by Carrie Adams

In 2012, the Death Race was themed, “The Year of Betrayal.”  All told, 344 would enter the race and over 82% would DNF (Did Not Finish).  The final finisher would finish in just over 67 hours.  Where 2011 saw a beginning to the race with five hours of lifting stones, 2012 began with an ultra marathon in teams carrying a heavy weight.  Denied their packs with food, water, and other precious self-support supplies, it was arguably the most grueling test to date.

Fans online remained glued to the Facebook updates as the names of those who would not finish the race piled up as the hours marched onward.  Some of our most popular posts on the year came from this remarkable challenge unlike any other on the planet.  No known start or finish time, no clue what will be asked by Race Directors Andy and Joe, it’s something you just hope to survive.

Here are the official 2012 Death Race Results, with winner Olof Dallner putting on an impressive performance (all while rocking his green sunglasses).  In addition to overall results we featured the women of the 2012 Death Race.  Notably, Amelia Boone, who finished third in the Winter version of the event, finished in second place and is planning a return in 2013.  Click HERE for more on the Women of the Death Race.

Finally, Spartan friend and Obstacle Racing Magazine editor Matt B. Davis was onsite and lent his perspective on the event from the ground level.  Awake and reporting for much of the 67 hours, his candid report gives insight into what it is like to bear witness to such a physical, mental, and emotional undertaking for the participants.  His report began with, “Betrayal. I was on site at Amee Farm less than 15 minutes when I was confronted with it directly.  I walked up to Race Organizer Andy Weinberg asking him if he had seen Todd Sedlak. I came to the Death Race to crew for my pal, Todd and I know Andy has a sweet spot in his heart for Sgt. Sedlak. Instead of being met with a smile, Andy quickly dismissed me saying, “Todd’s not here, he is out of this year’s race. If he’s not here by now, he will never catch up and finish on time”.  He then quickly walked away.  I was baffled. I had no idea at the time, but I had walked squarely into the game that was the 2012 Death Race.”

To read his full recap, click HERE.

For those of you foolish enough to want to participate, there is still room in 2013, themed, “Gambler.”  You can take your chance, roll the dice, and hope to cheat Death.  Go to www.youmaydie.com to get signed up.

Tags: 2012, amelia boone, joe desena, Olof Dallner, spartan death race, Year of Betrayal

by Carrie Adams

The Death Race brings men and women from all over the country to try their hand at finishing  a race that has both a death waiver and a less than 15% finisher rate on average.  Each person who is called to Pittsfield has their reasons to take on the race and for almost all of them, it’s life changing.  For Parker Eastman, age 17, his finish was not only a herculean feat, but a Death Race record.  He became the youngest participant ever to finish the race.  His brother, Spencer, previously held that record when he finished in 2008 at age 18.  Hear Parker’s incredible story in his own words of how he took on the Death Race in the year of betrayal and emerged with his finisher skull. 

Hungry, tired, and alone, I begin an ascent up a desolate mountain road.  I haven’t eaten in nearly 24 hours, and I haven’t slept in well over 30.  My feet ache from constant hiking over the past day; they’re raw and blistered from frequent submersions in the local rivers coupled with the elongated hikes.  I dream of ending the suffering, of walking to a race director, saying “I quit!” settling down, and filling my stomach.  But, I can’t do that.  I can’t quit, because deep down, I know that I can handle more.  Regardless of how pained I am, I don’t need to stop.

Few fail this race physically.  A majority fail mentally.  I do not want to fall into the latter category, the group that decides the race is too much, quits, and then tries to justify to themselves and others why they quit.  The only way I’m ending this race, is if I collapse.  So, I begin muttering to myself, “I may fail, but I will not quit!”

And so the hours pass and so the suffering continues.

A day later, and I’m back on the same mountain.  I’m tasked with carrying a 55 pound box housing an Ice and Water Shield six miles to a cabin that sits atop the mountain.  My arms can hardly hold the weight; the result is short bursts of running with the box, while it rests on my shoulder.  Lack of food and sleep have caused mass frustration on my part, and results in frequent outbursts at those that have come to support me.  Rumors have surfaced that this is the final challenge; the coordinators have spread through the support groups that the state of Vermont has mandated that the race ends at 7 PM.  All hopes are stifled upon my return to Amee Farm, when I’m told my task is to summit the mountain again, and then descend to the farm at the base of the opposing side.

