Peters Township Grad Trains for 48-Hour Death Race

Christopher Bertini loads up his wheelbarrow with 200 pounds of freshly chopped ash logs and begins his half-mile descent. He spends the next hour pushing the weight up and down a hill in his neighborhood while sporting a 50-pound weight vest. The Peters Township native will work out two more times today and consume close to 5,000 calories. He is currently training for the biggest challenge of his career.

Bertini is traveling to Pittsfield, VT to compete in the Spartan Death Race on June 15 (www.youmaydie.com). The endurance race will last more than 48 hours and test both his mental and physical strength. More than 300 competitors have signed up for the race; however, only 10 percent are expected to finish.

The athletes will not receive a list of their challenges until the day of the race. If any of the competitors are unable to complete the first challenge, each athlete must swim 12 miles in under 12 hours before the official start of the race.

Competitors in previous years have had to decode Greek puzzles, chop wood for six hours and dive into a lake to search for pennies. “It’s all about the mental determination. That’s the key to finishing any race. It’s not so much the physical aspect,” Bertini said.

Bertini competed in a half-marathon in Philadelphia and an ultra-marathon in Pittsburgh in the past six months, but he feels a need to push himself to a higher level of exhaustion. He is excited for a more difficult challenge next week.

“I feel like the death race is a test of a long lost art—the art of survival,” Bertini said. When he’s not training, Bertini plays on two ice hockey teams and runs with his Rhodesian Ridgeback on the Montour Trail.