Question For Middlebury Head Coach John Illig-July 5, 2011
DailySquashReport:
What is
the difference between being squash-fit and Death Race-fit?
John Illig:
Battling
through pain and fatigue on the squash court helps with dealing with
pain and fatigue in the death race, but the death race is quite a
gimmicky animal. In the death race, you need to deal with
discomfort that includes sleep deprivation, bugs, wind, water and
dirt. To be honest, what helped me most in the death race was
my
hiking experience, as on three different occasions (summers of '93, '99
and '05) I lived in the woods for many months at a time. I
hiked
through the mountains from Mexico to Canada twice (hiked Continental
Divide Trail in '05, and Pacific Crest Trail in '99), and I hiked from
Georgia to Maine (hiked Appalachian Trail in '93). It was
those
long-distance hikes and the experiences they gave me feeling
comfortable in the dark, in the woods, in the dirt, in the trees, on
rocks, in rivers and streams, which most helped me finish the death
race. John Illig's Personal
Account of the 2010 Death Race