One Month Out; Pan-Mass On Deck

One month to go to Iron Day and everything is progressing well.  August 27, 2011 is going to be a long day and beyond continuing to log hours, the logistics need to be established as well.  No lack of support from family and friends to help out and can't tell you how much it's appreciated.  Will share details about the day as they're finalized.  The routes have been tweaked to what should be final form.  The swim will be in Lake Buel in Great Barrington, MA.  Will dive off the dock of the Bock family house and it's exactly 2.4 miles to the end of the lake and back.  Will then set off for two 56 mile bike loops- Loop One heads south down into CT for a short time and back to the start of the loop by the lake.  Loop Two heads north with the last 20 miles being on the flats of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail- transition from bike to run will be at the trailhead in Pittsfield.  The first 11 miles of the run are on the rail trail and then we're on Route 8 from Adams to North Adams before working our way to and around Williamstown.

Before all that fun, however, there's a challenge to meet the weekend of August 5-7.  I'm fortunate to be able to participate in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge, the original fund raising bike-a-thon in the country.  In addition to the 183 miles we'll ride over two days, a group of friends are adding 100 miles to the front end of the official Pan-Mass.  At 6:30am on Friday, August 5, we'll start on the NY/Mass border and ride 100 miles to the Pan-Mass starting point of Sturbridge, MA- this is a draft of our route.  We'll do close to 300 miles in three days and that, quite frankly, is more intimidating at this point than the Iron Day business described above.  Chas won't be with us on this first leg, as originally planned, but he is going to take part in the Pan-Mass which is exciting.  There's a significant fund raising goal for each rider- all donations going directly to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Jimmy Fund.  Donations to my effort can be made here, Chas' link is here- no pressure and thanks for all your support and good wishes, whatever the form.