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Is Coach JP Crazy?  Maybe A *Little* Bit...LOL

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Coach JP Going To The Spartan Death Race

A couple of days ago, I got an email from Spartan Race HQ that was sent out to all the Spartan-certified coaches, inviting us to attend a workshop at the Norwich University, Senior Military College, in Vermont.  Initially, I thought, "Oh, that's cool, but probably not worth the trip for me."

As a Spartan coach, I get invites from Spartan to attend various courses, workshops, events, etc., and they're usually in some far-flung place and cost thousands of dollars, so I don't often pay them much mind.  The MRTAC (Military Resilience and Tactical Athlete Course) workshop being offered actually sounded really interesting, and I am very interested in the topic of resilience, so I kept reading.

The email read:

"This in-person, intensive 1.5-day course, delivered in collaboration with Spartan Resiliency experts, builds advanced skills around physical and psychosocial aspects of human performance, using the application of evidence-based theory to enhance skills and practices required for success in the key pillars of: nutrition, sleep, physical and mental resilience. Students will participate in physically and mentally demanding outdoor and classroom experiences designed to challenge modern day barriers to true resilience by overcoming obstacles and adversity. Students will receive a certificate of completion for this course.

...and for the Spartan coaches, the workshop only costs $150.

Pretty cool so far, but then it got REALLY interesting:

After the completion of this course, you will have the opportunity to join the first 6 hours of the Death Race which is being held at Joe's farm, on Friday June 30th (this is not mandatory, but is available to you). This is a small taste of the Death Race for those who are interested.

My immediate reaction when I read that was, "Whoa - hold on a second."


What Is The Death Race?


For those who don't know, the Death Race is the original Spartan Race.  A crazy, unstructured test of physical, mental and emotional resilience that has no set end point - it keeps going until 90% of the people that started quit.  Races have gone as long as 72 hours in the past, and for just a small snippet of how "not quitting" the people that take it on are, one year a guy set a Guinness World Record by crawling under barbed wire continuously FOR TWELVE HOURS STRAIGHT.

Amelia Boone, a 4x Obstacle Racing World Champion, Ultramarathoner (and attorney at Apple) said of the Death Race:

“I recognize that I’ve been extremely fortunate in my racing “career.”
….
But at some point, we all stumble. We have a bad race. A race finds a weakness. A weakness finds you.

And of any race out there, the Death Race excels at doing this. It’s a game of Russian roulette that we play once or twice (or now three) times a year. It’s unlike any other race: for example, you do Ironmans, you know you are going to be swimming, biking and running. In that order. For a fixed amount of distance. With the Death Race, you never know what may be in store, and sometimes it may not seem like a “race” at all.

And that’s what draws it to us. And that’s how we discover things about ourselves. And that’s why we keep coming back. But that’s also what crushes us.” 

In short, it's an event that is designed to break people in every way possible, and make them quit.  Sounds SUPER fun, right?

If you want to get a clearer picture of what the Death Race is like, here are a few links:


To enter the Death Race, you normally have to apply and have completed at least one of a selection of pretty difficult events beforehand - E.G. a Spartan Race Ultra (42 km and 70+ obstacles) or a 100+ mile ultramarathon.  With this invitation, however, Spartan is presenting an unprecedented (as far as I know) opportunity for the Spartan coaches to bypass those requirements and take on the first 6 hours (if we can last that long) of one of the world's toughest challenges.


Why Being At "Joe's Farm" Is A Really Big Deal


The "Joe" whose farm the race is at is Joe De Sena, the CEO of Spartan Race.  The very top of the Spartan food chain is there, and there's usually only a few dozen people entered (I think the most I've heard of was maybe 70 people one year, but most years it's less than 50), so it's a chance to meet some folks that could be the gateway to some BIG opportunities if I want to take things further in the Spartan Race realm.

A "taste" of one of the toughest events in the world?  Check!

Potential exposure to some huge future influences for my career?  Check!

Two months to get ready?  Uhhh...Check!

So, I'm going to Vermont at the end of June (please note the new closure dates in the schedule info below).

Raina and I will be flying to Montreal on the Wednesday and driving about 3 hours down to our first stop for the workshop, and then Friday afternoon, we drive down to Joe's farm for me to take on the longest planned duration event I've ever signed up for (I have had three Spartan Beasts at Sun Peaks take more than six hours, for the record), and undoubtedly also the hardest one by a LONG shot.

I will do everything I can to prepare between now and then, and my plan is to approach it the same way I did the recent Step Up for Cardiac Health event, with zero expectations aside from a LOT of suffering, and just see what my body, mind and spirit give me on the day.

Crazy?  Probably, but it's an opportunity I just couldn't pass up.