Death Race: an ultra-endurance test
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Local favorite Joe DeSena of Pittsfield unloads most of his gear before heading up into the woods to find an egg which he then had to cook during this weekend's Peaks Endurance Death Race in the Pittsfield area. A.J. Marro/Rutland Herald |
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By JOSH O'GORMAN STAFF WRITER - Published: June 28, 2009
PITTSFIELD – Crawling through mud beneath strands of barbed wire might sound hellish for most, but for the 54 participants of the Death Race, it's a true test of physical stamina and inner determination.
Now in its third year, the 24-hour event which began at 4 a.m. Saturday and concludes this morning, is the brainchild of Pittsfield resident Joe DeSena, whose farm north of town serves as both a base camp for the competitors and site of several of the 14 challenges along the 9.8-mile race route.
Each competitor brought a mountain bike, but for the first third of the event it is not ridden, but the frame is carried, along with a shovel, ax and the fruits of the first challenge: a tree stump. The race began with competitors crawling beneath barbed wire to a woodlot where they found a tree stump with their race bib attached.
The racers had to dig out the stump, a task that immediately put Eleanor Sheehan, 16, of Charlotte, N.C., behind the pace time. Sheehan's stump was small – organizers assigned them based on the competitor's size – but the roots had wrapped around a pair of large rocks. By the time she retrieved her bib she was too far behind for the cut-off time for the next event – a 2-mile run in the river. Not along the river. In the river.
"It's crazy," she said. "I can't believe people do this carrying 60 pounds."
Sheehan was among about 20 people who by 9 a.m. had either quit or been eliminated. Another was Brooks Farrar, 21, of Medfield, Mass., whose legs gave out on him as he hiked a hill carrying six quarter-logs from among the 20 logs he had just split by hand. Farrar, who looks incredibly fit and who works in a gym that trains competitors for Strongman competitions, said he would be back next year.
Chris Mitchell, 41, of Boston, who tied for first place last year, said the event is not just a test of one's physical fitness.
"The mental fortitude has to be there. You just have to be so focused," said Mitchell, who was not competing but volunteering this year. "The young folks, they give up too quick. People in their 30s and 40s have more stamina."
The challenges were certainly not all physical, and some of them seemed devious and downright sadistic. In one event, competitors had to hike up a hill where they read a list of the first 10 presidents of the United States. They had memorize them and return down the hill and recite them, and if they didn't remember them all they had to climb back up and take a second look.
In another cognitive exercise, racers had to crawl beneath barbed wire – apparently nothing's fun without it – to study a 23-piece Lego sculpture. They then dove into a pond, retrieved a bag of loose Lego and had to reproduce the sculpture exactly.
Richard Lee, 27, of Cambridge, England, led the race going into the Lego event. The former Royal Marine used a permanent marker to draw the model upside-down on his stomach and used the diagram to assemble his sculpture.
"Compared to Royal Marine training, this is easy," he said. "We do this every day."
Lee and his girlfriend Selica Sevigny, 24, of Montreal, stumbled upon the event by accident. The two are hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine and stopped off in town to collect a parcel. The two – both long, lean and in shape from 1,000 miles on the trail – were leading the competition going into the afternoon. While Lee was in first place, Sevigny was the only woman left in the race after five hours.
"I think this is worse than childbirth," she said.
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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