Don Muchow, a 59-year-old marketing director from Dallas, has made history as the first-ever to complete the “Mouse to Mouse” run, the 2,761 mile run from Disneyland in California to Disney World in Florida.

“Disney is all about keeping dreams alive for all ages,” Muchow said. “My message to everyone out there is that ‘Epic is for everyone.’ The Disney folks say it best: ‘If you can dream it, you can do it.’ When the journey’s a little harder, the achievement is even sweeter.”

What’s even more impressive is that Muchow completed the run without letting his Type 1 Diabetes hold him back.

After 88 days of running, Muchow completed the run on April 5. According to Muchow’s website, the journey was a “run within a run” as part of a larger, Type 1 Diabetes Run Across America that he started in February 2020 in Newport Beach, California.

“Physically, it wasn’t as hard as it was psychologically,” he said on Good Morning America. “I’ve run in Texas and other dry areas, so I expected blisters, fatigue and swollen ankles. After 10 days, we’d take a rest day which helped a lot.”

Muchow also said that his journey was “more of a strain” due to several setbacks, including his father passing away just weeks into the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It was challenging to stop twice and get my gears up and running again. Patience was the hardest part for me through this whole thing,” he said.

For the first 30 years after he was diagnosed with diabetes, Muchow was very inactive, he told GMA. But in 2004, he found motivation and ran his first 5K.

Since then, his motivation has never stopped. He has completed Ironmans and triathlons.

“This was a pivotal moment for me by making this lifestyle change to not let my diabetes take over my life,” he told GMA. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that we’d be getting this much attention or conversations started about diabetes.”

During the Mouse to Mouse run, Muchow kept his Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor and Tandem t:slim insulin pump on him at all times. His wife Leslie also tracked him on the Dexcom Follow app to monitor his blood glucose levels in real-time.

“She would know even before I did about what kinds of fuel I needed at every stop. When I’d arrive at the van in about three to four miles, she’d greet me, for example, with hummus or cookies, depending on the reading,” he said.

Muchow says his accomplishment is “surreal,” but he hopes he can prove to others with Type 1 Diabetes that the disease does not have to hold you back.

“My objective is to get the word out to start rather than not start at all,” he said. “I tell people all the time that I was very close to taking the wrong turn in the fork in the road between being active or being a victim to diabetes.”

His advice for others with diabetes is: “Don’t give up on yourself.”

“See what others are doing and adapt it for yourself,” he told GMA. “If you’re out there and have diabetes, you’re not alone. There are hundreds and thousands of us struggling with the same issues with being physically active. This community is strong, connected and here to figure it out together. Don’t go it alone.”