Twenty-year-old Crestline resident Joseph Potz flew out to Huntington Beach, S.C., on Monday to prepare for his 3,000-mile cross-country run to Huntington Beach, Calif., to raise funds for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Asked what inspired him to undertake such a grueling trek, Potz, who is a Rim High School graduate, told The Alpine Mountaineer last Saturday that he hadn’t considered going on a run of this length until someone had brought up biking across America in conversation.

“While I was in high school, I had heard about individuals running across the United States, so I believed that crossing on foot could be accomplished with enough training. I set the project as a possible bucket list activity that could be completed after graduating college, but current circumstances allowed me to push the run to this year.” His parents will reportedly be following him in in a motorhome.

Potz said he has lived in Crestline for 20 years, with the exception of eight months while he was majoring in history at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Currently, he’s taking a gap year. “I’ve been running since my freshman year of high school, but my training was for races that were around two, three or five miles. This run required six months of additional training to change my style of running. I’ve gradually increased my mileage over those past months until I was able to run around 19 to 20, five to six times a week.”

When asked what his plans are after he completes college, Potz responded, “I have no post-college plans as of yet. I will be recording my journey on social media through Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube. The Longest Day is a fundraising platform run by the Alzheimer’s Association that I’ve partnered with to raise money for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Anyone interested can visit The Longest Day Run Across America fundraising page at: act.alz.org/goto/usa_run.