. It’s not the Tour de France, but I can assure you that, when you are beginning to feel tired or somewhat sorry for yourself because you’re uncomfortable and someone’s ringing that cowbell along the course and thanking you for your efforts, it’s invigorating and it is really almost difficult to articulate that feeling that you get. But it is that feeling that you get that I think is also what is so central to bringing people back year after year.
Gabriel: Definitely. And yeah, there is something about having people cheer for you that gives you that extra boost, whether it be during a half marathon or a century ride or whatever, there is a difference to just doing it on your own, which you can certainly do. At these events where thousands of people turn out and they’ve made posters, they’ve got instruments that they’re playing, they’re cheering for you, the crowd definitely lifts you up.
Sameer: I can’t wait to be on a climb and some dude come in front of me with a flag just waving right in my face as I’m riding by. That would be amazing.
Lew: You know, Gabe, Sameer and I have agreed to be a part of the podcast this morning because we are using it as a full-court press to get you and Jason to be a part of the PMC in years to come.
Gabriel: I would like to do it, but every year so far that Sameer has participated, there’s been something. One year it was my birthday. This year my daughter was born only a few weeks before the ride. Still, I’m not losing hope of joining in the future.
Lew: There you go.
Gabriel: I’d like to get a better idea of what happens before, during, and after the ride. We know that it lasts two days. Can one of you just walk me through Day One and Day Two?
Sameer: I don’t know why we do this every year. Lew’s like, it’s this long and I’m like, no, it’s this long. Do you remember? Like what? So go ahead, Lew.
Lew: There are a number of different courses that you can sign up for and you can do one-day, you can do two-day, you can do one day that’s shorter than another. They really have tried to tailor the ride and meet people kind of where they are in terms of their level of enthusiasm and fitness. Historically, there have been two starting points, Wellesley, Mass, and Sturbridge, Mass. Kind of equal amount of riders, plus or minus 3,000 from both starting points, that converge at lunchtime, which depending on how fast you’re riding or not, ends up being somewhere between 10 and 11 o’clock in the morning. Next year, we’ll mark the first time in 47 years that the starting point is not going to be Wellesley or Sturbridge, Mass. It’s going to be Worcester, Mass. Rather than having two starting points separated by many miles, it’s going to be a single starting point. So that’ll be an interesting change and one that I think a lot of people are looking forward to.
Sameer: The start’s at sunrise on Saturday morning. On Friday, you spend the night in Sturbridge. The opening ceremonies are on Friday night. Billy Starr talks about that year, what we’re doing. You get to mingle with a bunch of people.
Gabriel: And Billy Starr is the founder of the event.
Lew: Correct.
Gabriel: In 1948, Dr. Sidney Farber saved a boy with cancer named Einar Gustafson, who came to be known publicly as “Jimmy” to protect his identity. That same year, Dr. Farber launched the Jimmy Fund to support his new Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In 1980, Billy Starr and 35 friends set out on bicycles to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. Over the last Challenge has evolved from a grassroots organization to the most successful athletic fundraising event in the United States, generating over research.
Lew: I think the moment that maybe I remember most fondly was being a part of the opening ceremonies the first year I rode. As you would expect, it’s energy-charged. It’s being covered live across the state by the local CBS affiliate. And it was during that hour-long opening ceremony, my first, that I really got the sense of what I had gotten myself into and that it was going to be something very special. I was just supercharged at that moment in time and probably could have left the opening ceremony and had I had adequate light ridden from there to Provincetown that evening on the high and the energy that was created as a result of that gathering. In subsequent years, we always either attend in full or in part the opening ceremony and kind of the gathering and milling about before that. But that opening ceremony really did crystallize for me what an incredibly special community was gathered there that evening and what a phenomenal event I was lucky enough to be getting ready to take part in.
Sameer: Love it.
