A Grand-Slam Tour...

Cyclist Ends Tour to Raise Aid for Cancer

Sun Sep 26, 6:11 PM ET Add Health - AP to My Yahoo!


By MARTIN FINUCANE, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - The speedometer on Charlie Hamilton's bicycle
handlebars told the story. Miles traveled: 11,741.
Speed: 0.0.

Hamilton dismounted from his bike Sunday at
Fenway Park after a 25-week odyssey across North
America in which he traveled to games at all 30 major
league ballparks, raising $13,000 for cancer research
and treatment.


"It was a cockamamie scheme I came up with," said
Hamilton, a 40-year-old software engineer from
Provincetown. "Once I thought about it, I didn't stop
thinking about it."


He began his journey April 2 in Atlanta and ended
it with a final ride to the last Red Sox
regular-season home game at Fenway Park.


He averaged 80 miles a day, sometimes camping or
staying in cheap motels, sometimes staying with
friends and family. He had 50 flat tires, was chased
by dogs, rode through driving rain, went through eight
pairs of sunglasses and had many a brush with an
aggressive anti-biker driver.


Hamilton said he was just a software guy who sat in a
cubicle and typed for 10 hours a day until he quit
that job for his adventure. A Red Sox fan, he said he
was glad he could combine his love for cycling and
baseball.


"It's totally out of character," he said. "I have
always gone to work every day and all that kind of
stuff. This is my mid-life crisis."


Hamilton rode in honor of Eric Donovan, 15, of
Scituate, who is undergoing treatment for Ewings
Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.


"Without a doubt," Donovan said. "He put his life
aside ... and rode all over the country to raise money
for all the kids with all these illnesses."


Hamilton, who rode about 30 miles to the park Sunday,
still hopes to meet his original $125,000 fund-raising
goal for the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, a
bike-a-thon that raises money for the Jimmy Fund,
which pays for cancer research and treatment at
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.


Hamilton's wife, Molly, 37, called her husband's feat
"wonderful."


"He needs to relax and figure out what he's going to
do next," she said.


___




Hamilton's Web site: www.hitforthecycle.org.