Pan-Mass Challenge riders celebrate ride and friendship with annual "ice couch" kiss

In 2004, Ellen Freeman Roth was a featured speaker in the Pan-Mass Challenge opening ceremonies video. At that point, she was a 7-year PMC rider and no stranger to fundraising for cancer research. 

When Roth was 17, her mother died of ovarian cancer. Years earlier, her aunt had succumbed to breast cancer. Participating in research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Roth discovered she carried the BRCA gene mutation that put her at higher risk for both diseases.

Protectively, she had her ovaries removed. At roughly the same time, she learned about the PMC. 

"I thought — I can ride a bike. I can raise money. I can do this. That was 1997 and I started riding. Turns out, seven years later, I'd basically been riding to save my own life because the research proved so valuable to me," she said. 

In 2004 an MRI six months after a clean mammogram revealed breast cancer cells in her milk ducts. Roth had a double mastectomy and reconstruction. After sharing her story with PMC riders in the opening ceremonies video, Roth was frequently recognized along the route.

"It was really fun," she said.

People would shout from their bikes, "You're amazing!" to which she replied, "I'm not amazing. I just have a success story."

A kiss on the "ice couch" in Wellfleet 

But to fellow rider Dave Grossman, she was amazing. At the last water stop, 17 miles from the finish line, he saw her sitting on what is known as the "ice couch" in Wellfleet. 

He turned to his friend and Team Huckleberry teammate Tom Tinory and said, "We have to give this girl a kiss!" 

"I'm sitting on the ice couch and these two guys — who I certainly don't know — sit on either side of me and say, 'Can we give you a kiss?' which, in any other circumstance, would have been just horrifying. And I'm like, OK!" Roth said.

Grossman and Tinory planted a kiss on each of Roth's cheeks. Grossman told her how her story had touched him.  

"I said, 'You are absolutely my hero. I can't believe what you've been through. You are such an inspiration," Grossman said.

Someone snapped a photo of the "ice couch kiss" and they dispersed. Roth saw it as a cute, fleeting moment.

"The end of the story, or so I thought," she said.

A framed photo of the kiss found a home in Roth's office. For the next eight years, it made her smile. She had no idea who the "mystery men" were. Then, during a ride one day, she and her friend Steve Siegel began talking about the ice couch. 

That conversation led to a mention of "the kiss." 

Siegel, a 42-year PMC rider, asked to see the photo. Roth remembers how his eyes lit up.

"He said, 'That photograph! I know … those are my teammates! And that guy Dave — you are his hero!'" Roth said.

Siegel remembers the moment too.

"Yep, those are my buddies Dave and Tom," he told her. Laughing, he said he's also pretty sure he saw the back of his head in the photo. With the mystery solved, the next step was to reintroduce the trio. They couldn't have been happier to reunite. 

Impact of the PMC

They rode a portion of the 2013 PMC together, recreated the ice couch kiss, and launched a tradition they have kept every year since. In 2014, Roth joined their PMC team, Team Huckleberry. The August ride also serves as a reunion. Siegel calls it their Brigadoon.

"Remember the movie Brigadoon?" he said. "They come back every year and no time passes." 

But time, and cancer, have touched them all. In February, Siegel lost his brother Jon, another longtime PMC rider, to glioblastoma. Jon's daughter Rachel will ride the 2026 PMC in her dad's memory.

Tinory began riding the PMC because it was a healthy endeavor and a good way to get in shape. He is a 39-year rider who didn't know anyone with cancer when he first registered for the ride.

In 2001, shortly after 9/11, his sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

"Her daughter was very young at the time," he said.

His sister was determined to beat the disease.

"She said, 'She's not going to grow up without a mom.' She was treated at Dana-Farber. It became something I was very thankful for," he said.

In 2012, his mother died of pancreatic cancer. After her death, Tinory upheld a promise to himself to achieve PMC Heavy Hitter fundraising status every year.  

Grossman is a 45-year PMC rider. He joined the event a year after his mother died of thyroid cancer. He points to Tinory's sister, who survived the disease, as proof that PMC-funded advances in cancer research and treatment are saving lives. 

He also cites his own experience. In 2019, Grossman was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma. Surgery wasn't an option. Had doctors not been able to treat the cancer, Grossman would have been given six months to live.

Fortunately, he was treated with immunotherapy. Seven years and several treatments later, he lives, and rides the PMC, with gratitude.

"They keep finding solutions. My mindset has always been if I can live one more day that next day they may find a cure. So you just try to stick around," he said.

Grossman's doctor assures him that even if his current treatment stops working, there will be other options.

"The research capabilities at Dana-Farber are second-to-none. I don't think we could be any luckier to be where we are. And the care you get at Dana Farber is beyond anything I've ever experienced," he said. 

"The coolest place in Wellfleet"

In 2024, after a particularly challenging ride, Roth made a photo book entitled "The ice, the heat, the legend … The ice couch Kiss" for Grossman and Tinory. The blank pages at the end are for future memories.

"It really is the coolest place in Wellfleet," Tinory said with a smile. Sitting in Roth's kitchen a month before the 2026 PMC paging through the book, the three share memories, and anticipate the upcoming ride.

While the three days - Team Huckleberry begins each PMC with a "day zero" ride from the New York border - are full of new surprises and adventures each year, Roth is especially eager to spend a few minutes in Wellfleet on the ice couch honoring their special tradition.

"Every year that we have together and every ice couch kiss is so huge and so meaningful," she said.

WBZ-TV is proud to partner with the Pan-Mass Challenge. One hundred percent of every rider-raised dollar goes to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This year's ride is August 1 and 2. For more information or to donate go to pmc.org.