The Winter Death Race 2012

2012 Winter Death Race

Pre-race Condition
On Friday March 2, 2012 I wake up at 4AM, take my last dose of Doxycycline for the pneumonia that I was getting over 10 days prior.  Generally speaking felt pretty good, still had a cough but felt bullish enough to hop a 6AM flight up to Albany NY.  After arriving in Albany I rented a car and made the 2.5 hour trek up to Pittsfield Vermont.  The night before it had snowed about 6 inches so the trees were covered in snow, as was the ground.  It was in the 30’s with the temps predicted to drop that evening down into the 20’s.

On February 22, 2012 I received a Spartan Blog email reminding its followers that the Winter Death Race was still open.  I began to kick around the idea of entering the race in preparation for the Summer DR, which I had already signed up for.  Having never done any adventure race and having a general disdain for the cold I thought, what the heck, this should be a solid challenge for me.  Admittedly I was nervous about this type of an event because it seemed more like a “cross fit” endurance race than a true test of endurance by “normal” standards.  Well the WDR is anything but normal which I was soon to find out.

My fear of the cold weather and competing in it stemmed from my first IM in Brazil when I landed in the medical tent when my core temperature dropped post race and things got ugly fast.  Ever since then I’ve had a mental problem with the cold weather.

I sent Andy Weinberg, aka the race director, an email asking a few questions and got back very short “answers”.  So I went on to email several others that were participating but got zero replies.  I began to think…ok it’s one of those races with a bunch of uptight ultra competitive people.  So I called home and asked Carla to go out and buy a backpack, which I did not own before this race and hand and foot warmers.  I was in San Antonio thru Thursday at a biz trade show and had to get everything organized remotely due to the last minute decision of entering the race.


Race Day
When I arrived in Pittsfield I went to Amee Farm and met a couple of DR veterans. These guys were great.  They gave me a quick tutorial on the race as well as the do’s and don’ts.  The simple take away was just don’t quit.  They will lie.  They will make you angry.  They will try to first break you physically and then work on you mentally.   I thought ok I can do this….I think.

Having completed many Ironman, 50-mile trail runs and the Leadville 100 trail run.  I have DNF’d only twice.  Once at the Rocky Raccoon 100 at mile 80 and once at the Leadville 100 trail run at mile 72.  At the RR100 I passed out at mile 80-aid station due to an electrolyte imbalance and woke up at the ER.  In Leadville I was on a 23.5 hour pace to complete the race when at the mile 72 medical station check in (elevation about 11,000 ft.) the medics told me that they thought that I had pulmonary edema as my blood oxygen levels registered in the low 80’s, normal levels are at 95 and above.  I was pulled from the race and taken to the local ER.  I’ve never quit a race.

There simply is no substitute for experience.  When you’ve touched the stove it is something that is not easily or soon forgotten.

Heading into Pittsfield, VT for the Winter Death Race I had to make an honest assessment of my strengths and weaknesses.  Let’s start with the strengths.  Endurance levels very high due to IM training.  Trail running is extremely strong.  Calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes and core are solid with no issues.  Past experience with nutrition and mental discipline are my greatest strengths.  My ability to self diagnose an issue while it is happening is a learned skill acquired via many mistakes.  Advantage PT.  Weaknesses, where to begin……  Physically I have several injuries above the waistline.  Right shoulder and peck issues from my bike crash.  No cross fit type of training.   Cold weather events a mental/physical hurdle.

The Race Start
There was a pre race registration and bib pick up at the General Store at 5PM and an athlete meeting back at Amee farm at 6PM with an 8PM start….or so we thought.

The “race” began at 6PM, not the advertised 8PM, with 500 burpees an exercise that I had not done since my college soccer days.  Over the next 33+ hours we would have to complete 3,000…..

Looking for clothes after hot yoga session

Post burpees we all gathered for a run up to the hot yoga studio.  With temperature levels exceeding 110F we performed yoga exercises for somewhere between 60-90 minutes.  Prior to entering the yoga studio, we all stripped down to the lowest common denominator, leaving our clothes organized on the porch.  After surviving the heat we all went outside to put on our clothing only to find them in a pile in the snow.  With outside temperatures in the 20’s we got chilled pretty quickly.  It was a complete cluster as everyone searched for their clothing.  This took about 30 minutes before heading out to do a 5-6 mile run through the snow, streams, etc.  At this juncture there was about 43 people.

 After making about a 4-5 mile loop run, we made it back to Amee farm, dehydrated from the hot yoga and run.  It began to sleet on us as we were given our next task which was to stack 43 piles of wood that were to be later chopped.  Each pile had to have 70 logs except for about 8 piles that were to have 40 logs (designated for the women).  There was this giant pile of wood covered in snow, dirt, brush etc. that we had to disentangle to make our 43 individual piles.

