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Sports

He Lived to Compete in Death Race

Grafton man survives physical and mental challenges.

Not finishing a race may seem as a failure to most people, but most people have never attempted the Spartan Death Race.

Just surviving this race is seen as a success. Ask 43-year-old Jeff Godin.

Godin, a Grafton native, competed in his second Spartan Death Race this past June, a race that is meant for the physically fit and the slightly crazy athletes in the world. “It’s hard to describe, but it’s just unbelievable craziness,” Godin said.

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The Death Race, which is held in Pittsfield, Vt., began Friday, June 24 at 6 p.m. and lasted until Sunday, June 26 at 3 p.m. The 135 participants had 45 hours to complete the multiple odd and difficult physical and mental tasks.

The tasks and how long each task is to last is only revealed as the race begins and continues on to the next task.

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By the race’s end, only 35 athletes were left standing, and only six of those athletes were able to complete all the tasks. The goal of these tasks was to break the body down physically and mentally during the 40-mile course.

Godin lasted 27 hours, a solid improvement from last year’s race, when he lasted 14 hours.

Godin, who is a professor at Fitchburg State University in the Exercise and Sports Science Department, hopes to improve on his time next year.

The participants began the 2011 Death Race by lifting 100,000 pounds worth of stones for six hours nonstop. If they completed this task, they then made their way through a course, which they had to complete seven times in three hours, of treading upstream through 45-degree water followed by walking a qurter of a mile with a lit candle.

If the candle was blown out, the participant would have to start again.

And that's only nine hours of the race.

Mental fatigue caught up with Godin during a task that involved carrying a 50-pound stump up a windy 2.5-mile trail.

Once at the top, the athletes were given a Bible verse, which they had to memorize and recite upon going back down the trail. If they did not recite the passage back correctly, they would have to repeat the entire process.

“I brought a pad and pencil with me and I wrote down the passage, but I just said it wrong, there was a phrase in it that said 'Act like men' and I said 'Act like a man,' and I had to go back up and do it again,” he said. “It was probably a 2 1/2 hour round trip carrying that log up and down the mountain.”

Other tasks were carrying a 40-lb log with them for 24 hours, carrying two 10-gallon buckets of water for 2.5 miles _ spill any of the water and repeat the task _ and if you were lucky to get through that, complete a 200 question test on survival and the race’s theme: religion.

Though Godin didn’t complete the race, he was satisfied with his effort. “Though not finishing would be considered a failure, I lasted as long as at least half of the field and I really felt like I put in my best effort,” he said.

“I felt a sense of accomplishment in each one of those challenges that I had to do and that’s the beauty of the Death Race,'' he said 

 

 

 

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