British born Alex Flynn will complete the adventure of a lifetime today in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City.  Alex, who was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s disease 4 years ago, is first and foremost, a 40-year-old father of three young boys.  In his free time though, he may as well be superman.  For the last 37 days, Alex has biked, hiked, climbed, run, and paddled his way across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York City following anything but a direct route.

In covering more than 3,000 miles cross-country in a little more than one month’s time, Alex averaged nearly 100 miles a day on his bike.  But this wasn’t just a bike trip.  Along the way Alex summited Mt. Whitney (14,496 ft) via the Mountaineers route, ran 125 miles across the scorching Death Valley, and kayaked across a portion of Lake Erie.  His body and his mind never had a day off as he forced himself to keep to a strict schedule in order to finish in time for his wife’s birthday next week.  Alex spent 10-15 hours either on foot or in the saddle every day for more than a month, a daunting task for even the most physically fit among us, but Alex did all of this while battling his own Parkinson’s symptoms and the side-effects from his daily medications.  This is the kind of challenge that many of us should consider ourselves lucky we cannot comprehend.

Back in early September I had the privilege of joining Alex on his Mt. Whitney climb.  I was expecting him to be tough; no one would plan an adventure like this if they weren’t.  Yet I was still blown away by what I witnessed.  Fresh off a two-day, 220 mile bike ride from los Angeles to the Eastern Sierra (more than 5,000 ft in elevation gain) Alex was tired from the very start of our climb.  I could see it in his movements, and hear it in his voice.  But somehow he never slowed his pace.  An inexperienced climber, Alex had to put trepidation out of his mind for hours as we scrambled up smooth granite faces and boulder strewn couloirs.  He also had to put hand tremors and leg dystonia out of his mind.  Seeing Alex push through such obvious pain and discomfort was empowering, especially because there was never any doubt, in my mind or in his, that he would stand on the summit.

After our climb, I hopped in a car and headed to San Francisco while Alex enjoyed a restless 5 hours sleep before beginning his run across Death Valley the very next morning.  And for the following month he pushed himself just as hard, every single day.

Alex will finish his adventure by running down Broadway in New York City, from Central Park to Battery Park.  He plans to arrive at Battery Park at 2 PM.  If you’d like to congratulate Alex, learn more about him or donate to his fundraising efforts please visit his Team Fox page.  As always, Alex, keep moving!