I’m told to team up with another man, one of the older competitors whose belittled the challenge in marathons and Ironman competitions.  We decide to hike up a ravine that transcends the switchbacks that would otherwise lead us to the summit, cutting the hike from 1+ hours, to about 25 min.  The conversation that ensues focuses on the fundamentals of mental toughness, particularly what sets those of us that remain from those that have dropped from the race.  In endurance racing, there are peaks and valleys.  Some of the time, you feel great.  You’re at the peak, and feel as though you could go forever; your feeling reinforced by constant positive thoughts.  Yet, endurance races are long enough for you to take on the opposing viewpoint; you’re not strong, you’re tired, underprepared, and the pain will all go away with the simple words “I quit.”  It’s not how great you feel during your peaks that defines how strong you are, but how well you cope with the valleys.  More training may make you peak higher, and it may even dampen the valleys, but if you have a weak mental game, there is no hope of finishing an event like the Death Race.

Somewhere along in the pain and suffering, the question is raised, “what am I willing to give up to finish this race?”  For me, I was willing to give up everything.  There is no greater pain than failure, so at hour one when I was struggling to hold a kayak above my head, hour 36 when I was hypothermic from sitting in a pond for 45 minutes, hour 45 when I was carrying an 80 pound stump up a mile and a half slope, hour 50 when I was carrying a 55 pound “Ice and Water Shield” box 6 miles up a mountain, or hour 60 when I was hallucinating, vomiting, and rolling around in others waste, I pushed through my physical pain.  I did not want to fail myself by saying, “this is too hard for me.  I quit,”  because I knew that was a lie.  So, after more than 60 hours of not failing myself, I finished.  344 began that race thinking they had what it takes to finish, yet only 51 finished.  51 people said to themselves “there is nothing this race can throw at me that will make me quit”, and they all won a skull for believing so.

Events like the death race teach us a lot about ourselves.  A majority of competitors learn what they can handle, and at what point the pain becomes too drastic to endure.  Yet, a small percentage learn that, in a mental sense, they are unstoppable; there is nothing that can be thrown at them that will make them stop.  For these few, they would rather die than not finish the race.

A lot of people asked me why I signed up for this race.  With a name like “The Death Race”, many would be perplexed at the allure of the event.  My honest answer, I wanted to see how long I could go.  I’ve always considered myself an endurance athlete, I swam and ran distance throughout high school, and always felt fine at the end of a long workout, so this was my tool of measurement; it was a way for me to compare myself to others that consider themselves endurance athletes.  At the end of the event, when I begin to realize the magnitude of my accomplishment, I acknowledge that I reside with the few; I discovered that I would rather die than quit.

Spartan chick Margaret Schlachter aka Dirt in Your Skirt recently took part in the Death Race.  Her race ended before 24 hours, but she stuck around covering the event and she wrote three pieces about her experience on the mountain.  Her emotional journey began as an athlete trying to survive and ended as a volunteer helping facilitate the experience for those who would go the distance.

Part One: The Death Race

Part Two: Quitting

Part Three: Changing Sides

Part Three is jam packed with videos and media of those who remained in the race that Margaret spoke with and interviewed live on Ustream.  Check out her journey, her decision in the race, and her perceptions from the other side.  Check out her blog and keep following her journey in 2012!  We’ll see her at more upcoming Spartan events and you can follow her training and her finishes at www.dirtinyourskirt.com!  Next up for Margaret, the Utah Beast!

by Matt Davis

“Damn thing doesn’t stop till you break!”

-Al Pacino (as Walter Burke) in The Recruit.

Joe Desena and Andy Weinberg giving Commands

At first inspection, it looks like what transpires in the Death Race is designed to break you. Designed to find where you give up and fail on your commitment to finish. The race directors, Joe and Andy, appear to do everything they can think of to make this happen.

This includes, but is not limited to: telling you that you are disqualified, telling you (repeatedly) that you won’t ever finish, feeding others and not you, giving others a rest but not you, allowing others to do less work, giving you heavier objects to carry than others, make you do things twice, telling you others are quitting, telling you others are ahead of you and its hopeless to go on, telling you that you are almost finished-then give you another 6 hour task, deprive you of sleep for days, keep you away from your family and crew, the list goes on ad infinitum.

