Pam was known to many in the NYC cycling community mostly through her presence at CRCA races. She was the friendly face collecting money pre-dawn at the registration table and shouting encouragement to the various groups as they passed Cat’s Paw. Pam loved cycling and sport, and she loved belonging to a community and helping out. While as an artist she may have had issues with many of the CRCA sub-team uniforms (including her own as a member of Team OrganicAthlete!), she was always the first to speak out in defense of cycling and cyclists and to volunteer to help out at local club races, at Bear Mountain, at roller race charity events, or by teaching yoga in Central Park to total strangers. She loved being a part of it all, and her loss, while enormous for me and our family, is, I imagine, significant even for those who only knew her briefly. She was a gentle spirit, kind, loving, and open, and in a crude world those are qualities we all need to cherish. 

Pamela was in many ways a natural sprinter. I remember when we first rode together in Central Park — she was on her red Cannondale Team Saeco, which she had just gotten from Will Schneider, and I was on my Time — we pulled away near Engineer’s Gate and she pretty much blew me away. I was a little surprised since I had been riding a lot and she had just gotten the bike. When we trained together, sometimes with Will, she would surprise both of us with her jump; at 48 years old she really had a kick in her. After a couple of years of cycling she rediscovered her passion for swimming. A summer after training with a swimming coach she emailed me to say that the coach was a little surprised by her 50m freestyle time: at age 49 she was only 3 seconds off the women’s Olympic record set that same summer! (as a child she had been pegged as a potential Olympian but decided not to dedicate her life to early morning sessions in the pool). She clearly had something in her that made her go fast, but not have the endurance to continue.

As in sport, so in life, it would seem. Pam was for all we knew in good health: a yoga teacher, swimmer, and cyclist who ate well and did everything right. She had been tired in the last couple of weeks of her life, but she, like so many of us, chalked that up to too many hours at work, too much stress, and not enough sleep. On December 21st, 2009, a massive heart attack took her from us at the tender age of 50, stealing from me my sister, friend, confidante, and yoga advisor, and taking from all of us a good friend and cheerful presence. At a minimum I hope her loss can leave us with a more positive message: we need to take care of ourselves, ride smart and safe, have fun, and not take work or ourselves so seriously, because you never know when it might all just end. We’ll miss you, Pam, but I for one will think of you every time I get on the bike or line up at the registration table in the early morning hours.

-Jonathan Shannon