This little exercise took us about 2 hours or so.  This was located back at base camp so we had access to our water, Gatorade and nutrition.  I sucked down two bottles of Gatorade and a slice of pizza, which hit the spot as I was beginning to fade during this exercise and recognized that I needed hydration and nutrition.  This task was difficult for me as I think that I have either a pulled muscle in my lower left abdomen or a hernia.  Picking up obtuse logs that could weigh 60-70lbs was challenging.

After completing this task, Andy told us to go back to the hoop house (where all of our gear was stored …looked like a domed greenhouse) and wait there till we get our next assignment.  I’m thinking it was around midnight at this point.

At about 1:30AM, after crashing for a solid hour of shuteye, we were told to get up and meet outside the hoop house with our axes, well not exactly, grab an ax only it cannot be your own.  This was an interesting twist, seeing how I spent about 30 minutes trying to pick out and find the right ax to buy at the Home Depot in Albany, NY.  The ax that I thought I was to use was no longer mine.  Instead I got this shitty little ax that somebody had brought.  Well at this juncture it proved to be a good thing as we were told to stand with the ax over our heads in a circle…which I think lasted for about 30 minutes.

Next we were told to grab a log from one of the piles and told to rest on it.  Hmmm…I smelled I trap.  While everyone was grabbing and rolling 2-3 feet in diameter log, I grabbed one that was about 18 inches in diameter.  As we sat there for a few minutes sitting on our logs with our axes, the race directors pondered our next task.  It didn’t take them very long before they told us that we were going on a hike and to pick up our logs and ax and get ready to go.  At this point there began a lot of pissing and moaning with the dumb asses that decided to grab huge logs while I grabbed my 20 pounder with ax in hand and thought…this isn't going to be too bad.  This ended up paying huge dividends.

We hiked for about 1 mile across a bridge to an embankment that we had to throw our logs up onto and then climb up.  It was here that we spent the next 3 hours or so building a snow ramp for the snowshoe racers that were competing in a separate race this weekend. We worked as a team grabbing chunks of snow and pushing it over the edge of the embankment while a team below built the snow ramp.  I have to say, the end product was pretty damn good and survived the entire race day.  It was about 15 feet long and rose about 5-6 feet with a width of about 3.5 feet.  After completing this task it was probably around 5AM and the sun was going to be rising within the next hour…..this was very important psychologically…getting through the night.

After completing the snow bridge we were then told we had to go back to Amee Farm, but had to roll our logs…first across the river (NOT OVER THE BRIDGE) and then back to the farm.  We could not carry the logs.  I’m guessing that the river/creek at this point was about 15-20 yards wide and about 3 feet deep with temps in the mid 30’s.  It was cold.  I watched some of the veterans at this point to figure out if they were going to take off their boots our simply cross with them on.  Not knowing what the next event was, 95% of the competitors took off their boots, rolled up their snow pants and rolled their logs across the creek to the other side.   Each person spent about 2-3 minutes in the frigid water.  By the time you got your log out of the water both hands and feet were pretty numb and stinging from the cold.  Keep in mind as you exited the water in your bare feet you climbed up a snowy rocky bank back onto snow.  I sat in the snow squeezing my feet in an attempt to get them warm before putting my dry wool socks back on and then inserting foot warmers in my boots, as well as my gloves/mittens before beginning the log roll back to base camp.

Rolling a log down a path in the snow should be pretty easy, one would think.  However, try rolling a wet log down a snowy path.  The log collects snow, like a snowball rolling down a hill.  Every 5 minutes or so you’d have to kick the snow off of the damn log.

Let the chopping begin!

As we made our way back to base camp the sun began to rise which did wonders for my mental state of mind.  About 150 yards from camp they began to shot out our next task, which was to grab any ax and chop any pile of wood.  At this juncture I was probably in about 8th place overall so as I arrived back to camp I scrambled for a decent ax and took a pile of wood that was stack individually/vertically…meaning it was all ready to be split.  It was not the pile that I had stacked the previous evening.  As I was on about the 4 log, the dude that had organized and stacked the wood made his way back and began barking at me that I was chopping the wrong pile and that it was his pile of wood and for me to go find another pile.  Well, not a smart move when I have an ax in my hand.  I not so politely told him..tough shit and if he had gotten back earlier he could have been chopping this pile of wood…but because you took so long find your own damn pile to chop.

