Shane Finn, 26, has always loved running and has run in several marathons over the past few years, but he wants to put his body to the ultimate challenge by a journey across the United States in 2019.

He was only 17 years of age when he illegally registered for his first marathon, determined that nothing was going to stop him from running in the race. Now, Finn is one of the most well-known runners among Irish endurance racing groups, considering that he ran 24 marathons in 24 days last summer.

Finn told The42 about his first marathon: “I just got it into my head, I was frustrated because I was told the registration wouldn’t go through because I was too young… So I went and registered with someone else’s name.” It was then that he got into his love of endurance racing.

Since his humble start, Finn opened up a gym in Dingle after dropping out of college when 21 and is now a motivational speaker, but when it comes to his marathon racing, he has big ambitions.

He wants to raise as much money as he can for Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland to fund treatment for the special conditions. Finn has raised almost $233,000 for SBHI up until now in order to help efforts to research both of the conditions, of which his cousin, Mary Evans, has both.

Stop being afraid of what could go wrong & start looking at what could go right! 💪🏻 .. Set them goals, do that race, go on that trip, go for that job, join that class or send that email! ... You never know how things might turn out! Thanks again to @IBM_DS_Europe for having me! pic.twitter.com/gHG2AB2NFM

— Shane Finn (@_shanefinn) February 23, 2018

Spina Bifida is a spinal condition in which one’s mobility is greatly inhibited, while Hydrocephalus causes bodies to be unable to drain brain fluid, which increases pressure in the head.

Unfortunately, funding to the charity was recently cut, hence Finn knew he had to step up to the plate and pitch in.

His cross-America trip will see him start in California and finish up in New York, which he anticipates will take about 36 days as he switches between three days of running and three days of cycling.

“I was actually in America doing some work with a university there and I was just there thinking [that] I hadn’t reached my limit with the 24 marathons in 24 days and I was eager to see [how much further I could go],” Finn said.

“It’s a constant journey trying to find out what your body can do. So then we came up with the idea of running and cycling across the states.”