Jo Dee Messina is known for her energetic performances as well as her high-energy life offstage. The exuberant redhead runs six to seven miles a day and competes in marathons — that is, when she’s not in the middle of one of her marathon tour schedules.
 
But no matter how busy she gets, Messina makes time for one job she holds especially dear. As an ambassador for the Special Olympics since 2005, she travels the country to attend fundraising events, perform concerts at opening and closing ceremonies, and use her fame to spread the word about everything the organization does to provide opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to realize their potential.
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Unless you’re talking to a fellow runner, people will look at you like you’re crazy when you tell them you’re training for a marathon. Luckily, those words can’t stop Jo Dee Messina, who completed the Chicago Marathon in October.

“I choose not to believe it when people say, ‘Oh, you can’t do a marathon. It just beats your body up.’ I’m ready to run today,” she said, a few days after the 26.2-mile race. “I ran from my car to the gas station, just to see if I could do the running motion and I was like, ‘I feel great!’ If I didn’t have my hair appointment, I’d be running right now.”

Messina persistently trained all summer by following online schedules by coach Hal Higdon. She fully hydrated her body in the days leading up to the 26.2-mile run. The night before, she and her family ate pasta together in Little Italy; the morning of the race, she enjoyed a banana and a bagel with peanut butter. She says she started out too fast, but eventually settled into a comfortable pace. When frustration set in, she reminded herself, “This is not any worse than a training run.” (Comparing the multiple hills in Nashville to the flat course in Chicago, she’s absolutely right.) Her biggest piece of advice for race day is surprising: Write your name on your shirt.

“There were moments at the last part of the race when it was so hot, and I couldn’t find water, that some guy on the sideline would be like, ‘Come on, Jo Dee! You can do it, Jo Dee!’ It was amazing,” she says. “I don’t know if people who are on the sidelines realize how exhilarating that is, and how that picks you up, and makes you go farther than even you thought you could.”
 
And after crossing the finish line? She enjoyed a salad with chicken, a copy of The Bourne Ultimatum and a comfortable hotel room with her fiancé. Back in Nashville, she immediately visited her favorite running store, bursting with excitement, and bought a new sticker for her car — ‘26.2’.

“You’re not betting on anybody but yourself when you’re running a marathon,” she says. “You’re not looking at a promotions staff to get stuff done. You’re not looking for someone to market you. It’s YOU out there. I’ve just been on fire afterwards.”