Fund raising update

Hi!

Thanks for stopping by to see how Team Novartis is doing with its fund raising!

As of today, September 4th 2007 we are at a combined $67,272! That is ONLY $32,728 away from our goal of $100K! I know that sounds like quite a bit, but just think that not even two months ago we were $30K further from our goal than we are today. With your help we can hit our mark....or come gosh darned close to it.

To all Novartis employees: remember that any donation of $25 or more is matched by Novartis. Put your match to good use and help us achieve a fantastic goal.

More to come on the PMC itself....we're still compiling everyone's memories/stories/photos etc.

Thanks for your support,

- Team Novartis

A memorable PMC 2007

Just a brief entry to let you all know that each of the Team Novartis riders finished their PMC rides strongly. We each had memorable moments, including running into a cat, riding with Cam Kerry (John Kerry's brother), and finishing our inaugural PMC, to name but a few. The weekend was very moving, in every sense of the word, and to a person we each look forward to PMC 2008.

More stories plus photos from the weekend to follow soon.

Thanks for reading and for your support! We are inching closer to our $100K fund raising goal each day. Contributions toward our fund raising goal are still gratefully accepted - see the panel to the right for the appropriate links.

- Team Novartis

Bike maintenance....a word to the wise:

The following is a fine tip given to me by a long-time cycling buddy that lives across the street from Riverside T station and commutes into Longwood Medical Area each day (~10 mile ride each way):

IF:
You put new tires on your bike and
You notice that you're going up hill quite slow and
You can't believe that the new tires are this slow and
You do notice that they corner well and
You curse them going up the backside of the BC hill and
You can't believe that it took you that long to get to work and
You adjust the rear wheel before riding home and
You notice that the wheel now turns freely and
You hose two cyclist with cleanly shaven legs up BC hill and
You coast down the backside of the hill passing MBTA buses and
You make it home in 40 minutes with a stop at the booze store

Then:
You might reconsider burning the new tires

Disclosure:The information transmitted in this message is confidential and may be privileged. The two cyclist with cleanly shaven legs were female and on hybrids yet it added to the story. So shoot me.Thank you. - T.C.

PMC Fundraiser at the Asgard - July 12th 5-9PM

Fund-raising update Monday June 25th

Our Team's cumulative fund-raising total now stands at $12,024, only $87,976 from our goal of $100K.
* $1000 has been donated to the Team.
* Our leading individual fund-raiser is now Fran at $3,045 but Michael is not far behind at $2,859.
Thanks to all that have donated to our fund-raising efforts....and thanks in advance to those that will be donating to help us achieve our goal!
- Team Novartis

Donating to Team Novartis

So, you want to contribute to Team Novartis? Fantastic!!!! Please follow these easy instructions and you will be well on your way to contributing to a very worthy cause!


By Check:
1) Please make the check payable to PMC or The Jimmy Fund.
2) Find one of the team members and give the check to them. We will then take care of mailing it off.

By Credit Card (The easiest and most economical way, also done on a secure server):
1) Please click on the eGifts link under "Important Links" on the right.
2) Enter in your donation amount and click on "Click here to sponsor this person".
3) Enter in your mailing and credit card info and any personal message.
4) Click on continue to finish the transaction.

Novartis employees only:
1) If your donation is $25 or more, please fill out the matching gift form.
2) The form can be found under the "Important Links" on the right.
3) Print out the form and fill in the top half of the second page. You can enter in your employee ID number instead of your social security number.
4) Give the filled out form to one of the team members and we will take care of the rest.

That's all there is to it.

Thank you in advance for your valuable contribution to the team!

Team Novartis

Why We Ride....Watch this Video!

Mon June 18th Fund-raising update

Each Monday we'll update the status of our fund-raising.
Here's the latest scoop:

As a Team we have raised $10,524
$900 has been donated to the general Team
Our front-runner for individual fund-raising is Michael, with $2,859, beating out Fran by $14.
Only $89,476 to go.
Keep the support coming.
PMC eGift page
Egift # TN0034 (click "sponsor one rider with one donation" then enter the Egift ID #)
Thanks!
- Team Novartis

