The Spartan Death Race is considered one of the toughest races in the world, meant to push participants to their physical, mental, and emotional breaking points. This year’s race, which started on July 9 in Pittsfield, VT, promises to be one of the most challenging iterations yet, with more than three days straight of running, hiking, crawling, and more burpees than a person should do in a lifetime. Seventy-two individuals signed up, including our own executive editor, Zack Zeigler, but how many will last through the three-day event is anyone’s guess.
Here are just some of the sights from the race’s first 24 hours.
Registration for the Summer Death Race 2019 was set to begin at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, July 9, in Pittsfield. The Death Race is known for pushing racers to their limits, and it all began in the parking lot where every racer was instructed to throw their packs in a pile and perform 100 burpees, collectively. And that was a mere warmup for what was to come.
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Erica Schultz / M+F Magazine
This year, our executive editor, Zack, returned to compete for the second time in a row. In 2018, he lasted about 26 hours in the Death Race—he’s already topped that in 2019.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
Racers have to be smart about what they bring along with them, because whatever is in their pack stays with them for 72 hours. Do you pack heavy and wear yourself down, or do you go lighter but run the risk of leaving out something important? Zack opted to pack his ruck on the lighter side.
M&F’s Death Race 2019 is presented by Hemp Hydrate. Hemp Hydrate hemp-infused water — a favorite of elite athletes — uses Nano Technology to quickly and effectively deliver hydration benefits with every tasty, crystal-clear sip.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
Racers were required to list every item in their bag on a 3-by-5 index card. Some items were mandatory—like a pair of chopsticks and two pieces of unwrinkled tin foil, measuring two square feet—and hinted at a few of the challenges the racers would face over the next 72 hours.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
Burpees are a large part of the Death Race—issued as punishment, to fill time if a racer finishes early, or just for fun. Just as an example of what goes on during a Death Race, about an hour into it competitors were blindfolded and made to do burpees while holding hands. Others had to do 300 burpees for messing up the words of a poem they had to memorize.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
More likely than not, you will get wet during a Death Race. The first drenching this year had racers searching for their packs in the beaver pond.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
Caine Lee (racer #69) and Andrew Blair (#111) help lift a fallen tree out of the beaver pond. The racers had to remove two trees, carry them back to the farm, and continue to carry them until further instructed.
Racers then proceeded to chop up the trees retrieved from the pond and other logs on the farm. They chopped wood for over two hours and, of course, improper technique meant penalty exercises.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
It’s “Joe Time”!
Throughout the race, there are times reserved for whatever De Sena wants the racers to do. For this year’s first “Joe Time,” racers had to learn and remember everyone else’s name.
After two racers failed to correctly ID a racer De Sena picked at random, the whole group was sent to run laps around the mountain. The only exception was the racer who used a sharpie to write everyone’s names on their bibs. He was given a break and was told to throw everyone’s pack into the pond.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
With the sun setting on Day One, Christy Nix (#84) led a group in carrying wood to the base of Joe’s Mountain. Once this task was completed, the teams moved onto mountain suicides (sprinting back and forth between set distances) for the rest of night.
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Amanda Suarez / M+F Magazine
At 9 p.m. on Tuesday, about nine hours after the start of the race, racers were handcuffed to newly assigned partners and led up Joe’s Mountain to Miguel’s Cabin.
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Erica Schultz / M+F Magazine
Before leaving for Miguel’s Cabin, every racer was given a raw egg to carry. The egg must either remain unbroken for the entire 72-hour race, or be eaten.
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Erica Schultz / M+F Magazine
The racers, still handcuffed together, had to crabwalk to the first checkpoint of the mountain suicides. There were nine checkpoints in total.
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Erica Schultz / M+F Magazine
Each checkpoint of the mountain suicides had a riddle the teams had to solve, and then report back to the start to give the answer. The racers were then given a new exercise to perform while racing to the next checkpoint. Each checkpoint was further up the mountain than the previous one.
