It’s easy to call Jim Trout crazy.

They called him crazy when he was 12, when he rode his bike across the state of Michigan. They called him crazy years later, when he raced his bike across the country. Crazy when he ran his first marathon, and his first ultra (100-mile) marathon.

And some might call him crazy as he runs 163 miles across Michigan, a Shore to Shore run to benefit kids at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

“Some people just think I’m crazy and they don’t think twice about it,” Trout admitted. “They say, ‘Oh, that idiot, running all day.’ But it’s kind of neat to see people break those (personal) barriers. It pushes out to other aspects of life, sometimes within your marriage or your house, or the challenges at work, you think, no way, it’s impossible, I can’t do it. But you can.”

Sitting in an East Grand Rapids Starbucks, sipping a grande roast and sporting a well-worn “Run DMC” T-shirt, Trout seems anything but crazy. The 45-year-old emergency room pharmacist at Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital with the thick, red beard and lean frame is soft-spoken and thoughtful.

If he is crazy, well, he’s crazy for a cause: helping kids.

Trout ran from Onekama in the northwest on Lake Michigan, to Tawas in the northeast, on Lake Huron, raising money to support the Injury Prevention Program at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. The Injury Prevention Program hosts community-wide activities to provide educational information at high-risk areas of Grand Rapids, and provides child passenger safety information and child restraints to parents and caregivers in need at three permanent fitting stations.

Children are especially susceptible to head injuries, with more than 1 million kids suffering head injuries each year. Head injuries are the No. 1 cause of death in children, according to the Center for Head Injury Services.

Trout, who has three children ages 10, 8, and 5 with his wife, Maryam, wanted to focus his efforts on helping others.

“My own kids are healthy, but I’ve worked in the ER, and I’ve seen a lot of sick kids,” Trout explained. “And I’ve worked over at Helen DeVos. I just think with kids, if they’re sick, we should do whatever we can to help them, and help them lead healthy lives.

“So I thought, what do I like to do? I like to cycle and run, and maybe I can help them with that. I’ve seen kids’ injuries in the ER all the time because they didn’t have a helmet.

“I said, ‘Is there any way I can raise money for cycling or athletic equipment? I know there’s a program where everybody goes home with a car seat that needs one. Maybe we can do that with helmets. I want to do something (related) to what I’m doing.”

And what he is doing will help a lot of people, said Laurie Alighire, program coordinator for the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation.

“Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation relies on philanthropy to help meet the needs of patients and families as well as our dedicated physicians, nurses and other health care professionals,” Alighire said. “We are truly grateful that our fellow colleague has chosen to pursue such a grand journey. Each step that he takes, each mile that he runs will make a difference in the community that we serve.”

In case you’re wondering, the answer is yes: he ran non-stop. His run began in the wee hours of July 17, and Trout crossed the finish line some 40 hours later, in time to roast some marshmallows on the beach with his family.

“You just know your pace, and you keep that pace,” he said, matter-of-factly. “It’s so hard to get started, I’d much rather run slowly than stop and get started again.”

He takes that common sense approach to his training regimen, as well.

“I’ve been very careful,” he said. “I’ve read a lot about over-training, people running 100-plus miles a week. I try to keep a balance. I try to get in at least one long run (20 miles) per week, and working up to 30-35. That’s become routine for me. I mean, I run a marathon a week. That doesn’t feel that hard. Any day that my wife will let me I go out for a run. Every day I try to run a little.”

Still, Trout does have a cause pushing him onward, adding some incentive to his own personal drive for the next challenge. No small feat for a guy who’s run every major marathon in America, two ultra marathons already, and has more than 7 million steps logged on his fitness tracker over the past year.

“I’m not looking to raise millions of dollars,” he said. “So far most of the people who’ve donated have been friends and family. But we can do more.”

Trout thinks he can do more, too. As if his Shore to Shore race weren’t enough, he’s training for the Tahoe 200 run in September. Maybe he is crazy, after all.