However, if you look deeper, what you will find is the opposite. What Joe and Andy really want is to see you finish. They want to be around people who are inspiring them because they won’t quit. They want to be next to people who dig so much deeper than the average human that it moves them.  When they find that chink in your armor and you finally say, “I’m done”, what happens is this. On the outside, they may smile and think “We got another one”, but deep down, they are sad because it means that they don’t get to see someone go beyond their breaking point, then go waaay past that, then go some more. They don’t get to see someone go be “powerful beyond measure”.

I got to be near Joe for part of Sunday and he talked about a particular racer. This man, a military veteran, approached Joe and said, “Excuse me sir. I am out of honor. I cheated at the race, then I lied about cheating”. I could tell how much it meant to Joe to have the event he created get into a person that deeply. This event that he developed was getting people that in touch with their own integrity and their own humanity.

Andy mentioned in a post race message how the Death Race is just a game that imitates life. What I think he means is how you show up at the Death Race is how you show up in life. Do your wife and kids easily irritate you? Do you cut corners at work when the chips are down? Do you walk away when you don’t get your way while playing sports?  Do you take ownership for your mistakes or blame others?

On my way out of town after the death race, I was asking myself these same questions.  Furthermore, I found myself asking: Am I ready to go to the next level and actually enter this event next time?  Well, I can safely say, I am not there…yet.

[Editor's Note: Guest Blogger Matt Davis is currently slated to take on the Spartan Ultra Beast in September.  He was on hand at the 2012 Death Race as crew and has provided a unique insight as to the unfolding of events of the longest Spartan Death Race to date.  We thank him for his contributions and look forward to seeing him on the Spartan Race Course going forward.]

by Joe Desena and Andy Weinberg, Race Directors, 2012 Spartan Death Race

Joe Desena and Andy Weinberg

Now that the dust has settled, the race has officially ended, results have been tabulated and distributed, and life in Pittsfield is returning to normal, we wanted to take a moment to offer our reflections on the 2012 Spartan Death Race: Year of Betrayal.  Like every year, this event was different than all the year’s before and there will never be another year like it.  That’s how we envisioned them when we started the event in 2005.  Like every year, there are some notable and heroic events to speak of, like at the 60 hour mark, when racer Mark Dibernardo, suffering extreme sleep deprivation and severe exhaustion, went off-course, requiring the race staff to scour the mountains and fields for hours in the pre-dawn hours Monday morning only for him to return to the race and ultimately finish the race’s final challenge.  Or the incredible story of Joei Harrison, who emotionally completed her final task to go on to be a finisher of the full course over the 67 hour mark, putting a poetic finish to the 2012 Spartan Death Race.   There were those who were told they would not and could not finish, after missing check-in times who forged ahead regardless earning themselves a skull for not counting themselves out and staying committed to what is ultimately the goal – to never quit.

Olof Dallner, 2012 Death Race Champion

What did Mark, Joei, and all the finishers of this year’s Spartan Death Race have in common? They didn’t quit, they simply wouldn’t.  Finishers are the type of people that can survive for a week in the woods, they are able to stay calm under stress, they are able to persevere with or without support, and they have a spiritual or personal quest that overrides reason as well as every obstacle in the path of rising to fulfill their goals.  The race is very unique and it’s unlike any other race on the planet.  Some people get that and some people don’t.  No matter how brutal the challenge, no matter how long or seemingly impossible the task was, there are people that quit and people that won’t.

The Spartan Death Race was designed to push and aggravate people to such a point that even the most stoic and composed will eventually fail. Only those people possessing incredible discipline under the most insane and even delusional circumstances can call themselves a finisher.  These athletes are willing to complete the journey at all costs.  Mohammed Ali used to say he was the best because he was willing to “die in the ring.”  The better athlete doesn’t necessarily win but the more determined one does.

As in past years, this year we have heard a thousand reasons why people quit during this event and most of them are completely logical and perfectly reasonable.  We, meaning Andy and myself (as well as the DR staff), are not primarily concerned about whether they finish or not, or what their reasons are; the only reason we do this is to get inspired by the people that prove themselves to be immovable objects and don’t quit in spite of all the logical and reasonable reasons not to.  They don’t quit under any circumstances.

