Jasper will be well represented at the Death Race this year, as a second, all-women’s team will be heading to the 125 km race in Grande Cache.

Thea Mitchell, Kara Hagedorn, Kate Godsell, Amanda Schultz and Dawn Glover will make up the new team this year, running under the name Sheilas on the Run, while Todd Wolansky, Wendy Niven, Dave MacDowell, Richard Ireland and Michael D’Antonio, who won the relay race last year by two minutes, will also return to defend their title.

“We got our fifth member last week, so that was really good. We only had four. You don’t need five, but there are five legs. To actually have an enjoyable race, it’s better to have five, so one of us doesn’t need to do two (legs of the race),” said Mitchell of her new team. She said her team has been training casually every couple weekends, running about 20 kilometres together, but all five ladies have yet to train together, so it’s not very formal.

“Its all fun - we’re out to finish with style - nothing more,” she said.

The Death Race occurs between July 30 and August 2, a week after the 24 Hours of Adrenalin, which several Death Racers will also take part in.

“It’s the week after (the 24 Hours of Adrenalin), so those kooks that are doing that are going in the Death Race the week after,” joked Mitchell. Hagedorn, Wolanksy and MacDowell are all competing in the 24 Hours of Adrenalin.

The Death Race is a 125 kilometre race that passes over three mountain summits and has a 17,000 foot elevation change and a major river crossing at Hell’s Gate canyon.

After winning the race last year, Michael D’Antonio, who came in second place two weeks ago in the Spring Run Off, told the Fitzhugh last year that “we’ll go back to win next year.”

Richard Ireland said that is hard to say, and as it depends on who else shows up for the race and how it goes for them.

“We put in certainly a good effort last year. I was very surprised that we wound up where we did. There was a team that certainly on paper, should have been able to beat us, but one of their runners had a particularly bad day, and that had made a difference in the outcome for everybody” he said.

If some of the members think they can win again, Ireland said he will try as hard as he can, and try and beat the time he ran last year.

Ireland said the although some people may think they are entering the race to win it, he said they certainly reduce their chances by having two guys compete in the 24 Hours of Adrenalin race the week before.

“If we were really serious, we would take a different approach. This is sort of a lifestyle for all of us. People want to get lots of things done. So yeah, you do the 24 Hours of Adrenalin the week before, those guys are going to be tired and not fully recovered, but they are still going to go out and race as hard as they can,” he said.