Lew: The other kind of really fun thing that I think everyone looks forward to is there’s a scissor lift that Billy will get on to address the crowd before the start, and kind of giving everyone cautionary rules of the road and don’t clip in as you come out of the starting gate completely because with that many riders leaving all at once it’s kind of a recipe for disaster. The thing that I think is always wonderful is they sing the national anthem from atop that scissor lift before the start of the ride and I think that that also is a wonderful tradition that everyone really looks forward to. The ride historically has terminated on Day One in a place called Bourne, Mass, which is the beginning of the cape and the home of the Mass Maritime Academy, which is our host for the first evening. The very hospitable and commodious gym floor of the Mass Maritime Academy has been our sleeping locale for the last four years. If you opt for the Sturbridge to Bourne, Mass ride it is, and this is where Sameer is going to cringe and argue with me, but it is approximately 108 miles. Next year of course it will still terminate in Bourne on Day One but the ride will be slightly shorter.
Sameer: That evening in Bourne on Saturday night, it’s a super cool time because like you know you’ve got to ride early the next day, you’re sleeping on the floor on a mattress in a gym, the lights don’t go off all night… There’s a little bit of uncertainty in the whole thing but it’s also two things super cool way to just like hang out with people who just did like a big thing but also Lew and I we’ve now made it a little bit of a tradition. We’ll walk into town we’ll hang out at a park we might get a little bit of dinner, have a little bit of dessert, have a great chat in this beautiful town of Bourne while the sun is setting. Like, it is a really special moment, actually.
Lew: Absolutely. Day Two is approximately 80 miles. Sameer thinks it’s less. Regardless, in terms of the terrain, there’s actually quite a bit more overall elevation on Day One than there is on Day Two, but I think a lot of people feel like I do that Day Two is a harder ride physically, and in some ways emotionally. Beautiful, because you’re going through all of these tiny towns that dot the Cape where, you know, again, people are coming out en masse to support the effort. Day One you’re riding in great part on adrenaline and the excitement of Day One and of being there and in spite of the fact that it’s a lot more elevation and you know significantly more mileage, it always feels easier to me than Day Two. Day Two, it also ends by grinding through the dunes of the Cape on your way to Provincetown. What leads up to that kind of that last five or seven miles of very hilly terrain is about an equal distance of ride along the Mass Turnpike, which can be harrowing as well. They have it cordoned off to some extent to protect the riders, but it’s still, it can be very treacherous riding, for different reasons than the terrain. Day Two in some ways is almost anti-climactic you know because you’re already thinking, well this is coming to an end by 10:30 or 11:00 o’clock in the morning, and you know then it’s off to think about next year.
Gabriel: Okay and when you say the Cape, that’s Cape Cod, which makes this big kind of arc from mainland Massachusetts. And the Massachusetts Turnpike, that’s a freeway.
Lew: A major freeway that takes people to Provincetown, which is the termination point on Day Two.
Gabriel: So for part of the course there is no alternative you have to go along the highway on the shoulder.
Lew: Correct, and you know they have Mass Highway Patrol on motorcycles that are providing kind of an escort of sorts for portions of that seven- or eight-mile stretch. What’s interesting is you got cars riding by you at hanging out the window and ringing cowbells and cheering you on nonetheless, so it is both harrowing and exhilarating.
Sameer: While Lew was describing Day One and Day Two I quickly looked up on the PMC website. Turns out there’s 14 permutations of rides you can do that weekend. All different lengths, including a virtual ride.
Gabriel: Oh wow.
Sameer: All towards the fundraising efforts, and there’s a range of fundraising efforts. Lew and I and Steven in past years we’ve done the longest mix of rides, Sturbridge, Bourne, then all the way to Provincetown, but there’s lots of different options for people who want to contribute in some way.
Gabriel: I know you looked up the mileage too, Sameer.
Sameer: I didn’t because I know what mileage is because I’ve written it a few times already.
Gabriel: But you’re disagreeing with Lew.
Sameer: Here’s what I think happened. I think Lew and Steven have been riding this for many years and I think there was a point in time where that end-to-end from Sturbridge – because I think they’ve changed the course a little bit over time – The end-to-end…
Lew: Was 192.
Sameer: Yeah, it was 192 miles total and now it’s like 177 miles and every year Lew’s like, “We’re gonna ride 192 miles.” I’m like, “We’re only gonna ride 177 miles.”
