Race Against Darkness Days Away

They will leave Ingersoll at 7:30 a.m. this Friday.

INGERSOLL/ST. CATHARINES - It will be the hardest thing they have ever done physically.

AJ Howard and Todd Stevenson will set off on a 152 to 166 kilometre trek, running from CAMI in Ingersoll to the General Motors Plant in St. Catharines.

Howard says they're doing this Race Against Darkness to shine a light on men's mental health and suicide prevention.

"We think it will be about 200,000 steps, 15,000 calories, and we're running through the middle of the night. Physically it will be exhausting, but when you put into comparison what people go through on a day-to-day basis while mentally struggling, it will be easy if we keep that at the forefront of our minds."

He says their journey begins in two days.

"We're going to have a send off here Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. We will have everybody outside, there will be a couple of speeches and then we're going to hit the road. Everybody is welcome to come and we're going to have some swag to give away, so the more people the merrier!"

Howard and Stevenson will not be alone during their journey. They will have a group of about 16 runners joining them for the first 10km of their journey, plus there will be a group of cyclists that will be leaving later in the day that will follow them them the whole way. They will also meet up with another group of runners at a Chevrolet dealership in Niagara, so they can join them for the final 10km of the run.

On top of all of this, Howard and Stevenson will have the Bright Drop Community Cruiser with them along with trail cars, family members and support crew.

Howard says the trek should take about 24 to 30 hours and it will be live streamed on the Race Against Darkness Instagram page. A big welcome event will also be taking place at the St. Catharine's GM Plant, similar to the send off at CAMI.

This fundraiser is in partnership with the Buddy Up campaign and they're hoping to raise $10,000 when all is said and done. You can donate to the cause online here.