Thursday, June 28, 2012
Exhaustion, dehydration and maybe even dysentery did not stop Antonio "T.J." DiDonato from finishing -- and loving -- the 3-day gauntlet of pain that is the Spartan Death Race
- POLICE & FIRE
- Jason Lea
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Thursday, June 28, 2012
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 Spartan Death Race. 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 …
Monday, June 18, 2012
Antonio "T.J." DiDonato joins the proud few that have ever finished the death race
Mentor Firefighter Antonio "T.J." DiDonato did not die during the Spartan Death Race, nor did he quit. In fact, DiDonato joined a rare fraternity of people who have finished the death race. Of the 200-plus people who compete in this 3-day gauntlet of physical and psychological torment each year, only eight percent finish. "Not bad for a normal guy from Cleveland!" DiDonato wrote on his wife's Facebook page after the race. "Aaand... it was the longest race to date, over 57 hours." Competitors are disqualified if they sleep during the competition, but that's just the beginning of this meatgrinder. They had to split trees, swim laps in a cold retention pond and -- who can say why? -- sew their race numbers onto their black compression shirts…
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Check out some of the big stories on Mentor Patch this week
1. Mentor firefighter Antonio "T.J." DiDonato is in the middle of a Spartan Death Race right now. Yes -- Spartan. Death. Race. It is a 3-day gauntlet in which the competitors aren't allowed to sleep and they have no idea what physical and psychological obstacles they will face before they reach them. For more on DiDonato and his death race, check out our profile on him. 2. A Mentor man is accused of leaving a baby alone in a car. Fortunately, a good Samaritan saw the child and may have saved her life, according to police. Kevin Payerchin -- the child's mother's fiance -- has been charged with child endangerment. And the baby's mother? She was convicted of child endangering earlier this year for driving while drunk with the same baby in the…
Friday, June 15, 2012
Antonio DiDonato will face physical, mental challenges in 3-day challenge where anything is possible
Mentor Firefighter Antonio "T.J." DiDonato has spent the last nine months training for a 3-day challenge that is designed specifically to stretch (and possibly snap) the limits of the toughest people in the country. And this is what he does for fun. It's called the Spartan Death Race and it began this morning in Pittsfield, VT, while most us were still asleep. The competitors aren't allowed to sleep during this 3-day span and they have no idea what obstacles they will face before they reach them. The race is so tough that the organizers warn "you may die." No, seriously, the web site for the Spartan Death Race is www.youmaydie.com. So what was DiDonato thinking the night before it began? "How do I feel?" he wrote Thursday night. (Phone …
Jason Lea
5:27 am on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Ah, corrected. Thank you. By the way, it still sounds pretty cruel without the tar. more ›