At 8:45 a.m., David DeLong had just hit mile 40.

It’s his 50th birthday today, and he decided to run 50 miles in honor of that milestone.

He did the same thing for birthday number 43.

DeLong started at 3 a.m. from his Davis Islands home with a dozen friends, ran down Bayshore Boulevard in the dark and on the turnaround, caught the sunrise. By 10:30, he was making his fourth trip down Channel Drive in the home stretch, hoping to finish at the ball fields before the invasion starts.

He was looking good and gave a thumbs-up as he passed the crowds, who glanced his direction in the middle of catching beads from the passing boats.

“He’s doing great. He’s in his groove,” said Barry Hanerfeld, DeLong’s friend who accompanied him on bike for the whole route.

DeLong calls his run 50 for Fifty and is raising money for Hands of Hope. He heard about the nonprofit organization, which provides medical care to residents of rural Guatemala, during the adoption of his twin daughters from Guatemala.

For more, check out http://50for50.com/