Death Race finisher in 2011 and Canadian native Johnny Waite returned to Pittsfield this past weekend to tempt his fate against the Betrayal themed race that awaited him and all the others who sought a Death Race finisher skull.  He returned home this year without a skull but with perspective after battling nearly 35 hours on the brutalizing course.  Waite offered this paragraph detailing his experience:

“I elected to enter the 2012 Death Race by my own volition. I was promised that it would be harder and last longer than any previous DR.

Johnny Waite

I was also promised it would infuriate me and make me face and manage my own strong emotions. When I quit at 34 hours, that was also my own free choice. The organizers respected my decision, just as they respected the same decision made by the vast majority of racers (each for their own individual reasons) at all times throughout the race. In re-reading the race emails, and reflecting on the announcements made throughout the event, it is very clear to me that we were given all the information we required and that this was an unquestionably fair, albeit brutal, race. Everyone who finished pushed themselves for 60+ hours and honoured both themselves and the Spartan philosophy. Much respect to those who were able to master their body, mind and spirit and claim their DR 2012 skulls.”

From Andy and myself, and all of our incredible staff and volunteers, we would like to say congratulations to all the 2012 Death Race Finishers.

We are now left to wonder who will try their hand at the 2013 Death Race, it’s the Year of the Gambler.

by Matt Davis, guest Spartan blogger

Betrayal. I was on site at Amee Farm less than 15 minutes when I was confronted with it directly.  I walked up to Race Organizer Andy Weinberg asking him if he had seen Todd Sedlak. I came to the Death Race to crew for my pal, Todd and I know Andy has a sweet spot in his heart for Sgt. Sedlak. Instead of being met with a smile, Andy quickly dismissed me saying, “Todd’s not here, he is out of this year’s race. If he’s not here by now, he will never catch up and finish on time”.  He then quickly walked away.  I was baffled. I had no idea at the time, but I had walked squarely into the game that was the 2012 Death Race.

All Joe and Andy had to do was utter that word “betrayal” and the rest happened on it’s own. None of the participants, volunteers, or staff knew what was really happening at any time. What was real? What was fake information? What was misinformation?  Was there misinformation? Who was in on it?  Who wasn’t?  The Death Race, which is already designed to mess with the participants’ heads, had everyone of us thinking, re-thinking, and over thinking every move over the weekend.

We will get back to betrayal, but I want to talk about what an overall amazing experience it was to be at the Death Race.  First of all, if you are a fan of all things Spartan, it was the place to be. Anybody who has had a story you have read about in recent Spartan blogs or videos was there either as participant, volunteer, or crew. Chris Davis, Margaret Schlachter, Andrew Hostettler, Amelia Boone, James Ogden, Leyla DiCori (along with several other Spartan Chicks ) and yes-Todd Sedlak- who had in fact, made it after all. I spotted all of them within an hour of being on site. All of these people were approachable and just as excited as I was to be at this event and to meet everyone else.

The next thing that has to be talked about is the beauty of Vermont. If you are going to spend the weekend somewhere, there are certainly fare worse places. Every once in a while I would stop and really look at these beautiful mountains around smile.

Also, if you haven’t seen at least 10,000 stars on a night in your town lately, its time to get away for a while. All of this topped off by the fact that we had beautiful weather all weekend. Something that was not lost on the racers at all.

Speaking of the racers, this was really the best part of the weekend.

Quick note: I am not going to go into long details about specific tasks of the DR in this article as that will fill up several blogs on its own. Check back here at Spartan for those blogs by myself or others in the coming days and weeks.

In the beginning we had 230 happy, excited, fit people ready for what most likely was, the toughest thing any of them had faced in their lives. Within the first few hours, we lost 10-15 people. It was rumored that some had asked questions about Gatorade breaks and aid stations. Clearly they did not do their homework on the Death Race. As the first night went on, they started to drop in ones and twos. The first ambulance was called around 930pm.

A participant had been found collapsed on the trail. When they got him back to base camp, he looked really bad and was speaking incoherently and we worried that we might have our first real casualty at The Death Race.

