1:15am the Alarm goes off. We are up a few seconds after, full of excitement in my case and a blend of stress, nervousness, pride, strength, empowerment and excitement for Duff. He is about to start the Ride 2 Survive Cancer. Avid cyclist, he has enrolled on this ride for  my mother Micheline and our daughter-in-law Kelly who are both Cancer Survivor (which the R2S Group like to call them: Cancer-Kick-Ass-Survivors). During the 4 months of training that preceeded the 400km ride from Kelowna to Vancouver, Duff discovered that it was a lot more than any IronMan or Marathons or Triathlons he had done. This ride is not about the riders. It is not a race. It is not about the individuals or their ego or how fast they can go or even about their performance as athletes. It is a team that supports and fight against cancer and everyone of them is riding for someone. The Friday night meeting emptied out numerous boxes of tissues as each rider got up and told the stories of the reasons why they are involved to make a difference.

It is with a lot of emotions that we saw them off this morning at 3:30am in the dark, but yet,  surrounded by a huge bright light of energy that will take them home safe through this 19 hours journey. June 21st is the longest day of the year and it will be THE LONGEST DAY of the year for these 133 riders!