134 miles in a day

Yesterday I completed my longest ever one-day ride - the Harpoon Brewery B2B ride. The B2B is a one day ride that starts at the Harpoon Brewery in South Boston and ends, 134 miles later, in Windsor, Vermont. I have an absolute new-found respect for professional cyclists! Spending 7 1/4 hours on a bike in a single day is tough stuff!! However I was pleased with my performance as I survived the agonizingly long, 20 mile climb that took us from MA up into NH, as well as the long distance. The climb from mile 20 to mile 70 was not that steep, but it just kept going and going and going! Other than a near bonk with 20 miles to go I managed my nutritional needs well and felt strong throughout the day. I definitely learned the value of a paceline during the 2nd half of the ride. I have to admit to coming up with pretty creative cussing on the final climb that took us up to the finish! I have never been so happy to see the Harpoon Brewery symbol on a sign in my life. Both feet were aching and that torturous, steep final climb nearly did me in. I was so thrilled to see the sign for the Brewery that I almost totally overcooked the turn that takes one off the road and 180 degrees around the corner and down to the Brewery. The ride was phenomenally well organized and I take my hat off to Harpoon for running a great event. I look forward to trying the ride again next year! After the B2B I think the PMC will be more than manageable.
Stats: HR monitor was non-functional for the first 110 miles so no HR data. Av'g speed: 18.5mph. Time spent cycling: 7hr 15min.
Until next time.... - John

Jun 14 NCC Thursday Ride

The NIBR cycling club (NCC) headed out for their weekly Thursday evening training ride. Heading out were Andrew, Andy, Chris, Joe, John E, Michi and myself. The weather was cool and most of the group were wrapped up with arm and leg warmers. I had forgotten to check the weather in detail but knew it would be cooler so had only brought my cycling jacket. Thankfully that was sufficient and my legs and knees were not overly chilled. We enjoyed a great ride, forming a nice paceline once we got beyond Arlington. Rotations were good and we were cruising along. The highlight was the stretch along 2A heading from Old Mass Ave to the turn-off to Hanscom Field - Michi was pulling us along at 28mph!! Overall a good, reasonably fast ride, without hammering too much - important since Saturday Chris and I will be riding in the 136 mile one-day ride going from Harpoon Brewery South Boston to Harpoon Brewery Windsor Vermont!
Here's a link to details for the B2B ride on Saturday:
http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/index.cfm?pid=97993
Stats: Avg HR 145 bpm, Max HR 172 bpm, 2041 cal, 40.5 miles, Avg speed for the roundtrip 18 mph (that includes getting out of the city), Avg cadence 88 RPM
Keep the rubber to the road.
- John

June 13 easy spin Wednesday ride

Last night we enjoyed the first of our Wednesday evening training rides. In the group were Jonathan, Martina and myself. We headed out to Lexington center then tackled the 'big' hill-climb going out Mass Ave. Everyone managed the hill well. Hill's are painful but they sure do make you stronger. Martina learned the value of drafting and is slowly working to get more comfortable coming closer to her lead rider. When your body is the engine, it sure helps if the effort required is made easier! All in all, a good training ride at a comfortable pace.
Stats: Roundtrip out to Lexington & Back = a hair under 25 miles; Average speed 14.1mph; Average HR 132bpm; Average cadence 81
Here's to future rides and keeping the rubber to the road.
- John

Welcome to PMC Team Novartis

Hello!

Thanks for dropping by the PMC Team Novartis blog.

First, to introduce the members of PMC Team Novartis:

* Brian Cain
* Fran Heller
* Jonathan Isaac
* Jennifer Johnson
* Karen Lacourse
* Brian Lynch
* Martina Schinke
* Michael Serrano-Wu
* John Slonimsky
* Megan Wherry
* Alexander Wood

Second, to introduce our focus:

Members of the team will be riding in this year's Pan Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) bike-a-thon. In it's 'classic' form the PMC consists of a two-day bike ride going from Sturbridge, MA to Provincetown, MA, and covers 192 miles. Our fund-raising goal for this year's PMC is a team total of $100,000 raised.
Donations to the Team's fundraising effort can be made on-line by pointing your browser to:
http://www.pmc.org/egifts
and then entering eGift ID #: TN0034 after clicking on "sponsor one rider with one donation"

Third, to introduce the purpose of this blog:

Each of the team members will be checking in to report on their training and fund-raising progress. We will try and keep you all up-to-date on our latest cumulative training miles as we train for the challenging cycling event.

Here's to lots of hard work, lots of sweat, fantastic support, and to reaching our achieavable fund-raising goal.

Best,

PMC Team Novartis!