Since my man Todd was deep in the woods somewhere, I had begun volunteering at base camp. I got to work next to Spartan employees and interns. This was a double win as I got to learn first hand what it is like to work for Spartan by great people who are passionate about what they do. I also was able to see all the racers as they came by to check in or quit the race. The first night and next morning were all racers who had just had enough. They enjoyed their time but were satisfied with their efforts and were leaving. By mid afternoon, The Betrayal was full on and people were quitting in droves.

Joe and Andy would call over the radio that certain racers were disqualified. When they got to us, volunteers and staff were told to tell them “You didn’t finish the last task in time so you are done”. Most of them were relieved. A few told us to get bent and demanded to keep going. Here’s what is important to know: There was no meeting where Joe and Andy said to the volunteers “Hey listen, we are going to ask you to tell them to quit, but it’s really a test just to see what happens”. We really thought they WERE disqualified. If Joe and Andy tell you something, you do it. So we did what we were told. The racers believed us

…IF they wanted to quit.

If they did not want to quit, they would ask where they needed to go next. Several examples of this can be seen in the videos of Maragaret Schlachter’s Ustream page. Joe, Staff and Volunteers can be overheard telling racers directly or giving commands over the walkie-talkie that racers were disqualified. Or the participants were not going to be called “official finishers” Only those determined to finish no matter what, ignored those things and kept going.

The mind games went on all weekend. At one point, a cheating scandal erupted. (another full blog on its own to come later). This was not planned but gave Joe and Andy a lot of rope to hang the participants with. The racers were referred to as liars, cheaters and criminals for the next several hours as a way to get into their heads. Another great little mind-trip was watching Joe and his family eat pizza out of the back of a pickup truck late on Day 2. This was while all remaining racers were chopping trees in half that were the size of mid size cars. Joe didn’t even bring attention to it.  He didn’t’ say out loud, “look, we got pizza.”  He was just casually stuffing his face and feeding his family. All the while, these poor souls (most of whom have not eaten in over a day) were doing hard labor.

My real money’s worth came mid day on Sunday. A racer came out of the woods to say another teammate was down and needed help. Three of us walked back to find a very strong man who had given his all and was in tears. He was heartbroken that he wouldn’t finish. The whole walk back he talked about how he was letting people down. Every step for him was painful, his feet were already hamburger meat from being on the course for 46 hours. We helped him up and got him back to his tent. I wasn’t sure if he would make it, but just being with him on that walk back was inspiring. He and team of 3 others would in fact finish the race at hour 62. This was 17 hours later and long after the winners had been decided. They kept going because they were determined not to quit.

I watched determination like that all weekend. Racer after racer would come back down to base camp to find their next task. It was often telling them to go hike 4 miles back from where they just were. Most would run off with such a stride, you would have no idea that they had gone so long without sleep or a real meal. On top of that they were carrying untold weight on their backs. Even those that bowed out were inspiring. They would stop to thank us, the volunteers for our time and most said “I’ll be back next year.”  All of these racers, finishers or not, dug really deep to find things in themselves. Find things that you and I rarely do in our day-to-day lives.

If you can find your way to a Death Race in the future, please do. You will not soon regret it.

[Editor's note: Our guest blogger Matt B. Davis is a business owner, husband, father of 2, and an obstacle racer. He looks forward to competing in the Spartan Ultra Beast in September. He promises to update his own blog Matt B. Davis Runs more often.  We appreciate his commitment to updates over the long Death Race weekend.  More blogs are on the way about the 2012 Spartan Death Race: The Betrayal.]

The 2012 Spartan Death Race was officially the longest in the history of the event.  Of all the registrants less than 15% finished the grueling challenge.  From Spartan Race HQ, here are your Official Death Race Results.

