Ride for Robin

Josh Johannessen, a 25-year-old from Budd Lake, is biking from Seaside Heights to Seattle to raise funds for his friend, 42-year-old Robin Reed, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in November. Courtesy of Ride for Robin Facebook page.

BUDD LAKE -- No one can call Josh Johannessen a chicken.

He enjoyed his legal freedom to drink for just a year when, at 22, he said he challenged himself to not drink for an entire year -- and did it.

A year later, he said he committed himself to running a mile every day and upping his distance by a mile every four weeks. That would mean he would run 1,300 miles by the end of 2015. He did that, too.

Johannessen, now 25, is on his next adventure now -- cross-country biking from Seaside Heights to Seattle. And he's doing it for a friend, 42-year-old Robin Reed from Byram who was diagnosed with metastatic ductal carcinoma, or breast cancer, in November.

Johannessen, who is documenting his 5,000-mile trip on the Facebook page Ride for Robin, is set on helping Robin pay off her mounting medical bills via donations to her GoFundMe page. On the front of his bike, he affixed a pink, sparkly basket -- decorated by Reed's daughters -- that will collect money from passersby across the country.

"It didn't surprise me because he does like to challenge himself," Reed said. "He's very competitive with his own self, and then with others in a fun way."

The two met more than seven years ago working at Applebee's, Reed said. Over the years, he grew close to her family and would help her out by babysitting her daughters, now 8 and 13.

Doctors told Reed in November she had cancer in her left breast and lymph nodes around her armpit after she came across a lump during a self-exam.

"That's when I was like, 'No, this feels very different from anything I ever felt,'" she said.

She was shocked by the results of the rushed mammogram -- there was no known history of breast cancer, or any type of cancer in her family, she said, and she reeled from the discovery.

She started chemotherapy in January and stopped working as an Applebee's server and elementary school teacher at Saint Therese in Roxbury. She said Johannessen came to her shortly after New Year's asking if he could help in any way.

It turned out he could -- and he could work in a long-time dream and passion: bike across the country and hit all the legendary baseball stadiums along the way.

"I've always wanted to do something cool," Johannessen said. "And going across the country is one of the top-notch things to do. And you get to see the country first-hand."

As Johannessen makes his way to the opposite coast, Reed said she and her daughters will track his progress with a map they have on their refrigerator at home.

"I'm excited to see where he's going," Reed said. "I've never been outside of the East Coast."

On June 3, he was in Baltimore, standing outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The ride was going well, he said, and he was flush with excitement from just having had former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher offer to take his picture outside the stadium.

"Everything feels great," Johannessen said. "Aside from a little sunburn, honestly, my legs haven't felt better. I would expect to feel sore."

He said he already received warm support from strangers he met on his journey -- at stadiums, on the road, and everywhere in between.

Early on in his trip, he met two cyclists who learned about his reason for biking. They did his laundry, Johannessen said, and gave him a place to sleep, eat and shower.

"I'm meeting a lot of nice people along the way," Johannessen said. "People are like, 'Oh, you love baseball? I love baseball -- I'll support you and what you're doing. It's cool. I'm meeting a lot of nice people along the way.'"

He said his next baseball stop will be on June 8, when he watches the Mets face off against the Pirates. From there, he will take more baseball breaks in Columbus, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Phoenix, Anaheim and Los Angeles.

He will celebrate crossing the country in Santa Monica, he said, but will continue his journey north through Santa Monica, Oakland, San Francisco and Seattle.

Back home in Byram, Reed is getting ready to undergo a double masectomy on June 7, followed by radiation and final reconstruction surgery in December. Her chemotherapy finished on May 9.

Doctors say her chances of beating the cancer look good, Reed said, and the breast cancer survivors she's gotten to know give her some peace.

"It's not fun to go through it and it's very understanding that it can be a lot on you when you're actually in the midst of it," Reed said. "But with the kind of breast cancer I have and the women I've talked to, once you're through with that one-and-a-half-year of hell and all the treatments you can get back to normalcy."

"It won't define you forever."

Hi my name is Josh Johannessen. I am just a 25 year old guy and I decided that I am going to ride a bicycle across the... Posted by Ride for Robin on Thursday, May 12, 2016

Katie Park may be reached at kpark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@kathspark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.