Adventure racing maven Joe Desena's latest offbeat competition is the Spartan Race series. My advance of the Boston race, done for the Boston Globe, can be found here. Below is the unabridged version. The reward for winning? Entry into Desena's annual Death Race in Vermont. Which gives a whole new meaning to the old adage, "To the victors go the spoils" ...
Spartan effort
New series amps up the typical 5K race format
The earthen bump that houses the Amesbury Sports Park alongside I-495 has been many things over the years: forest, farmland, ski hill (Lone Tree Hill, circa 1949), snow and water tubing park, soccer and lacrosse fields. On Saturday, Aug. 28, it will be transformed again, this time into a battleground, as the Spartan Race series and 2,000 competitors come to Boston.
The Spartan Race is the latest creation of adventure race aficionado Joseph Desena, a successful Wall Street trader who has taken his love of the deal and applied it with equal fervor to his serious adrenalin habit. These off-road races are designed to shake TV zombies and desk jockeys out of their doldrums and their comfy chairs by boiling the adventure-race concept down to a short, 5K format that typically lasts between 35 minutes and an hour. However, this is not your average 5K jaunt. Instead, the hilly course will be littered with at least a dozen spirit-breaking obstacles, including a mud crawl, wall climb, balance-beam course, fire jump, spear toss, jousting, and barbed-wire crawl, all designed to test not only the participants' strength and stamina, but their creativity and cunning.
"These races are for someone who is looking to break out of a routine, whether it's running 5Ks on the road, or sitting behind a desk and not having any excitement in their life," said Michael Morris , a personal trainer from Marlborough and the manager of the Boston Spartan Race. "Or someone who's dreamt of doing something really exciting, but hasn't had the access to do it."
Someone like Justin Mattarocchia, a 30-year-old from Newburyport who said he was intrigued by the race, in part, because he traces his Greek heritage to Sparta.
"I agree that people generally place personal comfort above all other concerns," said Mattarocchia. "Even I'm guilty of this, but I find that forcing myself into an uncomfortable place, overcoming adversity, even if manufactured, can serve to strengthen my character and resolve. Pushing myself to do this will benefit me in other parts of my life where I might have to choose between comfort and adventure."
Desena often draws parallels between business and racing, focusing on the common qualities that breed success in each. He has traveled the world to feed his adventure-racing appetite, but understands that not everyone has the same drive, or financial wherewithal, to pursue racing in such exotic locales. That spurred the city-based Spartan Race concept. Boston is the fourth stop on the 2010 calendar, with previous races held in Burlington, VT, Montreal, and New York City. Future races include two in Great Britain (Cambridge and Manchester), Houston, TX, and Los Angeles, CA. All aim to get competitors grimy and sweaty, while serving as a stepping-stone to bigger events.
"That's one of the things that prevents people from getting more involved in the more arduous races. One of the challenges is that you have to schlep yourself to more remote areas," said Morris. "One of our goals is to be near more metropolitan areas so accessibility is easier. It's one less barrier, one less excuse that people can come up with. Like any business, it's about 'location, location, location.' And we've got a great location at the Amesbury Sports Park."
The steep pitch that serves as a backdrop to the playing fields is only the first of several natural obstacles that the park offered organizers. Toss in man-made barriers, and the race becomes as much a mental test as a physical one.
"What differentiates this from your traditional 5K or even a road race or trail race is that the obstacles create a nice change of pace, a really different way to challenge people," said Morris. "It's going to get people out of their running rhythm. It will bring an added element of challenge for people who are used to plowing straight ahead. They'll have to jump over stuff, and crawl under stuff. There's a bushwacking component that will force people to keep their heads up and look where they're going."
But there's no question that the event has hit home with fitness buffs looking for something out of the ordinary. As of mid-August, the race had more than 2,000 participants pre-registered, and the contestants ran the gamut, from rough-and-tumble veterans to absolute neophytes. A training session held in Salem in July attracted 80 contestants.
"I have no interest in running and have never entered a race before this one," said Kellyn Nahas, a 40-year-old business owner and mother of two from Amesbury. "I'm the adult who likes to play on all the equipment at the playground, and the thought of doing the obstacles really excited me. I'll have to suffer through the running to get to the fun stuff."
"We wanted something more challenging and more fun," said Dale Bob Eckert, a 54-year-old cancer survivor from Newburyport. "This looks like it will break up some of the monotony of just running."
Eckert and his wife - Dale Ann Granger-Eckert – compete in "about 35 races a year," on and off-road, including several marathons. However, as fans of the show "Wipe Out," he said they couldn't resist the lure of an obstacle-filled event like the Spartan Race, especially since it was being held in their own backyard. "I like surprises," said Eckert. "I don't even like see the racecourses in advanced. We take as it comes and make the best of it."
The top three finishes from each Spartan Race automatically qualify for the Death Race (youmaydie.com), a 24-hour painfest held every June in Pittsfield, VT, home of Desena's Peak Adventures. Next year, Desena plans to expand the format, creating a Super Spartan Race series. All reflect his bedrock belief in the benefits of hard work.
"I'm fighting the whole world on my ideas, things that I think are pretty basic, normal ideas," said Desena recently. "We're animals. Nobody can dispute that, although some people may not realize it, living in the world we're in. Well, what would you do if you came home, and you saw your dog, sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette, drinking a coffee, hair in a bun, toenails painted, watching Oprah, taking an insulin shot because she's overweight, sleeping pills in her pocket because she can't sleep at night?"
Desena's tone has a distinct rhetorical quality, but there's no mistaking the point he wants to make: We've got it far too easy. "Now think of coming home to see your dog after it ran 22 miles in backyard, completely exhausted, happy to see you, wagging its tail, and falling asleep," he said. "That's normal for an animal. I would argue that everything that I'm promoting, or involved in, is normal. The rest of the world is abnormal."
While Desena admits his views might seem "hard core" or even over the top to some, he says that impression is simply further evidence that people, and society, have gone soft. "Think about years ago. It was really simple. You either succeeded in hunting for your food, or you didn't and you were dead," he said. "We had natural selection, positive selection, of tougher and tougher people. In today's environment, the lesser person, the softer person, the lazier person, can actually survive."
"The Death Race and the Spartan Race are more akin starting and running your own business, which I've done since I was 15 years old," said Desena. "I've also had the benefit and luxury of working for a large corporation. The rule about starting your own business is, 'Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.' Customers leave you at the wrong time. Buildings catch on fire. It rains when it's not supposed to. You can either deal with it, 24 hours a day, every single day, or you can't.
"Working for a large corporation, you're coddled. Everything you need is at your fingertips, just like a marathon or an Ironman. You've got water and food and people cheering for you. It's really just a catered training day."
Both Desena and Morris acknowledge that Spartan Races sacrifice some authenticity by employing man-made obstacles, but that was the trade-off required to bring the series to the big city, and to the masses.
"If we have to dumb down the Spartan Race, if we have to shorten the race to entice people to get off their couch, we're going to do that, because we know it's the right thing to do," said Desena. "If I have to contrive some things, but it changes some people's lives, then it's worth it."
Of course, no "Spartan" event would be complete without a bacchanal, and the organizers plan to host a barbecue bash at the park, complete with live entertainment, for spectators and competitors alike. Dale Bob Eckert, for one, can't wait. The party, he said, "makes all of the difference."
"Some people just do a race and go home," he said. "It's all about the party and the social interactions. Running is a social activity. In the long-ago past, if you didn't run fast enough, you were called 'dinner' or you starved to death."
Desena, who expects to be at the finish line, will no doubt consider Eckert a kindred spirit.
For event details, visit spartanrace.com.
FINIS
