Mentor Firefighter Reflects On Completing The Spartan Death Race

Mentor firefighter Antonio "T.J." DiDonato could not sleep for three consecutive days while completing a gauntlet of physical and psychological of challenges called the .

It's a race so grueling that you win simply by completing it -- and only about eight percent of the people who enter it finish.

As part of the race, DiDonato had to hike 50 miles through the Green Mountains of Pittsfield, VT, with a kayak hoisted over his head.

He spent an hour steeped in a filthy, almost freezing retention pond that DiDonato thinks may have given him dysentery or some other stomach virus.

He suffered from exhaustion, dehydration and hunger; but none of this was the worst part of the Death Race.

No, DiDonato said he would rather do all of this stuff again than suffer through another lap of "the roll course."

DiDonato and the other racers who had made it to the third day -- not many -- had to lie on their sides and roll through an obstacle course that involved trees with nails sticking out, wire and a bucket of bull's intestines they had to stir.

They had to roll uphill and over a steaming black tarp. To finish the challenge, you had to roll through the entire course six times.

"Pretty much after the second lap, you'd roll 10 yards, crawl to the side of the course, throw up -- because you couldn't throw up on the course -- pass out, have one of the race staff shout at you; then you'd roll 10 more yards and start all over," DiDonato said.

At the end of each lap, a staff member would ask the competitor a question like "How many rings are in a 5-point bullseye?" or "What sense is most associated with memory?" These were not difficult questions, unless you just spent the last hour rolling, vomiting and passing out.

If you answered the question wrong, your lap didn't count.

The challenge was so difficult that even the guy who came up with it felt bad, DiDonato said.

"You try to have a smile through this stuff," DiDonato said, "but not on that one."

What requires knitting needles, a pink swim cap and a bag of human hair?

This year, the Death Race's theme was betrayal.

So when DiDonato got a list of required equipment that included a 5-gallon bucket, knitting needles, a pink swim cap, a bag of human hair, an axe and other miscellanea, he didn't know if the race staff was serious or "betraying" him.

Turns out it was a little bit of both.

They made the competitors chop wood, carry gravel and swim as part of the competition. The needles and hair turned out to be red herrings.

DiDonato also didn't know if he was being "betrayed" when the race's organizers told him and his partner, Mark Sahley, that he was disqualified for missing a time check-in.

"I thought they were messing with us because they had been feeding us misinformation, trying to get us to quit," DiDonato said.

But DiDonato and Sahley, after some encouragement, decided to keep on and they ended up finishing the race.

"The only person who can take you out of the race is yourself," DiDonato said.

Of the more than 300 people who entered this year's race, fewer than 50 finished the course. Of those who finished, DiDonato had one of the eight best times in the country.

From a 5K to a Death Race

"If I can do this stuff, anyone can do it," DiDonato said.

DiDonato first started doing physical challenges as a way to . But soon it became about showing what the average person can accomplish when they commit to something.

"There are some true crazy athletes who compete in the Death Race," he said. "But there are a lot of people who have office jobs, blue-collar jobs. They're unassuming. You could be sitting next to them at a restaurant and not realize what they're capable of."

DiDonato kept raising the bar of his own capabilities this year.

He ran his first 5K in November. Since then, he's survived a 10-hour crucible of military training and ran a marathon while wearing a backpack filled with bricks.

"I just think people should get out there and push themselves," he said. "Even if it's just a 5K. Because it's not about the exercise. It's about the adventure and seeing what you can accomplish."