Runner completes 130 mile run for L.I.’s crisis center

Ultramarathoner Christopher LaMagna once again took a journey, by foot, that many wouldn’t dare try. Last Saturday, he ran from Montauk to Manhattan — a nearly 130-mile trek — to raise money for the Long Island Crisis Center, which is based in Bellmore.

LaMagna, 31, turned to running during the pandemic, as a way to alleviate stress and anxiety in a challenging time.

“I started running a block, walking a block — I had no stamina,” he told the Herald. “I wanted to test myself physically and mentally — your body can take a lot if you’re able to tackle the mental process. Once you conquer that wall, you can just keep going forward.”

The Queens native now lives in West Islip, and is the executive chef at the Babylon Mercantile, a cooking school and shop in Babylon. This year marks the third time LaMagna has completed the run for the crisis center.

An ultramarathon is any running race longer than a traditional marathon, which is 26.2 miles. LaMagna, challenged by a friend who told him he “couldn’t run longer than 10 miles,” decided to just keep adding miles onto training runs — and suddenly he found himself completing two marathons a week.

When he started running, he didn’t do so competitively, but he has taken part in races more recently. Last month he competed in the 2023 Devil Dog Ultras, a 100-miler in Virginia, and finished third out of 44 runners.

LaMagna said he decided to run for a good cause, and donate the funds to the crisis center, because he could tell it was the type of agency that would use the money effectively.

“For me, if I’m going to raise money for awareness, I’d rather give it to a place that needs it,” he said. “If you walk into the (crisis center), you can tell that if I raise money for them, they’ll use the money for whatever it is they offer. I’d rather see the money used well — every dollar counts, every mile counts. I would like it to go to the right place.”

The crisis center serves the needs of residents in Nassau and Suffolk counties, offering 24-hour hotlines manned by highly trained volunteers, among many other services. It also operates PFY, a subsidiary agency that supports the LGBTQ population of Long Island and Queens.

LaMagna’s relationship with the crisis center developed almost on a whim, Tawni Engel, the center’s associate executive director, explained.

“He found us online, and honestly, just wanted to do this to benefit a local agency that is a bit grass-roots,” Engel said. “He really liked what we did, and we’ve just developed a relationship with him over the last couple of years since he started doing this, and he wants to continue that. We really work to support him doing this.”

And his efforts to raise money over the last few years have been so extensive that the crisis center recognized LaMagna as its 2022 Person of the Year.

LaMagna began last weekend’s run in Montauk at 4 a.m. on Saturday, and ran straight through to Central Park in Manhattan, ending at a landscaped section known as Strawberry Fields. Each year he invites people to join him on the run, for a few miles or a bit longer.

There are aid stations set up along the way, most of them between five and 10 miles apart. LaMagna tracked his steps on the LiveTracker app, making it easy for people to spot him and cheer him on.

“He’s very dedicated,” Engel said. “This is his thing, and he absolutely loves doing it.”

LaMagna offered a lot of thanks to his coach, Karl Metzler, a fellow ultramarathoner, and his crew chief, Nick Moustaka, who was at every aid station. He uses nutritional products from First Endurance, and said he takes in about 200 to 250 calories an hour, to keep his body hydrated and replenished.

He does eat solid food from time to time while on long runs, like oranges and grain bars, but what he consumes toward the end of his runs might surprise the nutritionally minded.

“Towards the end, I just like to drink Coca-Cola,” he said. “The sugar, the caffeine — it keeps me up. I can’t drink it all year round, but when I race, I know I’ll burn the calories. I might as well enjoy it.”

He completed his run on Saturday with a time of 22 hours, 19 minutes, 1 second — 11 minutes faster than last year, he said. He crossed the “finish line” at Strawberry Fields at 2:19 a.m. on Sunday.

His journey is about pushing himself, LaMagna said, and finding solace in something he may have never thought was possible.

“It’s hard every day — it’s still hard for me,” he said. “There’s days where I want to quit and stop, but I keep going, and I think that gives me more reason to live. I think if anybody’s going to grab anything out of this, it would be to choose the hardest thing — the most challenging thing that you don’t want to do.

“Go out there and do it, and keep yourself occupied,” he went on. “Push yourself a bit. You might feel more fulfilled in this life that you live.” 

The link to donate to LaMagna’s cause will remain live for the next week. Visit LongIslandCrisisCenter.NetworkForGood.com to learn more about his story or to make a donation.