Middletown Man Runs 100-Mile Race, Training For 2nd In Alps

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — For most people, a 10K run or marathon is a major athletic accomplishment.

For Andrew Messina, 26 miles is a mere warm-up.

On June 26, Middletown resident Messina, 49, was the only New Jersey resident to complete Western States, a legendary 100-mile foot race through the Sierra Nevada mountains of western California. If that wasn't enough, he's currently training to do the same race — another 100 miles — in the Alps on August 26.

"I got into running back in 2010 just to get healthy and lose weight; I could only run about one mile," said Messina, who lives in the River Plaza section of Middletown. "I realized I was never going to be that fast. But when I got into trail running, I discovered this whole friendly community of people who talk and laugh while running together — maybe not running fast, but covering long distances."

For Messina, the runs just gradually got longer and longer over time, as he found he was able to increase his physical endurance. He trains with a Middletown running group and they often do 10-mile loops through Hartshorne Woods and Huber Woods parks.

But Messina is the only one of them who runs 100-mile races. "They all think I'm insane," he said.

Western States is the pinnacle of long-distance running or ultra-marathons as its called, and running it has something Messina has dreamed about doing for years.

This past June, he achieved his goal.

"The experience of running a 100-mile race is unlike any other. It's really mostly mental, believe it or not: You have to manage the pain, because at some point every muscle and every part of your body will be screaming at you to stop. Once I got to mile 30, after seven or eight hours, I realized I was struggling. But that's what all ultra-marathoners have in common: We just have the will to keep going."

And at mile 63, what's known as a "pacer," or a fresh runner who runs alongside him just for company, joined the race. Messina said he was essential for helping him fight the mental fatigue, and will his body to keep going for the final 37 miles.

The race starts in Squaw Valley, the site of the 1960 Olympics, and gradually descends downhill to the town of Auburn, California, 100 miles away. Runners have to scramble up and down rocky mountains and at mile 78 they have to forge a river in the dark.

You have to finish the race in under 30 hours or you are immediately disqualified. Messina ran it in 28 hours, 19 minutes. High up in the California mountains, the race starts at about 50 degrees and then rises to 95 degrees and full sun at midday. Some runners do pass out during the race, but many get back up, rest and hydrate —and then keep running.

Like all the runners, Messina ran with a backpack with water and hydration gel inside.

"You have to learn to eat while running or take little breaks, five minute or less, to hydrate and get some food inside you," he said. When the sun goes down, runners stop and put on layers of warm clothes and a headlamp so they can run and complete the race in the dark.

"You do not sleep; sometimes I took micro-naps of maybe five minutes each. You have to really learn how to condition your body for this."

Messina would actually chug a flat beer during the 100 miles, just so he could get the nutrients and calories. Simple water did not suffice when he was sweating so much and burning more than 12,000 calories throughout the entire race.

At the end of August, Messina will travel to the Swiss Alps to compete in the Ultra Trail Monte Blanc, or UTMB. ("If Western States is the Super Bowl of long-distance running, this is like The World Cup.")

For that race, he will run 100 miles through France, Italy and Switzerland and do a climb of about 30,000 feet, which is the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. One of the best parts is that his wife, Diana and his two children, Luca, starting the fourth grade at River Plaza, and Leah, starting seventh grade at Thompson Middle School, will be coming to that race and will watch him cross the finish line.

"To be honest, one of the reasons for doing this is that I would like my kids to look back and say, 'Wow, my Dad did that. I can do something like that, too.'"

Here is Messina's running profile: https://www.strava.com/athlete... and his Instagram https://www.instagram.com/andr...