Tampa’s ‘Bayshore Walker’ walked for 5,263 days in a row, until he had to stop

Adam Brown, known as “The Bayshore Walker,” walked 5 miles a day for more than 14 years until a doctor ordered him to rest. For more than 14 years, Adam Brown walked at least five miles every single day. He walked in extreme heat, and as hurricanes blew in. He walked with the flu, COVID-19 and complications of Lyme disease. He walked while mourning the loss of both his mother and father.

He walked Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard most often, but found other routes when necessary. For 5,263 consecutive days, he walked. And then on day 5,264, a doctor ordered Brown to take a break. The advice came after Brown had surgery to remove a cyst on his spine. He tried to walk anyway, but the medical staff refused to budge.

“I feel disappointed, like I let everybody down,” said the 47-year-old known as “The Bayshore Walker. ” “I feel like I failed ... I just feel like I owe it to people because so many people have told me that my story inspires them. ” In the 1990s, Adam Brown weighed 300 pounds, twice what he weighs today. Now weighing around 165 pounds and boasting bulging biceps, Brown said he was once double his current size and anything but the picture of health.

At the University of Florida, he embraced his role as a jolly, overweight guy, he said, but was also mocked for his weight, and made it a point to arrive first or skip class so other students wouldn’t see him squeezing between desks. After dropping out, Brown returned to Tampa and turned to exercise. As the pounds came off, his motivation increased. He returned to school, earned a degree in psychology from the University of South Florida and then graduated from the South Texas College of Law. His walking regimen began in May 2000 with a streak of 67 straight days.

A severe storm broke the string, and he started a new one that lasted 45 days. From that point on, he never took off two days in a row, Brown said. And since April 12, 2010, he hasn’t taken any days off. There is no record of the strolls other than his workout notebook, but somewhat regular walkers back the claim that Brown can be seen on Bayshore Boulevard every day. Well, until a couple weeks ago.

For the past few months, Brown, an office manager and attorney for Chiropractic Care Centre, walked through back pain. “I was doing my walks every day and literally almost collapsing with every step,” he said. “Every step was agony going into both legs. ” A few weeks ago, his brother Dean Brown, who owns Chiropractic Care Centre, demanded that Brown get an MRI and then have the results sent to their office. “I was at the clinic working, and I took a screenshot of the images, and he and I Facetimed because he wasn’t at the clinic,” Brown said.

“And he goes, ‘I think that’s a cyst. ’ I just freaked out.