Area resident plans to test his physical, mental mettle in Virginia race

The name alone would probably scare most people away. Not southwest-area resident Rob Barger, who plans to compete June 21 in the Death Race.

The Spartan Death Race is an endurance event held biannually in Pittsfield, Vt. Summer races have been held since 2005, and the inaugural winter Death Race was held in February, also in Vermont. The Death Race was founded by endurance athletes Joe DeSena and Andy Weinberg.

The Death Race can last 24 to 48 hours, according to its aptly named website, youmaydie.com, but the 2012 race lasted more than 60. Up to 200 participants can enter the event, and there is a 15 percent completion rate. Participants must complete a series of physical and mental challenges in the woods of Vermont, all without sleep and all while being encouraged to quit by the race organizers who offer up food and coffee to those who withdraw.

Barger, 41, said he is participating “because there are so many reasons not to.”

“It’s basically to prove to myself I can do it,” he said. “It’s not a macho thing or something I need to show to the world. It will test how mentally tough you think you are.”

Barger’s endurance racing started in 2009 when he completed a Ragnar Relay Series race, covering about 200 miles split among a team of 12. Another Ragnar race is scheduled in November and will go from Mount Charleston through the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to Lake Las Vegas.

Barger has completed several endurance races since and moved into obstacle course races because he found “straight-ahead running kind of boring,” he said.

“I needed something to break up the monotony,” he said. “When I got into the obstacle racing, you kind of heard about (the Death Race). It was this unicorn in the distance. I did a little more looking into it. I didn’t want to do it last year because I didn’t think I had exposed myself to enough suffering, so to speak.”

So the suffering began, slowly.

He completed a 36-hour GORUCK Challenge in Tucson, Ariz. He has completed a 24-hour challenge and other endurance races in Las Vegas. During Memorial Day Weekend, he did the Memorial Day Murph, which includes running a mile, doing 100 pullups, 200 pushups and 300 squats, followed by another one-mile run in less than an hour. He did that three times.

Barger said he tries to do at least one event per month or “as the pocketbook will allow.” He fully expects the Death Race to be his biggest challenge yet.

“The Death Race is looked at as one of the hardest on the planet,” he said. “... Statistically, I’m not going to finish. I’m not out to win; I just want to finish. My mindset going in is you really can’t take it too seriously.

“It’s going to suck. You know it’s going to suck. It’s supposed to suck. Embrace the suck.”

Alongside him in the mud will be Monrovia, Calif., resident Daren de Heras, who will be competing in his fourth Death Race. After last year’s race, de Heras said he came home in a wheelchair after breaking three toes and almost needing to amputate one of his big toes.

“My feet were annihilated,” he said. “I couldn’t even walk on them.”

De Heras said the penultimate challenge at last year’s Death Race was carrying 60-pound bags of cement up a mountain. The last task involved rolling on his side for miles on a track, going over obstacles, answering trivia questions and smelling a bucket of pig intestines.

“Everyone was throwing up everywhere,” he said. “It was insanity.”

What makes the Death Race so difficult, aside from the physical and mental challenges, is that there is no end in sight.

“You don’t know what’s coming at you,” de Heras said. “They’ll try to find your weakness and exploit it. They kind of know me; they know how to prey on me.”

De Heras said sleep deprivation “gets you the most.” Dehydration in summer and hypothermia in winter are the biggest problems competitors face, he said. De Heras even collapsed last summer from dehydration and had to be carried back to the base to receive an IV. After his yellow vision cleared, de Heras headed back into the forest to complete the 62½-hour competition.

Barger’s training consists of workouts in his garage and plenty of running through his neighborhood and in the desert. He often can be found running up and down Patrick Lane and into the desert behind Bishop Gorman High School while carrying two orange buckets he fills with rocks. He is a multitasker, as he is landscaping his backyard with the rocks.

View Neighborhood Newspapers will have an update on Barger after the Death Race.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 702-224-5524.