Nick Martin of Canmore Fight Club will head to the East Coast for a huge helping of mental and physical abuse.
Martin will take part in the Spartan Summer Death Race, where he will face a variety of mental and physical endurance challenges. “It’s been held in Vermont every summer since 2005; basically it’s a 48-plus hour race – they don’t tell you what’s involved or how long it is or what you’ll be doing, you basically show up with enough food to last the weekend and off you go,” Martin said.
“What they recommend is being in the best shape you can and be mentally prepared to take on anything,” Martin said. “The challenges are difficult, but it’s also the mental challenges that go along with the event. Two years ago, after a 36-hour race they made the participants take an SAT exam.
“You’re mentally broken down and then you have to tackle these mental challenges and still keep going – there isn’t a lot of heads up for how you should prepare and train for it – they say, ‘to just be ready for anything.’ ”
Organizers keep throwing challenges at participants to constantly keep the format challenging and stressful. “A few years ago they made participants hike to the top of a mountain and they gave them a verse they had to memorize and they had to hike back to the bottom of the mountain and recite it,” Martin said. “If you messed up at all you had to go back up the mountain and try again and keep doing it until you got it right.”
Martin added many of the people who organize the event are ex-military. “They know what they’re doin’ ... what they usually say is, ‘you’re either going to finish or quit.’ ”
