(ABC 6 News) – A California native is on his way to setting a Guinness Record for completing a half marathon in all 50 states in 50 days, plus some extra things thrown in, and stopped in Rochester, Minnesota for day seven of his journey.

“Inside of each state, I’ll be doing 13.1 miles by foot, eating a bacon cheeseburger, drinking a strawberry milkshake, getting a tattoo and doing 50 pushups,” said Warren Edwards, the man behind the mission.

A long-time California native, Edwards moved to Kansas just a couple years ago, after finding himself in a rut.

“I didn’t really have a direction at the time,” he said. “I’d been self-employed in California and I didn’t want to work for anyone as hard as I’d worked myself.”

So he found a new beginning, exercising more for his own goals at first.

Eventually, though, it wasn’t enough.

“I thought, ‘Well you know I want something bigger and I want to bring people to this journey with me.'”

So began the idea – a conglomeration of goals, emphasizing the value of a healthy life, enjoying the little things, and connecting with others.

“When I was self-employed, I had the opportunity and the pleasure of speaking with so many people that were elder,” Edwards said. “And what ended up happening was I found out more and more that people said friends, relationships, family were the root of what they were on this earth for. I found that that’s really the meaning of life is for us to connect.”

Some of those connections shaped the goals of his project.

“The pushups came from a gentleman named Ron Fry who had Parkinson’s stage five, and he’d always talk about guys who could do 50 pushups,” he said. “So I thought I would do 50 pushups in every state to honor his memory.”

Then there’s the tattoo.

An outline of all 50 states on his left arm, with enough space to put the two letter initial of each state on the map as he goes.

In Rochester, Edwards stopped at Sacred Heart Studio, where tattoo artist Rachel “Vhexi” Parker had the privilege to add Minnesota’s “MN.”

She said the message Edwards is trying to send with his efforts resonates with her and the philosophy of the studio.

“We’re all about art positivity by like you know trying to be your best yourself and for us a lot of times that’s aesthetic happiness,” Parker said. “For him it’s obviously like hey we’re really needing to focus on the health and that’s a really big portion.”

Edwards’ next stop is Monroe, Wisconsin, and then he’ll take on the rest of the Midwest before moving east.

“You know even though I may not be in Rochester tomorrow or the next day I hope people get out,” he said. “As soon as they start realizing they have a goal or something that they’ve had on their mind that’s weighing heavy, ‘Hey I want to do this, I’ve been wanting to do this,’ please start today. You won’t regret it.”

You can track Edwards’ journey here at his website.