HOOKSETT — For Hooksett's Jay Defina, the Death Race is hardly a race it all. Instead, the multiday trek through treacherous obstacles at a remote Vermont mountain is a matter of endurance and overcoming a adversity.

This year, Defina, from Hooksett, and Dennis Lynch of Manchester will be making the trip for their second Death Race on June 15. Last year, the duo didn't finish the race, despite lasting 27 and half hours. This year the goal is to cross the finish line.

Contestants are not informed of what the race will entail before they arrive at the mountain and once the race starts, they don't know what's coming next. Defina said last year, contestants were required to chop countless amounts of logs, carry those logs up the mountain and brave frigid mountain waters.

Though the Death Race requires contestants to push their bodies hard, Defina said the physical aspect is not even half the battle.

“When you're doing the race, it's a mental thing,” Defina said. “You pass people all the time and their faces are just defeated.”

Compared to the average person, Defina, a former Marine and Hooksett police officer now training to become a firefighter, is in impeccable shape. But stacked against the other Death Racers, he didn't even compare.

“We stay active but everybody there seemed to be these cross-fit, crazy, ultra runners,” he said.

For Defina though, he said the race is more about stepping up and facing a challenge. He said he and Lynch go into the race knowing they're not the most athletic contestants involved, and without that added pressure, it makes it easier for them.

“This is something that's so far beyond our abilities and we just wanted to compete,” Defina said. “We're normal guys but we want to tough this thing out.”

For those who finish the Death Race, there is no grand prize. Even after dropping a few hundred dollars on the registration fee, traveling out to Vermont and risking their lives, all that is at stake is bragging rights.

And although he said he wished he had trained harder, Defina said he's been hard at work to earn those bragging rights. He said he has a 50-pound bag of rocks in a backpack that he carries with him nearly everywhere he goes.

“We went on these hikes and always had weighted packs,” Defina said. “You're going to be wearing heavy stuff and it's so steep.”

But whatever this year's edition of the race brings, Defina said with his never-quit attitude and determination to cross the finish line for the first time in his Death Race career, he is in a good place to lay it all out on the line. The experience, he said, is what makes it all worthwhile.

“It's not a race,” he said. “It's just try to hold on as long as you can.”