Syracuse native Tommy ‘Danger’ Locklin passes the 3,000-mile mark as he zeroes in on Daytona Beach this weekend.

LAKE CITY, Fla. — The end is in sight. It’s so close, Tommy can almost taste the sea salt.

Throughout the fall, winter, and now into the spring, Tommy Locklin has been on the run in search of a cure for Cystic Fibrosis (CF). As we have detailed before, Locklin’s journey as part of the More Than Just Miles campaign has been an exhaustive one, beginning last September in Seattle at the header of his cross-country run. Over 3,000 miles later, Locklin checked back in with us as he sat (even he needs a break) at a Starbucks about 130 miles from his final destination of Daytona Beach.

Locklin has been a man on a mission. Beginning with the idea of running for his friends Sean and Laura Clem’s son, Ethan, Locklin wanted to make a difference in his little buddy’s life. Ethan’s daily battle with Cystic Fibrosis broke Locklin’s heart, and so he did what he only knows how to do, go big. Running over 3,200 miles from Seattle to Daytona Beach would not only be a test of fortitude few have ever seen, but a chance to raise funds on a different scale.

With the final run set to take Locklin into Daytona Beach’s Andy Romano Beachfront Park, the 1 p.m. finish should be a watershed moment in several regards.

“The final one mile will be along the beach, and I have a feeling I will likely be crying the entire time,” Locklin said Tuesday afternoon from the Lake City, Fla., coffeehouse. “I really don’t know what to expect for that last moment. It should be very emotional, that’s about all I can expect.”

Ethan will be down there, and fittingly, the party will last into the night and into the next couple of days. The Clem’s will be on hand when Tommy appears from his voyage, and while Ethan likely won’t be able to physically take part in the final steps, mom knows Ethan will be super psyched to see his ol’ buddy again.

“We will be at the park, probably poke in and out when we can,” Laura said while getting the family’s bags packed to head to Florida. “Ethan knows Tommy is running for him. ‘Oh yeah, he is running a really long way for me.’ He doesn’t understand how big the country is, but he knows Tommy is running a long way for him.”

When asked about the gravity of just how this project has affected the Clem family, Laura paused, then stated, “He told us two years ago he was going to do this. Reality set in when he left for Seattle and was shipping off. It was really real. I think what it has taught us is that this is not just Tommy doing something for Ethan, but the CF family coming together in enormous support. All the people we have heard about along the way that Tommy has met. They are just like us. This has been a great thing to see.”

But with all things involving Tommy Danger, he couldn’t just let it be. Using Tuesday to run 16.65 miles in “a taper”, today Tommy is “just” running a mini-marathon of 13 miles before taking Thursday off. For his final act, four straight marathons accumulating about 100 miles in 24 hours. The culmination will be the 99th mile joining several runners from across the country in his final steps of both his personal journal and his heartfelt fight against CF.

Friday’s 100-miler will start in between the towns of Lake Butler and Starke. And while there is a “deadline” of the 1 p.m. finish Saturday, there isn’t any real rush other than to finish what many believe to be an impossible feat.

“My mindset all along has been take it easy and just taper down,” Locklin said. “I’m down to a 12-13 minute mile pace, and even if I have to stop and walk a little, so what. What that will allow me to do is a) be on my feet longer and b) slow my body down. I’ve noticed  that if I run with people and I start talking, I run faster and get tired quicker.

“The most damage that can happen is to get out too fast in the first quarter of the 100 miles, which would be the first ‘marathon.’ The first 80 miles will be where I really need to pace myself and listen to my body. Once I get past that, there is no looking back. No matter what, I will get that final 20 miles done.”

The More Than Just Miles Foundation will be taking donations through Saturday, April 13 at mtjm.org, which is where information can be found on not only the run as a whole, but factoids about CF and how the funds are being used.

Along with the party that will likely carry into the salty Saturday night air, Columbia City native John Burkett and his production company, Red Tide Productions, will be filming the final moments of the run for a documentary. Burkett will then edit the footage on a plane for Boston, which will be put into a film he will submit into the Boston Marathon movie festival to be shown surrounding the Monday’s marathon festivities.

In case you were wondering, Locklin is not running in the Boston Marathon, rather Sunday he will spend the day with his parents, who are from Millersburg, at Universal Studios and then Monday, Locklin will take the Clem’s and several of the CF families to Disney World in Orlando.

Because every shining moment should feature a final trip to Disney World, right?

“It’s so amazing to think this has been going on since September, and it’s only a couple days from being over,” Locklin said. “I’m really excited to see a lot of familiar faces Saturday. This weekend should be an amazing time.”