Run for Parkinson’s disease…

So this is number two in what I hope will be on ongoing crusade to help us get back on track with knowing and appreciating our full potentials as the giving, honorable, loving human beings we all are in reality.
Something the media's would apparently love us to forget.


His name is Sam Fox. In the span of two months this past fall, he ran and hiked 2,400 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail, from Canada to Mexico. Through thick forests, over snowy mountains, and past sandy desserts, covering almost 43 miles every day, for 61 straight days. He did all of this in an effort to honor His Mother, Lucy Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a decade ago, and to raise funds for Parkinson’s disease research/awareness. To date, he has raised over $170,000 that will go toward a cure for this terrible disease.

Pacific Crest Trail Stats….

Stretches 2,650 miles from Manning Provincial Park in British Columbia all the way to Campo, CA, at the Mexican border.

Climbs 60 major mountain passes
Descends 19 major canyons
Passes more than 1,000 lakes
Traverses 3 National Monuments, 7 National Parks, 24 National Forests
Fewer people have successfully thru-hiked the PCT than have reached the summit of Mt. Everest.

Sam was born in Rhode Island, and he is 24 years old. He attended South Kingstown (RI) Public Schools and then the Wheeler School, in Providence. At Wheeler he earned 15 varsity letters in 4 sports. Sam captained eight teams, he was the Rhode Island High School State Champion in the high jump in 2005, and was presented with the Scholar Athlete award upon graduation in 2005.
Sam continued his athletic career at Yale University where he was a 4-year varsity letterman in Track and Field. He won a gold medal in the High Jump at the 2007 Penn Relays, and earned All Ivy and All East recognition in 2009, while also qualifying for the NCAA East Regional Championships (all in the high jump).
Sam is a 2007 graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), in glacier mountaineering. As an experienced outdoorsman, Sam has run, hiked, biked, skied, and climbed in the Alps, the Rockies, the Canadian and American Cascades, the Sierras, the White Mountains, and the Himalayas.

He had been hiking, climbing, camping, skiing for as long as he could remember. In recent years, while out on various solo trips, he said he discovered a cardiovascular and pain endurance threshold he didn’t know he possessed. For this particular challenge; running the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, he’d certainly need a healthy tolerance for both. His training regimen was intense, mixing extreme mileage with extreme terrain, peppering in sleep deprivation, altitude training and injury tolerance. It took place on roads, trails across the country (Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Mt. Rainier, the Colorado Rockies) through deserts, mountains, and forests. Also taking place in weight rooms, in the back of his car, in the mud and in the snow. He said most importantly it took place in his own mind, which had to be conditioned right along with his body.

His mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s more than 10 years ago now. While he had seen changes in his mother’s life, her hobbies, and often times her ability to do the things she used to love so much, he’d not seen changes in who she is.
He had said his mother was certainly an inspiration to him, but not because she is bravely fighting Parkinson’s, it is because there was never any doubt that she would face and defeat whatever challenge arose. He didn’t dedicate his training and efforts on the trail to her battle with a terrible disease, He simply dedicate them to her, for being his mom, for all that she’s done and all that she is.

He said simply……Thanks Mom.

So while it was his Dad who helped spark his love of adventure and the outdoors, it is his mother’s lessons about hard work and toughness that he’d call upon during the long days and nights on the trail. Those lessons would be what would carry him through the cold, rain, blisters and breaks, steeps, mud, and wracking exhaustion, for 2650 miles with (at the least) an ironic smile.

Obviously, this is a young man we all should not only be proud of but use as proof that the vast majority of American youth are intelligent, driven, caring people who will willingly and with great pride lead the country and world toward greatness.
So the next time you hear some doom and gloom idiot say something like: “The youth are going to hell in a hand basket. They don’t respect their elders anymore and are just plain lazy.” You can just smile knowingly and consider the ignorant source.

And from all who suffer from this devastating disease, I’m going to take it upon myself to give this young man a mental standing ovation and to shout out a great big THANK YOU SAM FOX, on their behalf.



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