Gabriel: So you’re both right.
Sameer: Yeah.
Gabriel: You’re thinking, “No, I’m right.”
Sameer: I also, I also agree to disagree. The interesting part about the elevation stuff it’s that on Day One most of the elevation happens right by the time you hit halfway on the ride. You do most of the climbing you get to lunch and then you’ve got a little bit more climbing left, but it’s a longer ride on Day One so the last bit of the ride coming into Bourne, depending on the weather, it can be brutal sometimes. Day Two most of the climbing is the back third of the ride which makes that bit harder but also more fulfilling when you cross the finish line.
Gabriel: I have not been to Cape Cod but I would not have imagined that the very tip of the Cape would have these hills.
Lew: The dunes.
Gabriel: Yeah, the dunes. Who would have known?
Lew: Yeah, it is surprisingly hilly.
Sameer: It’s not an alpine climb, that’s for sure.
Lew: No no no.
Sameer: It’s hills, but when you put them together they add up to some decent elevation.
Lew: Exactly, and for flatlanders, which Sameer and I are, because we, you know, reside in Chicago and it’s effectively a big plain, in order to adequately simulate some semblance of what we are going to experience at PMC, we will drive actually about 30 miles west of the city proper to kind of the lone area in greater Chicagoland that has some rolling terrain and some, you know, noteworthy climbs and elevation over the course of our 45- or 50-mile training ride. But other than that you have to go north to Wisconsin, which we also do, in prep for the ride. There are plenty of hills and elevation, lots, surprisingly I think for a lot of people. But for the most part we’re here in Chicago and training on flat terrain.
Gabriel: Sameer, I know you’ve ridden the Trek 100, which is a challenging one-day ride in Wisconsin. The Trek bicycle company is based in Wisconsin right?
Sameer: Yep. Trek is headquartered in Waterloo, Wisconsin, which is just east of Madison, Wisconsin. Shout out to my college freshman who’s going to Madison, Wisconsin. Go Badgers.
Gabriel: Go Badgers!
Sameer: Actually it starts at the Trek HQ and then does this figure eight north into Wisconsin and comes back. It’s also a cancer fundraise.
Gabriel: Oh.
Sameer: There’s lots of variations of that ride that one can do. I’ve done it – well, technically I’ve done it three times, although one year was a DNF because of weather – so it’s a hundred miles and about 4,500 feet of climbing on that ride, and it’s early in the summer and so the weather can be an issue, although this year the weather was perfect and it was a really fun ride.
Gabriel: Yeah, so plenty of nice hills in Wisconsin for training.
Sameer: Yeah, for sure.
Gabriel: What about the fundraising side? $6,000, like you said is a fair amount. Are there any good strategies for fundraising or is it just reach out to everyone you know?
Sameer: I’ll offer my point of view, which is get to know a lot of rich people. That’s always a good fundraising strategy.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Sameer: I think $6,000, just that amount itself is a daunting threshold for a lot of people to consider the ride. But the mantra that Lew shared which is just “commit, and you’ll figure it out,” I think it’s true. I think when you say something heartfelt to people that you know that are in your orbit, even putting together small donations over some period of time can get you there. It seems like a very daunting task and honestly I’ve been very fortunate to hit the target every year but every year I have the same anxiety, which is, oh I wonder if I want to make it this year. My strategy has been very simple. I send a note out to people that I know that I think care about me and the stuff that I’m doing or those who have been impacted. You find that Venn diagram of folks and there’s a path to making it happen.
Gabriel: And Year One I was very proud to be the person who put you over the $6,000 goal with my modest…
Sameer: Very generous contribution, Gabe. Thank you.
Gabriel: It was my pleasure to contribute in whichever way possible. It was like this thermometer that was almost at the top and then, yeah, giving a little extra just, boom, put it over the top. That was fun.
Sameer: It was fantastic. It was great.