After chopping the logs we then had to carry them about 50-75 yards and stack them.  Olaf, aka “the Swede” was chopping wood next to me and was the first to finish.  He found one of the two wheelbarrows and began loading up the wood and stacking it.  As the next several people finished I realized that there was only but a couple of wheelbarrows….so I cut a deal with the Swede…I’d help load up his wood if I could get both his wheelbarrow and his ax.  A short but successful negotiation.  Before the rest of the competitors figured it out I had my wheelbarrow and another ax to use as a wedge to chop the larger pieces of wood.  This is where my wood chopping experience paid dividends.  Using two axes to chop the large pieces instead of one ax made quick work of the big gnarly chunks of wood that would later take the rookies hours to complete.

Now that's a nice stack of wood!!

I’m thinking that post wood chopping and stacking that we had to bang out more burpees before heading out on the 6.5 mile trail run up the mountainside with 5pieces of wood in “our” backpacks (we couldn’t use our own backpack but instead somebody else’s …I got the short end of this straw).  It was a beautiful morning and afternoon with temps reaching in the high 40’s.  Carrying 5 pieces of split wood up the mountain wasn’t too bad.  I took off with a young woman who was a pretty strong competitor from Montreal Canada.  We did a run walk up the mountain.  We eventually made it to the top and dropped off our wood.  We were in the top 10 at this point of the race.  The 60+ year old dude from NJ, with his two buddies from Alaska had forgotten to bring logs to the top of the mountain and it was at this juncture that he dropped out.  Too bad as he was pretty strong.  At the top of the mountain there was a cabin/aid station for the snowshoe racers.  It was very windy and chilly at the top.

After dropping off the wood we made our way back down the mountain.  Running downhill was fun.  There were a couple of very steep descents, but in the soft snow with my yak tracks on it proved to be pretty easy to descend.  For those without yak tracks they were forced to slide down it on their butts.  I thought, hmm…that looks like fun.  As I would later find out it wasn’t very fun.

After making it back to camp we had to chop 5 more pieces of left over wood that was not split and carry the split pieces across the road and up the hill to a storage garage.  This was a bit of a pain in the ass because the wood that was left was all knots and very very tough to split.

After completing this task it was back to doing 1,000 more burpees.  At this point my right peck/shoulder was pretty shot.  I was feeling the residual impact from my back crash 9 months prior when I tore my peck and separated my shoulder.  Not having done one push up since the crash, these damn burpees were taking a toll.  I decided at this juncture, just keep knocking them down one at a time.  My technique sucked, I knew it and a couple of competitors were quick to point it out the race directors…a stupid move on their part.  This only inspired them to give us more burpees to complete.  I was still in about 10th place until this last set up burpees and then I fell back to 20th with still about 35 competitors left in the race.

After completing the burpees we had to carry another 4 pieces of wood up the mountain and back down.  Another 6.5-mile trail run.  I was happy to be done with the next round of burpees and just back on the trail.  I was hoping that they’d send us off on a 20-mile trail run to punish the competitors who were bitching about the burpees and level the playing field.  Guarantee that you that I would’ve climbed to the top 3.  Nevertheless I began to run/walk up the mountainside and met up with a couple of ROTC kids from the local area that knew Andy.  This made the trek up the mountain go by pretty quickly.  We didn’t get to drop off the wood this time, but had to bring it back down with us to Amee Farm.  Unfortunately on the way back down the ROTC boys decided to take a shortcut, it was dusk, but I thought …ok these are locals…they know the trails well…so trust them.  Big ass mistake.  We got lost and went about 1.5 miles out of our way and didn’t make it back till about 7:15PM.  The ROTC boys ended up dropping from the race after getting into a little spat with the race directors.

Look carefully at dude submerged in pond

After arriving back to base camp we were told that the next task was to go across the street to the pond for a one minute submersion.  It would’ve been nice if I could’ve done this a few hours prior when the sun was shining and the temps were much warmer.  At this point the wind had picked up and the temperature dropped back into the 20’s.  With about 20MPH winds the chill factor was in the teens…It was cold.  Fortunately I had brought my wet suit, neoprene cap and gloves ☺.  The smartest move of the day!!!   By the time I got up to the pond there was about 4 competitors in line in front of me.  The goal was to stay under water for a total of 1 minute.  To accomplish this it took most people 4.5 minutes in the water and 5-6 submersions to complete 1 minute under the water.  Watching the people in front of me was torture.  As they screamed and shook uncontrollably as they were getting through this task we stood and watched.  It was at this juncture I had to get my mind around this and fast.  I had a wetsuit..I was prepared….focus…and just get through it……It took me three submersions and 2 minutes and I was out of that damn pond.  Being in a wetsuit you float so in order to stay under water completely submerged I had to go under the ice…this was a first….and hopefully a last.  As I got out of the pond I ran back to base camp, which was a couple hundred yards away, to a big bonfire where I shook trying to get warm.  I couldn’t stay there very long because at 8PM we had to be up at the local store for a meeting.  So I hustled back to the hoop house and worked very very hard at trying to get off my wet suit, which I couldn’t as my hands weren’t functioned very well so a nice lady helped pull it off.  I was commando at this point and could give a shit.  I just needed to get dry clothing on and a lot of it.

