Trio of firefighters aim to take on Spartan Death Race in Vermont

All three men were raised in Palmer Township and graduated from Easton Area High School. They're hoping their friendship and competitive streaks will keep them from bowing out of a race completed by only 15 percent of participants.

A trio of firefighters raised in Palmer Township believe they have the physical and mental tenacity to complete what is billed as one of the most challenging endurance races in the country.

The Spartan Death Race, held annually in Pittsfield, Vt., is a grueling obstacle course that can last anywhere from 24 to 48 hours — a detail even the contestants are not privy to.

The race includes physical challenges — maybe lifting 30 pound rocks for four hours or chopping wood for about two hours — and mental ones, too; challenges can include memorizing a Bible verse, hiking a mountain and reciting the verse back perfectly at the summit.

This year's race is slated for June 15.

Colin van Horne, 31, of Palmer Township, Matt Eharth, 31, of Bethlehem, and Anthony Wilcox, 29, of Bronx, N.Y., hope their firefighting careers help them defy the odds and finish the race — something only about 15 percent of participants manage, according to the event’s website.

“It’s something we’ll be able to look back on and say this is something we did together,” Eharth, an Allentown fireman, said. “That’s what I really want out of this.”

Van Horne said he expects to be pushed to his limits, but with dedicated childhood friends by his side, he believes crossing the finishing line is a realistic goal.

“We’ll certainly pull that third guy along. We are not going to get split up,” van Horne, a Bethlehem firefighter, said. “I think we have a much better chance to talk each other off the ledge if we are together.”

Of course, this year’s theme for the race has, admittedly, made van Horne and the others a little nervous: It’s being billed the “Year of Betrayal.”

“There’s plenty of people who don't have friends stupid enough to do it with them so they’re out there alone,” said Wilcox, a New York City firefighter. “I’m glad we’re going to be together.”

Called to an adrenaline-filled career

Eharth, Wilcox and van Horne became close during their middle school days in Palmer Township. They drifted apart but reunited when they ended up together as volunteers at the Palmer Municipal Fire Department.

Eharth and Wilcox jumped at the opportunity to become professional firemen right away, but van Horne tried his hand as a financial planner before pursuing his passion.

“I kind of made a full 180 in the career department,” van Horne said. “I took the tests and I haven’t looked back.”

The spontaneity and thrill of the job are among the best parts, but helping others in dangerous situations is incredibly satisfying as well, the men said. Wilcox said the need for constant adaptability is rewarding and challenging. That mindset might also come in handy in Vermont, he said.

“The call comes in, we go out there and 99 out of 100 times it’s a routine thing ... but every now and then you get thrown a curve ball,” Wilcox said. “And that to me, I really enjoy — having to adapt and overcome.”

But the exhilaration of the career doesn’t take away the constant danger, according to Eharth.

“Everyone, in the back of their mind, has that thought — that this could be the day,” he said.

A chance at adventure

Everyone in the group claims to be adventurous, but Wilcox seems to be the one who most often follows through with his wild plans.

Eharth and van Horne said they wish they could accompany Wilcox on his cross-country bike rides or, most recently, a nearly 500-mile trek through the Colorado Trail in the Rocky Mountains.

But families and domestic duties often get in the way of the most far-flung adventures, according to the trio.

So when Wilcox suggested participating in the Spartan Death Race this year, both Eharth and van Horne said they refused to pass up the opportunity — even if their wives think they’re nuts.

“Anthony is kind of the one with all these crazy stories,” Eharth said. “I want to have one now.”

Wilcox said the drive to achieve such outlandish goals stuck with him when he lost a friend to liver cancer who spoke of things he never had the opportunity to do with his life.

“It’s easy to pass things up,” he said. “I don’t want to do that.”

Motivated by family and failure

The firefighters’ daily grind and regular gym activity keep them in good shape, but van Horne said he’s been doing more running — which he hates — to prepare for a race. Carrying a heavy log or some weights in his hands while running up the stairs to Lafayette College makes the exercise more miserable and more like what he imagines the Death Race will demand from him.

Van Horne said his 10-month-old daughter, Eva, has also helped.

“She provides about 20 pounds of adorable drag in a trailer behind my bike or a stroller in front of me when I run, and she smiles the whole way,” he said.

Van Horne’s wife, Blakely Mayrosh, will accompany her husband to Vermont to restock food and water for the boys. She’ll also undoubtedly provide some extra hell when needed, he said.

“She’s tough and takes no excuses,” van Horne said. “She’ll certainly show no mercy if I quit.”

The chief motivator for Wilcox is simple: Failing will be worse than any pain.

“Just having to go back and face the music of failing at something, that’s my big motivator,” Wilcox said, with a laugh.

Van Horne said he fully expects to look back on the entire experience fondly — given enough time.

“The first five minutes and two years down the road, it will probably have seemed really fun,” van Horne said. “I don’t anticipate it being any fun during the course of it.”

'YOU MAY DIE'

The website for the Spartan Death Race, scheduled June 15 in Pittsfield, Vt., offers proof competitors are in for anything but a good time. For starters, the address is youmaydie.com; the contact to sign up is known as the "undertaker."

Photos show a man with a bloody face and competitors lugging buckets and cinder blocks through barbed wire. It advises participants to consider a Death Race Camp before lining up at the starting line:

"Death sounds cool until you’re dead," one warning reads.

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