Official Results

 Total Registered:                                  344

Official Finishers :                                51           14.83%

Unofficial Finishers:                             8              2.33%

DNF:                                                       285         82.85%

Total Elapsed Race Time                     67 Hours 52 Minutes

Men’s Division: Top 5 Official Finishers:

 Olof Dallner

Junyong Pak

Deryck Dickerson

Peter Fifield

Micael Ubaldini

OFFICIAL FINISHERS (ALPHABETICAL)

Jason Allen

Rob Allen

Andrew Andras

Sean Burns

Joshua Clifford

Pete Coleman

Ronan Conlon

Robin Crossman

Steve Daniel

Eric Deavilla

Marc Dibernardo

Jason Donaldson

Jason Downer

Matt Dyer

Parker Eastman

Joe Falcone

Marcus Franzen

Dan Grodinsky

Josh Hanson

Darrin Ingram

Paul Johnson

Norm Koch

Kevin Lowe

Sean Manning

Aaron McMahon

John Murphy

Michael Pavlisak

Dave Riccuiti

Jeffrey Robinette

Daniel Schaerer

Todd Sedlak

Bryan Shane

Dennis Sukholutsky

John Sweeney

Phillip Theodore

Chris Tidmore

Isaiah Vidal

Patrick Walsh

Ricky Weiss

Jonathan Westervelt

Josh Zitomer

UNOFFICIAL FINISHERS: (SHORT COURSE, DID NOT QUIT)

Daren DeHeras

Antonio Didonato

Edgar Landa

Anthony Matesi

Mark Sahley

Cyrus Writer

WOMEN’S DIVISION

TOP 5 OFFICIAL FINISHERS

Shelley Koenig

Amelia Boone

Sophie Hilaire

Melody “Tiger” Hazi

Joei Harrison

UNOFFICIAL FINISHERS 

(SHORT COURSE, DID NOT QUIT)

Yesel Arivizu

Morgan Mckay

by Carrie Adams

“I sit here and sip my coffee the sun has yet to rise over the Green Mountains. An electricity is in the air, a feeling in the house, it’s race day.” – Margaret Schlachter

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Vermonter Margaret Schlachter.  Recent winner of the 12th Annual Bloggies award for Best Sports Blog with Dirt in Your Skirt, the 28 year old has been  writing, training, racing, and coaching in the backyard of the infamous Death Race she’s set to take on this summer. 

Says Schlachter, “The Death Race is in my backyard, why not try it. Several friends have finished the race in past years. I could write profound words but really I am doing it because, why not!”

Schlachter launched her own blog Dirt in Your Skirt to track her training heading to the Death Race in June and has accumlated both a following and a nice crop of sponsors along the way.  She has grown up with the burgeoning sport of Obstacle Racing.

Introduced to Obstacle racing and Spartan in the Spring of 2010, she raced and realized she’d found a fit!  The collegiate athlete in her was reignited and she began a vigorous training routine captured in her blog writing.  She’s traveled over the past two years and competed in over a dozen races across the U.S. including a 3rd place finish at the inaugural Vermont Beast and earning a spot in the cash prize heat in Texas at the end of 2011. 

Schlachter boats a top ten finish in every race she completed in 2011.  No small feat!  Schlachter credits the community with keeping her coming back for more and she was one of the original members of Spartan Chicked, a women’s movement in obstacle racing geared towards inspiring women and girls to get outside and get active.

Schlachter also finished her first ultra marathon in 2011 and is running her first 50 mile race in May of 2012, the Peak 50. 

Says Margaret, “Peak Races and the Death Race in particular offer something most other races don’t the unknown. It is the unknown that is appealing and well like I said before, why not?” 

Having the Death Race in her back yard doesn’t hurt the appeal of the event, and Margaret trains regularly with Joe Desena in between coaching and running admissions for Killington Mountain School.   Her training is intense and non-traditional, like many Death Racers.  She isn’t often found on a treadmill, more likely on a trail with a rock or a log or scaling the walls of her local rock climbing gym. 

Never a dull moment for Margaret, nicknamed Margo the Great by her close friends.  When she’s not on the mountain she volunteers as a firefighter and EMT in the community she loves.  She’s also a loving aunt and part-time graduate student. 

She’s looking forward to June and her Death Race challenge.  “I try to live life to the fullest each day and I thank all those who help support me in my endeavors both athletically and personally.”

Tags: death race, dirt in your skirt, joe desena, Margaret Schlachter

by Carrie Adams

Women have always been a vital part of the Death Race history and DNA.  The women who come to the Death Race are tough, strong, capable, and smart.  Add to that line-up the undeniably bad ass Ms. Lynn Lena.  Sporting a new full sleeve of ink on the heels of her recent 41st birthday, Lena is not your typical woman by any measure. 

