By Polly Lynn
PITTSFIELD — After 58 hours the 2015 Winter Death Race came to a climactic end at the top of Shrek’s Cabin.
The race began Friday night, Jan. 16, with “29 brave souls,” according to the Peak Races Facebook post. “Not sure any will finish… It’s been -20 F every morning this week in Pittsfield. Perfect,” organizers wrote in another post.
Ten hours in, officials reported one medical drop out. After nearly 24 hours, only five others had dropped out, leaving 23 racers in the game.
In addition to physical challenges, racers also had to endure psychological stress such as counting down an hour completely cut off from time and space. Racers were required to “meditate” with construction ear muffs and eye masks on and stop their watch as close to one hour as possible. If they stopped it under an hour there was an automatic penalty of 500 burpees along with penalties for how many minutes under an hour they stopped the meditation. If they stopped it beyond an hour they only received a penalty for how many minutes they went over.
In the end, returning Death Race Champion Drew Jett successfully defended his title, followed by Eric Furtado in second place and Scott Gregor in third. Other finishers, in order of finish time, included: Raymond Ramos, Eric Anderson, Mike Kozial, Dylan Davis, Alex Ouellet, and Dave Long. In addition to the nine finishers, three other participants did not quit, collectively performing thousands of burpees until the very end, according to race officials. They were Robert Halpin, Marco Mireles, and Jeff Robinette.
Photo by Robin Alberti
Racers braved extreme weather while undertaking physical and mental challenges served bitter cold by race organizers, during the 2015 Winter Death Race.
