Keith Jolly, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and father of two daughters, was doing laundry in his Leesburg home when he realized his life had changed dramatically.

“I changed the dryer lint in the dryer doing laundry and it was all pink,” Jolly said with a laugh. “I realized after spending six years active duty in the Marine Corps that life had changed and I wanted something else.”
For many people, a new challenge would be a new sports team or hobby. But for Jolly and his friend, Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Lt. John Myers, the new challenge was the Death Race, a 30- to 70-mile adventure race in the mountains of Vermont that begins June 15.

“The Death Race is just up our alley,” Jolly said. “I think the Death Race is the only thing I can see myself quitting at and I want to see where that line is.”

The Death Race was founded in 2007 by Joe DiSena and Peak Races, the company notorious for the Spartan mud run series. Taking place in Pittsfield, Vt., the race involves a series of “missions” or tasks for the runners to complete in a certain amount of time. Some endeavors include swimming across lakes, lugging tree stumps up a mountain or running two miles through running water.

Unlike many other adventure races, nearly 90 percent of competitors will either quit or not finish in the requisite time. Last year’s race had 35 finishers out of 233 registrants. Of those finishers, only seven finished within the time limits. This year, race directors anticipate no more than six finishers.

Jolly and Myers are hoping to be in that six.

“The best advice I’ve been given is to take the race five minutes at a time,” Jolly said. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but if you take it five minutes you can accomplish five-minute tasks. You can do anything for five minutes.”

The men have been training for much of the past year in various ways, including general strength and endurance training, hiking long distances with large packs and competing in nearly a dozen local mud runs.

Additionally, both men help manage S.E.R.E. Performance, an adventure company founded by Jolly last fall. S.E.R.E. is a military training program based on the concepts of survival, evasion, resistance and escape.
“My company is founded largely on the non-classified concepts of SERE where we teach natural and tactical survival through strength, conditioning, endurance and self-reliance,” Jolly said. “What that is is 12- to 24-hour based challenges that happen on the weekends.”

Jolly said creating the S.E.R.E. challenges has helped him mentally prepared for the Death Race.

“Putting together challenges helps me see there’s always two or three solutions,” Jolly said.

Finding solutions is going to be the biggest challenge for the competitors, who go in with nearly no knowledge of what their missions will be or even what supplies to bring. This year, race directors have given a short list of required materials: a life jacket, an ax, a handsaw, a black compression shirt and dress shoes.

“The bottom line is they expect you to be as unprepared as possible,” Jolly said. “They try to break you down mentally and physically within the first hour.”

Still, Myers and Jolly are trying to come prepared, and have spent nearly $3,000 each on gear, to include large packs and wetsuits, in addition to the $500 registration fee. Jolly’s wife, Wendy, will maintain a base camp with the equipment and act as a support crew for the two men during the race.

Ultimately, Jolly and Myers merely hope to test their mettle against what is touted as the “toughest race on the planet” and encourage other people, of all walks of life, to challenge themselves as well.

“If there’s anything that comes out of this I hope there’s a better awareness of all the things you can do outside of watching TV and sitting on your couch and [that] people realize there’s a big part of life you’re missing out on,” Jolly said.

“It seems extreme but if you just get into it and take it a little bit at a time, you find really who you are.”