Log carry up to store and then back to hot yoga..grrrr

Before meeting at the local store which was a good mile up the road from the farm we had to select a log to carry.  The group that I ended up with grabbed about a 15-17 foot log that weighed A LOT.   There was about 6 people in our group, two of which were women…not so very smart.  Being the tallest in the group was not good either.  Needless to say we made it up to general store thinking that this could potentially be the very last task.  After all we had now been going for about 26 hours, but there was still about 23 competitors left.  We made it to the store, my shoulder pretty beat up from burpees and the log carrying, to find out that we had to carry the log another ¼ - ½ mile more back up to the damn hot yoga house.  We dropped off our log, stripped down once again and went in for a 90-minute session.  While in there we got yelled and were punished with more crazy yoga moves.  We lost one veteran at this point.  They left us for about 15 minutes at the end of the session and I fell asleep only to be woken up by a bullhorn.

Hot yoga...sucks!

This time when we finished the hot yoga our clothes was not thrown about in piles but where we had left them on the porch.  We got dressed and carried the log back to the farm.  It was about 10PM at this point and a few more people dropped.  The next task…..you guessed it right…..more burpees…to be exact…1,000 more burpees.  It was cold, the snow had hardened and it was beating the shit out of my knees.  I struggled at this point, but thought screw it just keep going as slow as it may be just keep going.  At this point we lost a few more and were now down to about 13-14 people left in the race.  I was kept company by a couple of guys while doing burpees while the race directors sat in their warm cars drinking hot coffee with their head lights shining on us.  It reminded me of a prisoner exchange scene from a movie taking place in some remote woods in Russia with the bright lights shining on us and we couldn’t see them but they could see us.  Mentally this was an interesting part of the event.  I couldn’t understand why people were dropping out at this point.  I knew that we didn’t have that much longer, but glad that they did as the event usually stops after the finishing rate % gets down to a low enough level to stop.

At about 12:30am I had totally lost track of how many burpees that I was on but knew that I was close to the guys around me but lagged a little bit.  When they finished up their 1,000 I kept going.  The top 3-4 competitors ad finished their burpees, completed another 6.5-mile trail run and were in the process of carrying a bucket of water from the creek back to the farm at this point.  They were way in front.  I knew that I couldn’t catch them but my goal was to simple persevere and finish.  As the two guys that I was doing my burpees with came out of the hoop house ready to run the 6.5 mile loop up the now icy trails, I told them to wait up for me and I would join them.

The Race Finish
We left the farm around 12:30AM and were told that we needed to be back no later than 4AM or we’d be DQ’d.  3.5 hours to do a 6.5-mile trail run….no sweat.   Well I lost one yak track, but grabbed somebody’s trekking poles and off we went.  We were caught with about 500 yards to go by 2 competitors and we let them go by.  I was afraid that if w got back too soon before 4AM that they might make us go back into the pond.

As we approached the farm at about 3:50AM we were met by Andy and congratulated for finishing the event.  In total there were 11 competitors left standing, I tied for 10th place, which I can say, I had my first top 10 finish in a race in 2012 ☺.

The Trophy

We all gathered at 4AM in the barn for the official awards ceremony where skulls with our name, time and finishing place were handed out.   I fell asleep on the chair, a few pics were snapped and we all went about our separate ways.  I stumbled to my car, cranked up the heat, and drove about 3-4 miles up the road before making the smartest move of the day by pulling off to the side of the road to go to sleep.  I woke up about 90 minutes later to the sun rising.  I got out of the car stretched, got back in the car and drove back to the airport.  I was beat up, tired, hungry and just wanted to go home.  On the way back to the airport  I made a few phone calls to stay awake.  I got back home early Sunday evening pretty fulfilled that I had accomplished what I set out to do….to finish the winter death race.

Carla had asked me why do I do such stupid races and put my self into such situations.  When I had time to reflect it really comes down to one core desire and that is to compete.  I love to compete.  Whether it’s competing on the ball field, the office, on the bike, trails or in Pittsfield VT in an icy pond it’s all about competition.  It’s fun; it’s a game in my mind and who doesn’t like a good game?

Cheers!