2,650 miles in 65 days. 16,000 vertical feet of daily average elevation change. Following the longitudinal path across the western US from Canada to Mexico. Broken toes, countless blisters, falls and scrapes, and bedding down at altitude with a mere light sleeping bag on rocky ground on a rainy night in hopes of repose, only to repeat 44 daily miles of blunder in the morning. Utter exhaustion, yet a necessity to find camp and cram calories within whatever wildlife populations’ endemic land.

South Kingstown native Sam Fox will be dealing with all these and many other hardships when he sets out to break the speed record on the Pacific Crest Trail in September 2011. 

Why? Because he can.

In early November 2010, Sam decided finally to set in motion an idea he’d had running through his head for quite some time. Looking back on his seventh grade year, he remembers his mother and father returning some evenings from doctors visits with tears in their eyes. His family had a long trial in seeking a diagnosis for Sam’s mother, Lucy Fox, which was eventually Parkinson’s Disease.

Amidst all of the training, Sam is full swing in directing the non-profit he founded in January 2011, Run While You Can. The organization is dedicated to emphasizing the urgency of living life to the fullest in the moments we know we have—right now.

“I think I’m doing this less because my mom is sick, and more just because I want to thank my mom for all the things that she’s done,” Sam explains in a video trailer on his non-profit’s website. The trailer previews the documentary film to be made on his speed record attempt and the message to Run While You Can. South Kingstown natives in the film industry are also participating in the making of that documentary.

“My early life played into this less because of my mom’s diagnosis, but more as a result of the fun we had as a family,” Sam said in an interview Friday. “All that it leads me to is that no matter what I do in the rest of my life, if I’m successful in this, you can’t really top that.”

A successful athlete in both high school and college, Sam does not currently hold any speed records, nor has ever previously attempted anything like what he is about to do. Regardless, Sam likes that being an athlete is somewhat how he defines himself. “I wanted to get back into something that I felt I could almost dominate…I didn’t know it was going to be nearly killing myself every day and running all day breaking my knees in half.”

After graduating from college, Sam went against the grain and sought fulfillment over a paycheck.

“I don’t want to dime out all of my friends,” said Sam, “but I went to Yale and basically there’s one path coming from Yale. It’s to get some consulting or investment banking job in New York City and work 85 hours a week. You get paid handsomely but you don’t get weekends, you don’t get your time at night.”

Sam explained how the experience of his peers helped push him along.

“I talk to my friends and they’ll say ‘I’m really pretty miserable right now, but everything will get better in 15 years.’ I could not live that lifestyle. People looked at me kind of crazy when I said I wasn’t going to move to New York City after college. I’d rather get out and see mountains and swim in rivers." 

This weekend, Sam has traveled back from his new home in Berkeley, California to his family’s home in South Kingstown so he can run Cox Rhode Races Marathon this weekend. Aside from its purpose as a training run, his participation in the marathon will serve to showcase his planned speed record attempt and promote awareness of his fundraising in his native state.

“It’s nice when it’s local," Sam said. "Rhode Island likes to stick together, you know?” 

Sam unwittingly projected the same attitude toward his endeavor.

“I haven’t used a cent of what we raised up to this point to train. I will get sponsorship in the form of donations from some people. The race is going to be divided up into sections, and people will sponsor a section of the race.”

Funds for sponsorship from each section of the race will go to funding Sam’s support vehicle, which will follow him as he progresses and provide food, medical attention and supplies. Sam will only be carrying a maximum of 25-30 pounds at any given time, and his support vehicle will carry excess equipment he might not be using during a particular leg, depending on terrain, weather conditions, and time until his next support rally.

Due to the high altitude and drastic climbs Sam will make during his speed record attempt, he needs to train at altitude. Although there is terrain near his home in Berkeley, Sam must train at high altitudes to shape up his lungs. This winter, he has been traveling to training locations and sleeping in his Volvo station wagon. So far, he’s made three training trips to the Grand Canyon from Berkeley. “It’s got everything you need for a better bargain than in the park,” he said of the back of his wagon, equipped with a 7-foot, 3-inch long ‘bed’.

“It’s easier to train [at the Grand Canyon] because it’s what I’m going to be doing everyday. It feels more like affecting change than just completing a race. There’s also nothing else to do but wake up at 5:00 a.m. and run for fourteen hours. I don’t have a TV, there isn’t any March Madness, and I don’t have to follow any Red Sox scores.”

In just one grueling training session, Sam sometimes runs a loop through the Grand Canyon from the south rim, down into the basin and up to the north rim, and then back to the south rim.

“I’m going by how my body feels rather than performance. My body feels great, I’ve done a fair amount of research and been in contact with people who have done this before. I honestly feel based on what they’ve said and written that it’s more of a mental challenge.”

Sam went on to describe how he feels the real challenge will be in the cumulative mental impact of the little things like blisters and a cold, rocky ground. As for the documentary film, he joked about hoping the camera crew captures something unprecedented or that he might fall in love to make it a blockbuster. He also has aspirations for after his time on the trail.

“I’m hoping this, even if I don’t succeed, will be successful and visible so that next time around it’s easier when we pick an event to do…I hope to keep running my foundation in a more serious way and produce an event that I’m not the star of, so to speak.”

If Sam is true to the message of his foundation, he’ll just go for it, he says.

“The point is to call attention to the fact that today as, it’s constituted, is not promised to be there tomorrow. If there’s something you want to do, it doesn’t pay to put it off because you never know what’s going to happen. 

“I’m not advocating ‘grow your hair out and live in the sun, man,’ that’s not how I was raised.  I understand the value of seriously hard work and there are people I know enjoying what they’re doing even though it’s brutal on them. It’s more for the people who feel totally trapped. And maybe they have a better idea, but they just don’t do it because they’re putting it off or they don’t feel capable and I just feel bad. They’ve got plenty of opportunity to go out and make themselves happy."

"It could be something as simple as, ‘I want to go hiking in New Hampshire and live in Boston and still haven’t gone out.’ Then you go out and it’s refreshing, and working the next week isn’t as bad.”

South Kingstown will cheer Sam on as he runs the Cox Rhode Races Marathon this weekend, and as he continues on his quest to break the speed record on the Pacific Crest Trail. South Kingstown Patch wishes only the best of fortune as you Run While You Can. 

To contribute to Sam’s campaign to raise $250,000 for Parkinson’s research, and to follow his journey, visit www.runwhileyoucan.org.