Lew: It’s interesting, because I have found over these last 14 years that there are people that support my effort that I think now, like when am I going to get the solicitation, you know kind of thing. You know it’s become a part of their first weekend in August as well. I have a lot of friends that have been very generous supporters of mine for the entirety of my riding history in the PMC and year in and year out answer the call. I kind of feel like they have committed as well. That’s wonderful. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to get there every year, but just like the ride itself, I have a high degree of confidence that we’ll figure it out. And invariably that’s what happens. The last many years, you know, I’ve had the good fortune of exceeding that goal pretty dramatically, and one of the things that I think has been helpful in that regard is sharing with the folks that have generously supported my efforts what the result is. There was a really well-done piece on CBS Morning News where Billy Starr did the first – and this was just last year – but it was the first piece of national coverage of the ride. The PMC does a good job of aggregating press and links and video and pushing that out to its community and I in turn pushed that CBS Morning piece out to my community, my community of supporters. Because so often they’ll say well, what’s it like, you know, many of the questions that we’ve talked about today, and it’s really difficult to accurately communicate the feeling that you have when you’re participating in this, either as a volunteer or directly as a rider. And that piece so beautifully kind of captured the essence of the PMC weekend that I think for a lot of the people that have been very loyal continuous supporters of my efforts it was really interesting and gratifying for them to be able to see up close and kind of in a very detailed visual way what the ride is like. The mantra of “Commit. You’ll figure it out” also applies to unsupported rides. For people who are on their own and scared of doing this thing that they’ve been dreaming of doing, maybe for a really long time. And the advice that guests keep giving over and over is, you have to make that commitment. You buy an airplane ticket, you…
Sameer: Find a boat and get to an island.
Gabriel: Yeah, that’s right. You find a boat. I think that’s a reference to the “Life is Wild” episodes with André Plumeau. Basically, you do whatever it takes, and once you have that commitment, that’s what gives you the motivation to go and fulfill it, because otherwise it’s just so easy to make excuses and never take that first step. Oh, and my excuses are very good for not participating in the PMC so far. Let’s get that on the record.
Sameer: You keep telling yourself that. This year, on that highway leading up to Provincetown…
Gabriel: The turnpike.
Sameer: That’s right. The turnpike. There was a young man pulling a few of us into Provincetown, and did that for I don’t know solid 15 or 20 minutes. And then I offered to pull, and then I pulled a bunch of people. Four years ago, I can’t imagine pulling a group of people into Provincetown, and I did that this year and it felt really good.
Gabriel: Nice!
Sameer: The thing I want to say about Lew is this. Lew has dedicated a bunch of time over the last couple of years towards his own health and well-being, and to see his performance both during training and during the ride over the last couple years just skyrocket has been absolutely incredible. I’ve really enjoyed watching just Lew go from strength to strength. It’s been amazing.
Lew: Defying the notion that you can’t teach an an old dog new tricks.
Sameer: You’re doing great.
Lew: Because.
Sameer: Awesome.
Lew: I am certainly an old dog.
Gabriel: And what happens after you cross the finish line?
Sameer: Lew, Steven, and I have our own tradition, where we have dinner on Sunday night after the ride’s done, and we’ve had a little nap. When I did the ride the first year I was signed up for a 3 p.m. ferry back to Boston that I then came to know is called the party boat, because it takes three hours to get from Provincetown to Boston while a band plays and people have a lot of fun, which is the antithesis of what I want to do after I finish the PMC. I wanna get on a ferry and get into a bed as quickly as possible, and so now I’ve been taking the noon ferry, which is the fast ferry back to Boston. After a couple years I had to convince Lew and Steven that that was the right way to do it. These veterans had just been hanging out in Provincetown for hours after the ride.
Lew: Provincetown is a very small sea town and this is a big event, so an influx of four or five thousand people into a very small seaside village is disruptive in and of itself. It’s much more fun to get back to Boston proper after the ride, get the lunch that Sameer alluded to, get the nap, the afternoon nap. You’ll never sleep that well as after that second day. And then the more recent tradition that we have of gathering for dinner on Sunday night, which is always wonderful.
