How this started

One diagnosis,
and a decision
to keep going.

Run With Parkinson's started in October 2025. This page is the history behind it, for anyone who wants to know where the organization came from. If you would rather get straight to the point, join the community.

01 · Before

It began with
somebody else's cause.

Dan Alperin picked up distance running instead. He finished his first marathon in 2015, at an age when the sport is supposed to be behind you, and then kept going until he had collected all six World Marathon Majors, including the sixth star in Tokyo. He has run Boston more times than he can casually recall, and set a personal record there in 2025.

What made him unusual was never the times. It was the reason. Every race he entered, he entered on a charity bib. Over a decade he raised more than $200,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Boston Children's Hospital and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, among others.

Watch

In his
own words.

A few minutes with the man behind it, and why he kept running after the diagnosis.

02 · The six stars

Every major.
Every one of them
for somebody else.

Boston Massachusetts · multiple finishes, including the 130th New York City New York · five boroughs Chicago Illinois London United Kingdom Berlin Germany · the fifth star Tokyo Japan · the sixth star, and the end of the list

03 · October 2025

The race that
changed the reason.

Five days before Chicago, his gear packed and his travel booked, Dan was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. A condition the world associates with slowing down, stepping back, giving in.

He flew to Chicago and he started anyway. He did not finish that race.

What he did next is the reason any of this exists. He took a decade of charity bibs, a running community that already knew his name, and a diagnosis that finally belonged to him, and turned them into an organization.

“

Parkinson's did not give me a reason to stop. It gave me a reason to run with purpose.

Dan Alperin

04 · The archive

Ten years of
start lines.

Every photograph here is Dan's. Nothing is stock.

Dan Alperin in a foil blanket holding a finisher medal, wearing a Hole in the Wall Gang Camp singlet — **New York**Running for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

Dan Alperin running a marathon in an I heart Camp shirt — **Boston**The same camp, a different city. Every bib had a cause.

Dan Alperin after a race in a Run to Defeat ALS singlet — **Run to Defeat ALS**Somebody else's fight, again.

Dan Alperin with other runners at the London Marathon — **London, 2019**Across the ocean, and one star closer.

Dan Alperin at the Berlin Marathon — **Berlin, 2021**The fastest course in the world. The fifth star.

Dan Alperin holding his medal after the New York City Marathon — **New York, 2021**Five boroughs, and a million people watching.

Dan Alperin on the Boston Marathon course — **Boston, 2022**Every April, he comes back.

Dan Alperin outside Tokyo Station in a Tokyo Marathon finisher poncho — **Tokyo, 2025**The sixth star, and the end of the list.

Nine marathon medals laid out in a row, including all six World Marathon Majors — **The collection**Ten years of start lines, in one photograph.

Dan Alperin standing on the rocks by San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge in fog behind him — **San Francisco**Thirteen miles in the fog, for no cause at all.

Dan Alperin holding a race medal on a tree lined street in October 2025 — **October 2025**Twelve days after the diagnosis. Back at a start line.

Dan Alperin with a group of runners at the New York City Marathon — **New York, 2025**Team Fox. Less than a month after the diagnosis.

Dan Alperin holding a medal in a Parkinson's Champions race shirt — **Spring 2026**Still racing. Still raising.

Dan Alperin on Boylston Street after the 130th Boston Marathon — **Boston, 2026**The 130th. Bib 141. Six months after the news.

05 · What we do

Three things,
and nothing else.

Run With Parkinson's is a year old. Rather than promise a program for everything, here is the whole of what it does.

Movement

Get people moving, and keep them moving.

Group runs and races, and people who actually turn up to them. The point is not the distance. The point is that somebody with a recent diagnosis sees somebody with the same diagnosis at the start line.

Money for research

Send it to the people doing the science.

A portion of everything raised goes to Team Fox, the grassroots fundraising program behind the largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research in the world.

The pack

Make the diagnosis less lonely.

A mailing list, a group that meets in Boston, and the slow work of connecting runners in other cities to each other. It is small for now. It is also the part people say matters most.

Advisors

Brett Miller, PT

Founder of 110 Fitness in Rockland, Massachusetts, the largest wellness center in the world dedicated to people with Parkinson's. Licensed physical therapist, 29 years in practice, creator of BOXH2O, PWR!Moves certified, and an ambassador for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Davis Phinney Foundation.

Where you come in

That is the history.
The rest of it
is yours.

Two things help right now, and both are small. Be on the list, so the community has somebody in it. And give, so the research has something to work with.

Give → Join the community

It began withsomebody else's cause.

In hisown words.

Every major.Every one of themfor somebody else.

The race thatchanged the reason.

Ten years ofstart lines.

Three things,and nothing else.