Every rider’s first Pelotonia experience is special, and so it was for Dr. Kristina Johnson, president of The Ohio State University, and a cancer survivor. “To think that all these people are riding because they have (had cancer), or a sister or a brother or a mother or father or a friend who’s gone through cancer, and they know what they’re doing that day is helping them and the next generation is pretty amazing,” she said. In this episode, Dr. Johnson talks about her own cancer journey; the emotions of riding in her first Pelotonia, as honorary captain of Team Buckeye; and the vital role of Pelotonia-funded research at the OSUCCC – James in creating a cancer-free world. “I recognized my own mortality at a pretty young age,” Dr. Johnson said of her Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis in 1979, adding that it felt as if “the walls were closing in.”