What's New for Weekend Warriors: Extreme Adventures

Forget Pilates. Extreme challenges like Spartan Race are becoming the rage for young white-collar workers—particularly those in finance

By Teddy Wayne

"Spartans, prepare for glory!" bellows a bearded man in a cape and helmet as he paces before more than 1,700 jittery aspiring warriors. "No retreat! No surrender! That is Spartan law. Remember to return with your shield—or on it!" Then he grunts—"Ah-roo!"—and a horde of adrenalized hoplites charges forth with abandon.

So begins the Brooklyn (N.Y.) installment of Spartan Race, a 5K sprint that's equal parts Medieval Times, American Gladiators, and corporate road race. Spartan Race is just one of the extreme adventure challenges growing in popularity among young professionals, particularly those in finance. The race is the creation of 27-year-old Brit Richard Lee, a former Royal Marine, and his girlfriend, Montrealer Selica Sevigny. Competitors, who pay entry fees between $50 and $70, make their way past a dozen obstacles—including a crawl under barbed wire and a leap through fire—planted throughout the race, which is currently making its inaugural tour through nine cities in Canada, the U.S., and Britain.

The first modern adventure race is generally considered to be the 1989 Raid Gauloises in New Zealand, in which competitors traversed great distances by snowshoeing, camel riding, and other equally practical means of conveyance. Television producer Mark Burnett, of Survivor fame, launched an offshoot in 1995, the Eco-Challenge. The event was aired by turns on MTV, ESPN, the Discovery Channel, and the USA Network for nine years. These races, along with the continuing popularity of extreme sports, have offered a third way for professionals seeking something more strenuous than company softball and less militaristic than paintball. Lee estimates that 60 percent of the more than 15,000 anticipated challengers this year are on corporate teams.

Spartan Race is hardly alone in its attempt to transport white-collar professionals back to heartier, dirtier times. In the Warrior Dash series—which has courses from Southern California to the Northeast—participants receive a horned "warrior helmet" reminiscent of Hägar the Horrible's. There's also the British Tough Guy race, the arduous Tough Mudder series that travels the U.S., and the two-person Muddy Buddy race. Their common ingredient? Mud. "Corporate life, and life as we know it today, is very comfortable," says Brian Duncanson, CEO of Spartan Race, which is a subsidiary of Peak Races. "People may think they have it hard, but it's nothing like how hard it used to be." Or so the theory goes.

Soil abounds in Brooklyn's Spartan Race. For more than three miles, racers overcome irregularly spaced hurdles, a 12-foot-high pile of wood and dirt, a horizontal climbing wall, an inclined ramp greased with shortening, and—just before the finish line—two bare-chested men with jousting sticks. It's messy, but is it really Spartan? "I'm a big fan of the movie 300, and we were looking for a symbol that represented ingenuity, bravery, strength, and the will to overcome adversity," says co-founder Sevigny. "The Spartans were renowned for that."

The six fastest finishers in Spartan Race—three male and three female—receive free admission to the forebodingly named Death Race, held in March and June in Pittsfield, Vt. The 24-hour-or-so 10-mile course pits racers against a series of bizarre surprise challenges intended to tax them mentally as much as physically. Before entry, participants are required to sign a waiver with the sobering line: "I may die."

Both the Spartan Race and Death Race are operated by parent company Peak Races, which is owned by Joseph Desena, 41, a former Wall Street banker and the current managing director of portfolio trading at Pittsfield (Vt.)-based financial adviser Collins Stewart. "Our best analogy to present our message is that we are all animals," Desena says. "Visualize this: You come home one day and your pet is watching Oprah, drinking a coffee, toenails painted, smoking a cigarette, and complaining that she needs a new mattress.

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