Like many in the DR line-up, Lynn has been training for and placing in many of the past Spartan Races, often after taking on a grueling Hurricane Heat before hand.  Her toughness is matched by her sense of humor, her kindness and generosity with fellow racers, her affection, and her supportive nature. 

Lena, a Vermonter herself is heading up to Amee Farm  in June for the Death Race and she isn’t all nerves.  “I can’t wait!”  She told me with excitement. 

“I’m not feeling nerves or fear I’m just looking forward to taking it on and pushing through it one task at a time,” she continued. 

Strikingly beautiful and strong, Lena, is a competitor.  She took home third place in the Chicago Spartan Race and the Glen Rose competitive heat saw her taking home another trophy.  She keeps in shape by training hard, teaching boot camps, taking regular weighted hikes, and traveling to endurance challenges across the country, she’s preparing for what the Death Race will expose her to and she has no misconceptions of what awaits.   “I know without a doubt it will be the most grueling experience I will ever have the pleasure of taking on, and I will be honored to experience it with amazing people by my side.”

A member of the Spartan Hurricane Heat inspired group the Storm Chasers, Lena has inspired women and men with her commitment to seeing things through and getting the job done. 

Lena says, “I work hard everyday trying to instill the importance of self belief in people who take my BOOTCAMP and I can’t wait to show them the power of it when put into action.” 

Thoughtful and deliberate, she is preparing herself for what lies ahead physically without forgetting about the mental side of the challenge.  When asked to reflect on the experiences she’s about to face and what she’ll do when faced with the darkness, the hurt, the fatigue she says, “Don’t quit, can’t fail.” 

Tags: death race, hurrican heat, Lynn Lena, Storm Chasers

by Carrie Adams

Owen Duff is no stranger to hard work and dangerous environments.  He’s not even a stranger to the Death Race itself.   He was a part of the 2011 race, where he dropped after 17 hours of the 43 hour event.  Long before the Death Race, Duff, 25, spent time in the military on the bomb squad as an explosive ordinance disposal technician and currently spends his days living and working as a CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting coach in Palm Springs, CA.  He’s heading back to the Green Mountains in June to finish what he started last year.

Duff’s 2011 experience was rough.  Feeling sick before the event began, he blamed nerves for his upset stomach.  But early on, it was clear something was wrong.  The Death Race opened with five hours of heavy lifting and Duff’s stomach only worsened, “During the rock cleans I was having trouble eating and keeping water down. We took off from the farm and I got really sick I couldn’t eat and water was hard to swallow I assumed I had food poisoning.”  He made the decision at that time to drop out but managed another 10 hours through the woods and water before he succumbed and left the race.  Once he finished it would still be another two days before he could eat normally again.  A disappointing experience for the competitive, Duff.  He’s not letting that effect his view of what awaits him this year.

Upbeat, quick-witted, and full of palpable positive energy, he’s ready to take on the race again in 2012 with a renewed energy and focus.  When asked about how he feels about the Death Race he says, “Last year I didn’t know what to expect, this year is no different but I have a beard so that makes everything better.”  And indeed, his beard has become legendary.  He has the (self-proclaimed) “Best Beard” in CrossFit and he jokes, “Hiding success in my beard is key this year.”  No doubt there’s room.

The Spokane, Washington native is also preparing for the CrossFit games, but the Spartan Death Race is something altogether different.  Duff says, “For me the Death Race is about finding what stopped me last year, staring it down, putting it in my ruck and carrying it back into the river.  Finishing the race.”  Like many in the Death Race field, his CrossFit training and coaching a major part of his race preparation.

The closeness of the Death Race community has also become something Duff looks forward to in June, “I am most excited to see all the friends and people I met last year, the pain suffering and cold brings souls together.”

And so he trains, regularly posting videos of his progress on his YouTube channel including this video of a recent 285 pound Hang Squat Clean.  Jokes aside, he says, “the death race is now apart of me, it is forever simpler to take the path less traveled by.”  The race is something that’s changed his life for the better and influenced how he spends his time, how he feeds his body, and who he surrounds himself with.  He’s planning to bring that knowledge and wisdom gained over the last year with him back to Vermont.  But, like Sampson, he’s also bringing a secret weapon, adding,“I do have magical beard powers.”

Tags: CrossFit Palm Springs, owen duff