Man tried to ‘run’ from Florida to New York on floating hamster wheel but bailed in Miami

A man tried to run across the water from Miami to New York City in a giant floating hamster wheel for charity (as you do) but ended up washed ashore on a Florida beach not far from where he set off.

Reza Baluchi, an athlete, was stopped by deputies from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office after residents spotted him in Hammock, near Miami.

Baluchi told the authorities he was trying to run in the contraption – a metal drum with buoyant paddle wheels on either side – to raise money for charity but “came across some complications that brought him back to shore,” the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office explained in a Facebook post following the rescue.

“My goal is not only raise money for homeless people, raise money for the Coast Guard, raise money for the police department, raise money for the fire department,” Baluchi told FOX 35 News.

“They are in public service, they do it for safety and they help other people.”

It is not the first time Baluchi has been rescued from one of his contraptions.

He had to be rescued from a ‘hydro-bubble’ near Saint Augustine in 2014 when he had attempted to journey 3,000 miles from Florida to Bermuda.

And in 2016 he had to be rescued off the coast of Jupiter by Miami Coast Guard while he attempted a 3,500 mile ocean journey to Bermuda. The trip would have taken five months and officials said it was too dangerous.

But despite these setbacks, the Iran born cyclist said he will “never give up on my dream.”

“They stop me four or five times,” he told Fox35, “but I never give up.”

According to his website, Run with Reza, he dreams of running through 194 countries to “inspire us and unite us as a people.”

He also wants to “paddle a craft boat across the ocean, showing the world that anything is possible if only you believe.”

It takes all sorts to make a world.