Sameer: One would think that this is a bit of a daunting physical feat. You know, most people don’t ride a hundred and nine hundred, ten miles in one day with 4,500, reality when you’re surrounded by all of these human beings who are there for one thing, there’s a chance that there’ll be accidents or that interactions between people would get heated or some crazy stuff could happen. And for sure, some people get into a fender-bender or have an accident. The thing that’s always surprised me is just how cool, calm, and collected everybody is, including the volunteers, the marshals on the course, the police that are supporting us throughout the ride, the other riders. For me this year was very very special year to do it, because my twin girls turned 18, graduated high school, moving on to college, etc. And so, to that end, we decided we’d do a family road trip this year. Two kids and me in the car drove from Chicago to Pittsburgh, DC, New York, and then Boston. My wife Fareen and another child, the two of them flew to Boston. We drove to Boston. I stopped off in Sturbridge, dropped my bike off. The next day, took the bus to Sturbridge, did the ride, and for me it was super special to have the family at the finish line as I finished it in Provincetown monument, and then be able to interact with them, hang out with them. We took separate ferries back to Boston and the next day, Monday, again two kids and I drove the 15-plus hours back from Boston to Chicago. Just an incredible time to hang out with the fam. It was just non- stop yucks and jokes and music. The most important thing I learned on that drive back was, my son Hazem explaining to me the beef between Drake and Kendrick, and how all of the songs, you know, dissing each other came to be and what they were all about. A topic that I knew nothing about and now I’m a expert on, I should say, If you want to know about the Drake and Kendrick beef, I got you.
Gabriel: I hardly know who they are. I know that Drake is Canadian and Kendrick is not, I guess.
Lew: There you go, and that’s probably a lot more than most people know about Drake and Kendrick.
Gabriel: At least most people our age.
Sameer: There’s one aspect of this that I think I wanted to highlight, which is what happens in the preparation leading up to the ride is I’ll do a bunch of rides myself and I’ll train and huff and puff to make sure that I get miles in, and then Lew and I and sometimes Steven will do these rides out in the suburbs or we’ll go up north or we’ll do the Trek 100 or sometimes we’ll just do a century ride by ourselves. There’s something so cool about doing those things, because it’s a way of strengthening friendship bond between people who otherwise are just busy, right? Your every-day, you’re busy, you’re working, you’re with your family, you’re doing something, and doing longer-distance training, or the ride, requires many many hours of commitment of doing that on the weekends, or sometimes during the week. My favorite part of this is the before-the-ride, where there’s some banter, the during- the-ride, where there’s the support and just looking at amazing stuff you see on these rides, and then the after-the- ride, the coffee and the conversation, the discussion.
Gabriel: Okay, so basically every part is your favorite.
Sameer: It’s not a trivial thing at our age to find that genuine connection with people, and I feel really lucky to have that. It’s really a special thing.
Lew: I think that’s a really important point and I feel absolutely likewise. As much as we grouse about having to get up early, drive 25 miles, it all adds to the community and the camaraderie and the friendship that is a wonderful output of this effort. I feel like I have gained a phenomenal friend in Sameer as a result of our joint engagement in the PMC that transcends the type of relationship, you know, you would be happy to have with a single person in your lifetime. For that I am also very thankful. It’s been fantastic in that regard. It’s fun, and I think the reason that once Year 14 is over, I’m already kind of looking out at the horizon and thinking about Year 15 is because it is motivating and it is what kind of keeps me focused on staying in reasonably good shape and wanting to be able to do this again next year and the year after and as long as I possibly can. And a lot of that motivation is a function of being able to interact with Sameer and Steven in particular and others that we have come to know as a result of all this.
Gabriel: The transcript for this episode is available on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist website. I welcome feedback and suggestions for this and other episodes. You’ll find a link to all contact information in the show notes. If you would like to rate or review the show, you can do that on your favorite podcast platform. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram. Thank you to Anna Lindenmeier for the cover artwork and to Timothy Shortell for the original music. This podcast would not be possible without continuous support from my wife Sandra. And thank you so much for listening. I hope the episode will inspire you to get out and see where the road leads you.
Gabriel: Oh. Here’s the baby.
Sameer: Is it baby time? Do you need to go?
Gabriel: No, not yet.
Sameer: It’s baby time.