Waban’s Own Sheldon Rothman: A Chat with the PMC’s Iron Man

Editor's Note: This piece has been written and submitted by local resident Lauren Paul. It also appeared in the Waban Improvement Society newsletter. 

At age 83, Waban’s Sheldon Rothman may be the oldest rider in the 162-mile annual Pan-Mass Challenge – he is surely its most determined. It is a rare person of any age with the fortitude to bicycle in the worst of the summer heat every August from Sturbridge to Provincetown over two days to raise money for cancer research.

Riding the PMC this year for the 11^th time, Sheldon embodies a brand of strength that is uniquely his.

Case in point: Summer of 2010. Then 81, Sheldon had spent the first night of the race with the pack of PMC riders in the dorms at Mass. Maritime in Buzzards Bay, the endpoint of the first day. Up before the sun the next day, he was blinded by a car’s highbeams on the Bourne Bridge and hit the curb, where he flew off his bike and crashed onto the sidewalk.

He decided that no bones were broken and picked himself up, covered in blood. After a short stop in the medical tent to be cleaned up and bandaged, Sheldon jumped back on his bike, determined to race through the 65-odd miles to get to the finish line in P-town sooner rather than later.

Worried about the time spent on medical attention, Sheldon ate little at the next two stops.

“I could feel myself getting weaker,” he says. “But I kept saying to myself, ‘Think about those kids with cancer,’ so I kept going.”  

This is Sheldon’s mantra, which he repeats constantly – to himself, to others. More than a string of syllables to him, these words truly propel him – to work out hard seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. To raise the minimum $4,300 it takes to participate in the PMC, year in year out. Above all, to keep going when any normal person would have long since quit.

And so that’s what he did, that day back in 2010, he kept riding toward the finish, despite a headache, some pretty serious body pain and more than a touch of shock. At one of the last stops, all the way in Wellfleet, Sheldon felt he’d probably better check in with the paramedics. He was walking toward the medical tent when someone came out and said, “Are you Sheldon? You’re out of the race.”

It turns out PMC medics had chastised the first guy, who let the octogenarian go after cleaning him up. And so Sheldon’s ride was over for that year, a mere 13 miles shorter than usual. Good thing, too. He later discovered that the underside of his bike’s frame was totally shredded in the accident and would have collapsed upon further impact. If he had hit another bump on his dash from Bourne to Wellfleet, he could have been killed.

One can’t help thinking it will take more than that to stop Sheldon.

“My goal is to ride when I’m 90 and continue riding as many miles and as many years thereafter,” he says.

To date, he has raised $70,000 for the cause – with every dollar going directly to the Jimmy Fund for cancer research. His goal is to hit $100,000 before hanging up his bike shorts. This is clearly a man for whom no road is too steep or too long.

To support Sheldon Rothman on his 11^th PMC, visit www.pmc.org and enter his first and last names in the search box. Or, send him a check payable to PMC/Jimmy Fund to 60 Dwhinda Road, Waban, MA 02468.