Nasua ultra runner Justin Deflumeri trains for his planned record run from Pittsburg to Nashua beginning Wednesday, hoping to make it in five days. (Courtesy photo)

NASHUA – Ordinary is not in Nashua athlete Justin Deflumeri’s vocabulary.

He’s not just a runner, he’s an ultra runner. He doesn’t just compete in sports, but extreme sports.

The noted triathlete, and former baseball coach at Nashua Community College, is at it again. Delumeri will be attempting to set a five-day record in running from the Canadian border in Pittsburg all the way down to the New Hampshire-Massachuetts border near the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua. He’s not doing it just for the thrill, he’s raising money for the Heather Abbott Foundation for amputees. Abbott was injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

The challenge for Deflumeri will be to run 220 miles in the five days, averaging over 40 miles per day. He leaves for Pittsburg today with a few friends who will be in a van helping him on the trip, and then starts the run Wednesday. He’s expected to arrive at the NH-Mass.border sometime late Sunday.

It’s been done twice, Matty Gregg did it in eight days to raise money for New Hampshie Hunger Solutions, and noted local runner David Salvas as well.

In the last two years, Deflumeri has run over 200 races, and did an Iron Man event just a few weeks ago in Springfield, Mass. “I fell in love with endurance sports,” the 36-year-old said. “It’s crazy, the same endorphins and fighting the mental challenge. That’s why I love it. So I said I want to do something pretty extreme.”

So Deflumeri decided on running across the state, and researched it and found that Gregg and Salvas, who is in his running group, had done it about 20 years ago.

“They both did it in eight days and it looks like they ran a marathon a day,” Deflumeri said. “And I said, well, I really want to be the record holder, do it for a charity that’s close to my heart, and I think I can do it in five.”

They’ll do the same route that Salvas did. The difference with this besides the number of days is that Deflumeri will sleep on the course, with the van. The others – or at least Salvas — he said, went home and then returned to the spot where they left off the next day.

“I’m not going home, I’m enjoying every experience, I’m out there the whole time,” Deflumeri said.

One friend will follow him on an E-bike, and the van drivers will meet him every five to 10 miles. And for his training, he hired an ultra running/endurance coach, Brian Passenti out of Colorado. They met in Utah when he ran a race there about a month ago.

How does he think his body will hold up? He lost just over 30 pounds for this, going from 243 to 210.

“I put my body in a good way,” he said, noting he ran a race in Maine, running 47 miles.

His goal is to average 40 miles a day, and “We’re going to be pushing late at night into the day,” he said.

He tested things by running on a hard trail over Memorial Day weekend for another 47 miles, and that took him about 12 hours. “Which is good, it’s about a 14-minute pace,” he said.

But that’s likely just the first day. The pace will be even tougher.

“That’s just the first day,” he said. “Say it’s Day 3 or 4 and it’s over 90 degrees (the weather is supposed to reach the high 80s later this week.) “My goal is to make over 40 a day to break the record. We’ll go day and night but most of it will be during the day.”

Deflumeri ran for the Abbott Foundation last year in the Boston and London Marathons (in the same week). “She helps people and gives them a second chance at life,” Deflumeri said. “It literally fits my mantra.”

Deflumeri spent years recovering from a spinal procedure gone wrong, which led him to his athletic endeavors.

They’ll have food in coolers, and every night, Deflumeri said, they will eat dinner as a team, and then get back on the road.

“This is for charity,” he said. “I don’t want people think I’m saying ‘Look at me, look at me.'”